Shift is the first key you will hold rather than tap, and it introduces the one rule that separates trained typists from self-taught ones.
The opposite-hand rule
Use the Shift key on the hand opposite to the letter you are capitalising.
Left Shift is therefore for right-hand letters: Y U I O P H J K L N M and the punctuation beyond them. To type a capital J, the left little finger holds left Shift while the right index finger types j.
Why it works this way
Try capitalising J with the right Shift instead. The same hand has to hold a key and press another one, so it either contorts or lifts off home position entirely. Using opposite hands means each hand does one simple thing, both stay anchored, and there is no repositioning afterwards.
At low speeds either method produces the right letter. Above roughly 40 words per minute, the one-handed version breaks down — it is the single most common reason trained typists plateau.
The mechanics
- The left little finger reaches down-left to Shift from its home on
A. - Shift goes down first, then the letter, then both release. Pressing them together produces a lowercase letter surprisingly often.
- The other three left-hand fingers stay on
S, D and F throughout. If they lift, the hand has rotated.
What usually goes wrong
- Caps Lock instead of Shift. It is directly above left Shift and easy to hit by mistake. If you find yourself in ALL CAPS, that is what happened.
- Releasing Shift too early, producing
jOHN instead of John. - Hitting Shift with the ring finger. It works for a single letter and fails as soon as the little finger is needed for the next one.
Practice notes
Proper nouns are the natural drill here — names, cities, days of the week. They force the capital at the start of a word, mid-sentence, exactly where it occurs in real writing.