typing punctuation without looking: apostrophes, commas, and the shift marks
You type punctuation without looking the same way you type letters without looking: each mark has one key and one finger that owns it, and the reach gets drilled until it is automatic. The apostrophe sits directly right of the semicolon, under your right little finger, one key from home. The comma and period sit under your right middle and ring fingers on the bottom row. The question mark, colon, and quotation marks are the shifted forms of keys you already know — slash, semicolon, and apostrophe — pressed while your left little finger holds shift. Nothing is far; what feels far is only untrained.
where every mark actually lives
The marks cluster around your right hand's home position. The semicolon is under your right little finger at rest — it is a home-row key. The apostrophe is its immediate neighbor to the right: one small step, no row change. Drop that same region to the bottom row and you have the comma (right middle finger), the period (right ring), and the slash (right little). That is six marks within one key of where your right hand already sits. The exclamation point is the outlier — shift plus 1, up at the far left — which is why it is the one mark that fairly earns a pause.
the apostrophe: the most common mark nobody practices
In ordinary English, the apostrophe appears more often than the question mark and colon combined — don't, it's, you're, the school's. Yet most typing drills never include it, so even fast typists hitch on every contraction. The reach is genuinely easy: right little finger, one key right of the semicolon, no shift. Lesson 19 teaches it in contractions rather than in isolation, because the hitch is not the key — it is the transition from a letter into the mark and back out. A few days of contraction-heavy lines and the hitch is gone.
comma and period: two fingers, one row down
The comma belongs to the right middle finger and the period to the right ring — the same fingers that own k and l, reaching one row down. Type k-comma-k slowly and you will feel the whole movement: the finger drops, strikes, and returns home. The commonest fault is reaching for the comma with the index finger, which drags the whole hand off position and costs you the next three letters. If your commas feel slow, watch which finger is doing them — the fix is usually the finger, not more speed.
the shift marks are keys you already know
The question mark is the slash. The colon is the semicolon. Quotation marks are the apostrophe. Nothing new to find — each is a key your right little finger already owns, pressed while your LEFT little finger holds shift. That opposite-hand rule is the entire skill: shift with the hand that is not reaching. Practicing ?-then-: in alternation feels mechanical, and is; practicing questions and dialogue in full sentences trains the same reach inside a rhythm, which is what makes it stick. Lesson 20 is built on exactly that.
quotes come in pairs — type them that way
Writers who never hunt for the closing quote share one habit: they type both marks first, then fill the sentence between them, or they commit to the pattern quote-sentence-quote as a single phrase rather than two separate decisions. Either way, the closing mark is never a surprise. Dialogue-heavy practice — the book shelf's novels are full of it — turns the pair into one motion. It is the same trick as typing the two spaces around a word you are about to correct: structure first, content second.
how to drill it
Lessons 19 and 20 teach the reaches in order — the apostrophe first, then the shifted marks, quotation marks included — and the punctuation practice page mixes every mark in real sentences, continuing into the course's own material so a session lasts as long as you do. After that, real text is the best drill there is: any novel from the shelf carries commas, dialogue, and question marks at natural density. Keep your eyes on the screen and let the on-screen keyboard's next-key hint carry the reach until your fingers stop asking.
the pairs above the number row
Parentheses are the one common pair that lives away from your right hand's home cluster, up on the number row. The opening one is shift and 9 — right ring finger — and the closing one is shift and 0, right little finger, with the left little finger holding shift for both. They are worth practising as a single motion rather than two keys, because a parenthesis you opened and cannot close is the most common way a sentence stalls. Square brackets are easier than either: immediately right of P, right little finger, and no shift at all.
the hyphen, and what sits right of zero
Past the 0 key the row keeps going, and everything out there belongs to your right little finger: the hyphen first, then the equals sign. Shifted, they become the underscore and the plus. It is the furthest reach on the board for the weakest finger, which is why the hyphen is so often typed by dragging the whole hand rightward — and why the next few letters then land wrong. Anchor on the home row, reach with the little finger alone, and come straight back.
the inverted marks, if you type spanish
A Spanish question needs two marks, not one: the ¿ that opens it and the ? that closes it. On a Spanish layout both are within one key of each other, out past the 0 — the row runs 1 to 0, then the apostrophe, then ¡, and shift turns those last two into ? and ¿. All of them belong to the right little finger. That is genuinely easier than it sounds, because the opening mark is typed at the start of a sentence when your hands are already settled; the part people forget is that it is required, not decorative.
questions
where is the apostrophe?
Directly right of the semicolon, under your right little finger, one key from home and no shift needed. It is the most common mark in ordinary English and the one most drills leave out.
which finger types the comma?
The right middle finger, dropping one row from k; the period belongs to the right ring finger, dropping from l. Reaching for the comma with the index finger is the commonest fault, and it pulls the whole hand off position. If your commas feel slow, check the finger before adding speed.
how do i stop hunting for the closing quotation mark?
Type the pair first and fill the sentence between them, or treat quote-sentence-quote as one phrase rather than two decisions. Either way the closing mark stops being a surprise, and dialogue-heavy text is the natural drill for it.
are the shifted marks new keys to learn?
No. The question mark is the slash, the colon is the semicolon, and quotation marks are the apostrophe, all keys your right little finger already owns. What is new is holding shift with the opposite little finger while you strike them, and that is the whole skill.
which finger types the parentheses?
The opening one is your right ring finger on shift and 9; the closing one is your right little finger on shift and 0. Your left little finger holds shift for both, following the same opposite-hand rule as every other shifted mark. Square brackets are the same region without shift, immediately right of P.
where is the hyphen?
Immediately right of the 0 key, and it belongs to your right little finger — the furthest reach on the board for the weakest finger. The equals sign sits one further out again. Shifted, the two become the underscore and the plus. If your hand drifts rightward to reach the hyphen, the next few letters will land wrong.
how do i type the upside-down question mark?
On a Spanish layout it has its own key: the number row runs 1 to 0, then the apostrophe, then ¡, and shift turns those last two into ? and ¿. All of them are your right little finger. A Spanish question needs both the opening ¿ and the closing ?, so it is required rather than optional.