In this essay Ken delves into the problems
of English spelling and its importance to our lives and
why so many Americans are poor spellers and
he reviews the Sound-It-Out Speller.
[Ken Kister is a freelance writer based in Tampa (Florida) who
specializes in evaluating reference materials, both print and
electronic. His publications include Kister's Best Dictionaries
for Adults & Young People: A Comparative Guide (Oryx Press, 1992).] FINALLY, HELP FOR UNSURE SPELLERS Not to get too personal, but how's your orthography? That is,
your spelling. To get an idea, take this simple test. Is it affidavit or affidavid? accommodate or accomodate? conquer or conquor? deceive or decieve? discipline or disipline? government or goverment? icicle or isickle? lieutenant or lieutenent? niche or nich? parallel or paralell? stratagem or strategem? supersede or supercede? If you got some of the words wrong (see answers at the end of
this article), don't be too glum. You have lots of company. Among users of English, bad spelling is as prevalent as the common
cold or occasional flatulence. No one knows how many orthographically
challenged people there are in the U.S. alone, but it's a safe
bet the number runs into the millions, including those afflicted
with dyslexia, a learning disorder that involves reading and/or
writing letters and words in the wrong order (e.g., was is confused as saw). What's more, most of us have certain words we consistently misspell
no matter how hard we try to get them right. This author's spelling
demons--words that induce sweaty palms whenever they pop to mind--include
millennium, imbroglio, dichotomy, cachet, segue, penitentiary, facetious, and a bunch of b's: bailiwick, buoyant, brouhaha, bellwether, beggar, and bouillon (as in the soup). If, on the other hand, you confidently spelled all twelve words
correctly, your orthographic skills appear to be in tip-top condition
and require no further diagnostic examination. Of course you will
no doubt want to learn more about how to help those less fortunate
beings who suffer from chronic misspelling (they might be your
spouse or children or friends or coworkers or students or all
of the above), so read on. Some say bad spelling doesn't matter, that English teachers and
language fusspots put too much emphasis on it. After all, classic
English writers did not spell very well by present-day standards.
For instance, Chaucer (14th century) says of one of his characters,
"She wolde wepe, if that she saugh a mous kaught in a trappe."
Today that sentence would be written, "She would weep if she saw
a mouse caught in a trap." The title page of Richard III, a play
by Shakespeare (first printed in 1597), tells of the king's "pittieful
murther of his iunocent nephewes." And the sainted Jane Austen
in the novel Sense and Sensibility (1811) spells stopped as stopt and scissors as scissars. Rotten spellers can also take comfort in the fact that some
modern authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald have succeeded splendidly
even though they couldn't spell worth a hoot. Isn't that, they
ask, what copy editors are for? But poor spelling does have powerful consequences. It makes the
perpetrator look stupid or foolish or incompetent or careless
(you choose the adjective). One can make a strong case that Dan
Quayle lost all hope of ever becoming president of the U.S. when
he very publicly misspelled potato, adding an e to the humble tuber. Business and professional people suffer when their correspondence,
reports, news releases, etc. contain misspellings. It damages
their credibility. A few years ago the Milwaukee public school
system issued a publication touting its high standards. Unfortunately,
the document included references to "rigourous" requirements and
"proficiencey" exams. As James J. Kilpatrick, the language maven,
has pointed out, "Spelling counts. Spelling is not merely a tedious exercise in
a fourth-grade classroom. Spelling is one of the outward and visible
marks of a disciplined mind." So why are so many Americans lousy spellers? Are we not as bright
as others around the globe? Do we as a nation suffer unduly from
dyslexia? Or are we too lazy or undisciplined to take the time
to learn to spell well? Actually, more often than not the real culprit is the language
itself. In languages such as Spanish, Italian, German, and Finnish,
words tend to be spelled as they are pronounced. But in English–not
the most logical of tongues–spelling sometimes bears only a fleeting
relation to pronunciation. Indeed, numerous English words blatantly
defy the rules of phonetics (the science of speech sounds and
their written symbols). All of the following words, for example,
contain the sh sound but in each case the sound is spelled differently: chaperon,
conscious, issue, mansion, mission, nation, nausea, ocean, shoe,
sugar, suspicion. The vagaries of English are also notoriously on display in what
one authority has called "those worrisome `ough' tangles," where
the same spelling represents no less than nine different sounds:
bough, cough, drought, hiccough, rough, thorough, though, thought,
through. The lack of phonetic consistency between pronunciation
and spelling has caused, and continues to cause, much grief not
only among those learning English as a foreign language but native
born speakers as well. Over the years teachers of English have wrestled with the question
of how best to teach spelling. Because of the inconsistency factor,
most educators today, as in the past, place heavy emphasis on
rote learning. Students are required to memorize, and are drilled
on, the correct spelling of new and unfamiliar words, inflected
forms, and derivations. In addition, various spelling rules and
their inevitable exceptions must be learned, surely the most famous
being "Use i before e except after c or when it is sounded like
a, as in neighbor and weigh." Exceptions to the exception must
also be drummed into the brains of beleaguered students, either and seize being examples in the case of the "i before e" rule. When all else fails, teachers (along with many exasperated parents)
admonish their charges to consult a dictionary when a word comes
up they can't spell or are unsure of. The so-called "dictionary
habit" has much merit, but where spelling is concerned students
often mock its wisdom. The comedian David Brenner puts it this
way in his lighthearted memoir, Soft Pretzels with Mustard: "Now,
instead of just telling me how to spell it, the teachers would
always say, angrily too, `Don't be lazy, David Brenner! Look the
word up in the dictionary!' Teachers are really stupid! In order
to look a word up in a dictionary you have to know how to spell
it!." And he's right! Consider the beastly word dichotomy. Pronounced "die-KOT-ah-me," the word is practically impossible
to find in a dictionary if you don't know how it's spelled. Or
try finding segue (pronounced "SAY-gway"), commonly heard nowadays in connection
with television programming. Almost every conscientious English
speaker, young or old, has had the experience of poring over a
dictionary, frustration mounting, trying in vain to track down
the spelling of some phonetically wayward word. If we can go to the moon, if we can map the human genome, if we
can invent duct tape, then why for pete's sake can't we devise
a better way to learn to spell? In the last half century, English
has emerged as the dominant world language, the global idiom in
science and technology, politics and diplomacy, economics and
trade, culture and the arts. Granted, spelling is not the be-all
and end-all, but misspelling is frequently more than a minor irritant
for millions of users of the language in the U.S. and abroad.
Is there no way, short of numbing memorization and endless drill,
to conquer our spelling demons? Happily, this story has a happy
ending. The answer is, YES, finally someone has developed a surefire
cure for even the most stubborn cases of bad spelling. By using
Morrison's Sound-It-Out Speller: A Phonic Key to English, anyone can instantly become a proficient speller. Morrison circumvents
the problem of differences between the way words sound and how
they are spelled by a simple but ingenious procedure: the omission
of vowels. Here's how the system works. First, sound out the word in question
(say lieutenant), then omit the vowels (in this case i, e, u,
e, and a), and finally look up the remaining letters (LTNNT or
LTNT) in the Speller, where you will – voila! – find the correct
spelling of lieutenant. You can even master that beast dichotomy using Morrison's book: sound out the word, drop the vowels, and
look up the remaining letters (DKTM or DKDM), called the "locator."
Note that the ch in dichotomy is pronounced as the k sound, and in Morrison's sound-it-out (or phonic) system ch logically becomes k in the locator. He explains, "Using this book is easy when you
listen carefully. To find a word, try not to picture how it is
spelled. Instead, focus on sound and use what you hear to create
a spelling locator which will lead you to the word you want."
Once you get the hang of this method, spelling demons become a
thing of the past. The word segue (SGW), for instance, no longer induces sweaty palms, and bouillon (BLN or BYN or BLYN) becomes a snap no matter which of its pronunciations
you choose. Based on an earlier paperback work called Word Finder, Morrison's Sound-It-Out Speller is a greatly expanded and improved edition prepared by Morrison
and his editorial partner Penelope Kister McRann (no relation
to this author). Not only is the Speller easy and effective to
use, it takes the memorization, drill, and phonetic uncertainty
out of the process. "Morrison's method works," writes Cynthia Johnson of Barnard College
in a recent review in Library Journal (June 1, 2000), adding "Recommended
for academic, public, and school libraries." Some educators have recognize its potential for solving difficult
spelling problems and are enthusiastic about the book. For example,
Lucile M. Sherwood, a Resource Teacher in Phoenix, Arizona says, "I have found this book to be just about the most useful and popular
book in my classroom. I teach fifth and sixth grade learning disabled
youngsters who are just beginning to experience the frustration
of never keeping up with more able peers. The 'secret' of this
book which allows them to look up a word with a system they can
easily apply is a tremendous boon to their egos as well as a time
saver. I encourage them to turn to it regularly." (In the test in the first paragraph, the first spelling of the word is correct in each instance.) _____________________________________________ Ken Kister is a freelance writer based in Tampa (Florida) who
specializes in evaluating reference materials, both print and
electronic. His publications include Kister's Best Dictionaries
for Adults & Young People: A Comparative Guide (Oryx Press, 1992). Morrison's Sound-It-Out Speller: A Phonic Key to English Home Page | How to use | Examples | Reviews | Learning Disabilities How can this book be used as a creative tool by writers?
by Ken Kister
7-6-00
_____________________________________________