I have a bad habit of using improper seating and desks for typing. In some cases, I have little choice. The desk and chair in my school office can’t be changed out, which means that the typewriter sits too high when I’m typing. This leads to typos and a lack of good flow in typing.

I have a couple of good typewriter tables at home, and I’m able to raise my antique office chair to a suitable level. Murphy likewise approves of the elevation.

On my patio, I’ve been putting up with bad ergonomics. The chair sits too low; the table sits too high. Typos multiply.

This weekend I picked up a new typewriter table, something I can keep outside (it isn’t too nice). I don’t think it could handle an Olympia SG1, but a portable works well on it. As soon as I began typing with the table, I noticed an immediate improvement. My typing flows more and I’m producing fewer typos as I quickly work through student papers.

I think we forget about the some of points made in those old typewriter videos devised to instruct trainees how to type correctly. It isn’t just the fingering that matters. It’s also the position of the body in relation to the machine. So much better.