Learning to Spell Commonly Misspelled Words

If you have trouble spelling words correctly, the dictation exercise may prove challenging for you.

Review commonly misspelled words to prepare for the dictation exercise. To memorize the correct spelling for a word, you might try the follow strategies:

• Write down the word a number of times.
  
• Break the word into syllables or parts and say each syllable or part aloud.
  
• Draw circles, boxes, and triangles around syllables that contain letters you have a tendency to misspell. Repeat, tracing over your circles, squares, and triangles.
  
• Devise corny mnemonics, or memory aids, for troublesome words.
  

Examples of mnemonics:

“I can't remember how to spell “loose.” Does it have two “o's” or one “o”?
Mnemonic: Loose as a goose

“I can't remember if “petal” ends in “al” or “el.”
Mnemonic: My pet Al is a flower.

“Does attendance end in “ance” or “ence”?
Mnemonic: You can't have good attendance if you dance into class late every time.

“Does terrific have one “r” or two “r's”?
Mnemonic: Like Tony the Tiger says, “Terrrrrrrrific!” (More than one “r”)

“Is it “tendency” or “tendancy”?
Mnemonic: The first syllable, “ten,” rhymes with “den,” the second syllable, so: ten-den-cy.

You can find spelling mnemonics, tips, and tests by visiting these web sites:
http://www.frii.com/~geomanda/mnemonics/spelling.html
http://www.happychild.org.uk/acc/tpr/mne/0012spel.htm
http://www.sentex.net/~mmcadams/spell_tips.html
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/civeng/skills/spelling.htm
http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/spelling.htm