Do you ever watch the annual National Spelling Bee? It is composed of the best spellers from grade schools around the country who spell words most of us have never heard before. These kids are phenoms to the max! The NSBee is so popular, they made a book out of it — and a movie. So how can you learn to spell as well as these youngsters? Or at least well enough to please your readers/boss/family/Internet friends?
Easy as 1-2-3! Three things you can do to improve your spelling all scream PAY ATTENTION.
1) Become aware of “root” words, other words that mean almost the same thing or are derived from a similar source. Let’s say you want to spell a word that means “able to be imagined”. Is it imaginible or imaginable? Think of a similar word, such as “imagination”. Do you see the “a” that follows the “n”? There’s your clue.
2) Be sure you pronounce the word right. Some words are mutilated in speech because we don’t all learn from the same speech source. One of our Presidents often spoke of “our gub-ment” (meaning government — three syllables.) Another President had trouble with nuclear, pronouncing it “nuc-u-lar” (as many others do). Notice how often those whiz kids ask for the pronunciation.
3) Look it up. Keep a spell-check app on your electronic carry-alls and refer to it when in doubt. After looking up a word a couple of times, it may sink into your imaginary dictionary-in-your-head.
Come on, show your moxy by paying attention to the way words are spelled. You will soon realize the benefits of being the kind of person who pays attention to details and can handle your language. That's your PAY BACK for PAYING ATTENTION.
6 comments:
What do you do about words that have multiple spellings? How do you choose?
That's an easy one, Jessica. Choose the one you prefer and use it consistently.
I love that show on PBS. But what about the easy words that get misspelled all the time, like “then/than, who’s/whose, its/it’s, peek/peak/pique” and words like that? How do you cure this common disease?
Good question, Michael. The cure is to pay attention and be proud enough of the words you write to be sure they're the best ones you can find.
THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! I am the worst speller in the world. But you have showed me a way to get bettor. I'll be doing all three of them. Thank you!
You are welcome. Keep working on it! You'll be glad you did. From what you have SHOWN me, you will get better and BETTER.
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