Top Ten Spelling Tips from How to Spell

by Joanne Rudling from

www.howtospell.co.uk

1. Readings very important but it wont improve your spelling. Different skills are involved. Spelling is much more difficult than reading. Spelling is a letter-by-letter activity. Spelling uses a set of active, productive, conscious processes that are not required for reading. (David
Crystal: The English Language)

2.Use memory tricks to help you remember difficult spellings. These could be seeing wordswithin-words; this is good for some homophones which are words
with the same sound but different

peace or piece?
a piece of pie. Can you see the word within the word?

spelling & meaning*.

Here or hear? You hear with your ear and you learn.
*add an address.

Good spellers use memory tricks & spelling strategies Click here and check out my video

*Ill be sending you information about homophones so watch out for the lesson in your inbox.

3. To learn spelling you have to write and keep practicing the words that are important for you.* Notice patterns, learn rules, think about spelling, work at it.
*Dont learn words you dont need.

*To really improve your spelling use the Look Say Cover Write Check spelling strategy: This method works if you do a little bit every day. On a piece of paper write the word you want to learn (make sure its correct!) 1) Look at the word. 2) Say the word. 3) Cover the word. 4) Write the word. 5) Check it very carefully(letter by letter) and correct the mistakes. 6) Do it again 6) Use this method for a few minutes every day.

If youd like to see this method in action then click here and watch my video on this method. I have more spelling videos on my Howtospelluk YouTube channel click here.

4. Dont rely on the sound of the word for its spelling. Pronunciation and spelling are sometimes totally different, e.g. we spell - Wednesday we say - wens day Ill send you more on spelling vs pronunciation.

Think about spelling in as many ways as you can look, sound, feel. Use different spelling strategies to learn the words you want to learn: memory tricks, syllable breakdown, look, say, cover, write, check, word building using prefixes, root words and suffixes and knowing why a words spelled the way it is. These all help to build your knowledge, confidence and spelling.

5. Spelling long words is always a huge problem. One strategy is breaking the word down into syllables. Syllables are little chunks of words usually with a vowel in them. Say these slowly when spelling the word Wed/nes/day qua / li / fi / ca / tion i/den/ti/fy

6. Building words with prefixes and suffixes. Understanding that words can be built up by adding bits to root words can improve your confidence and spelling.

Prefix Root Suffix dis respect ful mis understand ing un manage able Ill be sending you more info on suffixes and prefixes over the weeks - watch out for the lessons.

7. 75% of English spelling is regular. You may feel that English spelling is illogical. Its true that there are irregular spellings, this is because it includes words from many languages.

8. One way to start to improve spelling is to discover the logic in the spelling system by learning the spelling rules. There are patterns, and rules and reasons why some words are spelled as they are learn them. Ill send you various spelling rules over the weeks. Remember you must click on the spelling test podcast links and do the tests to really improve your spelling.

9. 60% of English words have silent letters in them, which can cause all sorts of problems spelling the word or looking for the word in a dictionary. But if you know the history of why there are silent letters itll improve your spelling. For example: knock, knee, gnaw, gnat are all Viking (Old Norse) words, the k and g were pronounced but not now. Theres a great lesson Ill be sending you with a video so watch out for it.

10. Take an interest in words. Knowing the origins and history of words, and why they are spelled the way they are, is a great way to understand and learn them. It can even help dyslexic students. Click here to check out my ebook: The Reasons Why English Spelling is so Weird and Wonderful.

Lots of words to do with the nose begin with the letter pattern sn - snout, sniff, snub, snot, snore, snort, snozzle, snooty. Plumber has a silent b in there because it comes from the Latin word plumbum meaning lead piping used by plumbers. NO English words end in v or u. Theres always an e on the end: give; have; love; eve; twelve; glue; rescue; blue; true.
NO English words end in j. The sound is made by -dge or -ge: bridge; badge; hedge; marriage; bandage; age.

A couple more spelling and writing tips *Write/type in lowercase so you can see and feel the shape of the word. BLOCK CAPITALS are hard to read (use BLOCK CAPS on forms only). *If you are using a pen, make sure it feels good to write with, is the ink flowing, is the weight right, is it too heavy?

I hope youve learned something useful. I cant wait to send you more spelling info straight to your inbox. Learn to love spelling like I did and youll be so much more condent in your writing and spelling. Thanks for reading this, Joanne contact me on info@howtospell.co.uk