Stenotype keyboards enable the trained user to input text as fast as 360 wpm at very high accuracy for an extended period, which is sufficient for real-time activities such as court reporting or closed captioning.
While training dropout rates are very high — in some cases only 10% or even fewer graduate — stenotype students are usually able to reach speeds of 100–120 wpm within six months, which is faster than most alphanumeric typists.
It is used to measure speed for jobs such as data entry of number information on items such as remittance advice, bills, or checks, as deposited to lock boxes.
For the tested Asian languages that use particular writing systems (Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese) these numbers are lower.
Scientific studies have demonstrated that reading—defined here as capturing and decoding all the words on every page—faster than 900 wpm is not feasible given the limits set by the anatomy of the eye.
[20] Internet speech calculators show that various things influence words per minute including nervousness.
When the time spent for the silent parts of speech are removed, the so-called average articulation rate reaches 310 syllables per minute.
[22][23] For a comparison, Flesch has suggested that the conversational English for consumers aims 1.5 syllables per word,[24] although these measures are dependent on corpus.
Although many countries no longer require it for licensing, Morse is still widely used by amateur radio ("ham") operators.
Experienced hams routinely send Morse at 20 words per minute, using manually operated hand telegraph keys; enthusiasts such as members of The CW Operators' Club routinely send and receive Morse code at speeds up to 60 wpm.
In the United States a commercial radiotelegraph operator's license is still issued, although there is almost no demand for it, since for long distance communication ships now use the satellite-based Global Maritime Distress and Safety System.
The fastest Morse code operator was Theodore Roosevelt McElroy copying at 75.6 wpm using a typewriter at the 1939 world championship.