Disclosed is a method and apparatus for performing an operation, such as enlargement, reduction and rotation of a screen of a terminal having a touch screen, with one hand using successive touches on the screen. A method of controlling the touch screen may include determining whether two points spaced at a predetermined distance threshold or longer on the touch screen are input as a previous tap and a current tap within a predetermined time threshold, analyzing the previous tap and the current tap to switch to a successive tap operation mode, and performing an operation according to a predetermined successive tap command in the successive tap operation mode.