A Note on Spelling

There's no quick, easy way to overcome spelling problems. This is true partly because our English spelling system is complex and difficult to explain logically.

Even computer spell-checkers can cause problems for unwary users.

Also, most spelling habits are formed early when we're learning to read. As we grow older, those habits, good or bad, become almost automatic, and often we spell without thinking about whether we're right or wrong. Even computer spell-checkers can cause problems for unwary users.

If you have trouble with spelling, then, you need to do more than learn a few words. You need to form new spelling habits, and the most important is to make spelling a conscious activity. This can be frustrating if you interrupt your writing to look up a word, only to find you knew how to spell it all along. Because spelling improvement is as important as it is difficult, however, you can't afford to let it slide. The suggestions that follow are intended to help you develop good spelling habits.

Suggestions for Spelling Improvement

1. Don't look words up while you're composing. Wait until your thought-flow runs its course. As you write, highlight or mark any words you aren't absolutely sure about. Then later when editing, your attention will go right to these words and you can look them up all at once without interrupting and losing track of your thoughts. By looking up words later, you also can concentrate on learning to spell them correctly so you won't have to look them up again. You might even consider keeping a list of Target Words to concentrate on.

2. Every time you write a word ask yourself whether you know how to spell it. There are only two possible answers to this question: yes and no. Maybe, probably, and I think so all count as no. If the answer is yes, keep on writing, but if the answer is no, mark the word to look up. Most spelling errors come not on words like "cataclysmic," which you know you need to look up, but on words like "front," where you think the odds are with you.

3. Notice what part of the word you've spelled wrong. Hardly ever do you spell a whole word wrong. Usually one or two letters need to be changed. Find the trouble spot by comparing the dictionary version with the version you've already written down. Sometimes a memory prod will help you get those letters right next time. For example, you might learn to spell "environment" by remembering that it has the word "iron" in it.

4. Watch out for words that sound like other ones. Here the problem isn't so much spelling as using the wrong word, as when someone says, "I don't care weather it rains." Besides "whether" and "weather," some other frequently confused words are listed below. These words are especially treacherous because computer spell-checkers won't pick them up.

a — an — and

our — hour — are

accept — except

personal — personnel 

cite — site — sight 

quiet — quite — quit 

cloths — clothes 

roll — role 

desert — dessert 

soul — sole 

do — due 

than — then 

led — lead 

there — their — they're 

loose — lose

to — too — two

moral — morale 

wear — where — were 

new — knew 

who's — whose 

no — know 

your — you're 

past — passed