Writers' difficult spelling words
Most are not hard to spell

For writers, the most difficult spelling words are not obscure, polysyllabic words from the Scripps Howard spelling bee. In everyday spelling, homonyms and homophones writers learned in elementary school pose the big challenge.

Don't believe me?

A 1988 study of college students' writing found that the most common spelling error in student papers was misspelling its as it's, or vice versa.

Its and it's are not big words, yet almost everyone confuses them. I do it myself regularly.

Why do those little words give us so much trouble?

Voices in our heads lead us astray

When we are busy thinking about what we are writing, we think of the sound of words instead of individual letters of those words. We write the spelling we use most often for a particular sound.

That's how I found myself writing a recipe calling for "read pepper." In my work, I write the past tense verb read more often than I write the adjective red. I automatically type read when the little voice in my brain speaks the sound red.

You do the same thing.

And so do your students.

The answer isn't worksheets, spelling tests, or using a dictionary. It's learning our own difficult spelling words and learning to check our own work for them.

Turn off the voices

Don't attempt to eliminate misspellings in rough drafts. That stops the flow of words and causes more trouble than it's worth.

Instead, make sure students always check their drafts (yes, even drafts of a working thesis statement or an outline) for misspellings when they finish writing. Not during writing. Afterward.

Help students zero in on their problems

Here are some strategies for achieving correct spelling of the difficult spelling words for individual students.

1) Flag misspellings of common words in finished student work.

Circle, highlight, or underline to call attention to the error, but do not correct it. Correct spelling of words is the student's responsibility.

However, if you don't want to keep flagging those same errors in every paper, you must insist students edit their own work.

How do you insist? By imposing a grade penalty.

2) Have students chart the occurrence and frequency of spelling errors in finished drafts

"Nobody can eliminate every error," Josh thinks, "so why try?"

If students know they will be penalized for specific sorts of spelling errors in their final drafts, they are more likely to attempt to eliminate those errors than if they are penalized for every spelling error.

Give students a short list of difficult spelling words. Five words a semester is plenty. Make them chart or graph the number of errors they make on those words in each writing assignment.

Over the year, if you keep your focus, those errors ought to almost entirely disappear from final drafts.

Tracking the errors they make helps students see the relationship between eliminating even one habitual error and their writing grades.

3) Use nonverbal means of drawing attention to spelling-meaning associations.

Many students who spell poorly when they write, don't see or don't pay attention to the appearance of individual words in context.

Use colors or pictures to associate spelling and meaning. For example, "their heir will get their possessions" makes a visual link between the spelling of the word and the fact that it is a possessive pronoun.

Computerized spell checkers have eliminated many misspellings, but they have boosted incorrect word use to the number one error in college student writing.

A computer will make a student who can't associate spelling and meaning look like a moron. For example, students tell me things like this:

• I play in an armateur football league.

• I definantly will take your advice.

• I barley passed the course.

Unless you want your students to look stupid, you must help students make sight-sound-meaning associations.

4) Teach students how to look for their misspellings in drafts and informal writing.

Don't tell students to reread their work or use a dictionary. Those suggestions only help if they can spot errors in context. Instead, show them how to use their personal error list and search for one problem at a time.

My students think I'm nuts when I tell them to look for one error at a time. When they try it, however, most are instant converts. Only a very few students don't habitually make the same few spelling mistakes.

If your students draft at a computer, they can make their computers help them quickly do a thorough editing for their own habitual errors without relying on spelling or grammar checkers.

5) Keep a list of finished-draft student misspellings of everyday words.

Use the list in developing annual objectives for errors you want to eliminate from student work. (It's cheating to have an objective to eliminate errors students don't make!)

6) Target a few "difficult spelling words" to banish from finished drafts by the end of the year.

If you eliminate five words (like its or there) from students' habitual misspellings each year during grades 7-12, you can make most students appear to be competent spellers by the time they graduate from high school.