Ultimate Spelling Software

Why To Spell Words With a “Y”

October 31, 2013

If there’s one letter in the English alphabet that’s guaranteed to cause confusion, it’s the letter Y. Sometimes it’s a vowel, sometimes it’s a consonant, and it’s frequently one of the letters involved when you come across an exception to a spelling rule. However, like most spelling issues, the confusion can be cleared up if you take a little time to concentrate on the issues surrounding the letter Y. We’ve collected the major spelling points around the letter Y in this post, because it’s easier to understand how the letter works when you can see examples of the most common spelling and pronunciation problems in one place, rather than combing through dozens of rules looking for the exceptions.

Pronouncing the Letter Y

We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: pronunciation is an important tool in any spelling study program. Even if it seems at first like the sound of a word or letter makes things more confusing, the more you practice these words out loud while writing them out for spelling practice, the easier they’ll be to remember.

The letter Y is used for four sounds in English:

the E sound (city, unhappy, beauty, country)
the I sound (hygiene, typing, cycle, style)
the IH sound (myth, typical, cryptic, gymnast)
the Y sound, pronounced “yuh” and represented by the IPA symbol /j/, at the beginning or middle of words (yacht, lawyer, yes, young) and also at the end of certain words (gray,toy)
the schwa sound (martyr, syringe)

Spelling With the Letter Y

As you can see from the word lists above, the letter Y often occurs at the end of a word. When you add a suffix to the word, you may need to change the Y to another letter.

If there is a consonant before the Y, change the Y to an I before adding the suffix …

angry + ly = angrily
happy + ness = happiness
industry + al = industrial
study + ed = studied

… but if the Y comes after a vowel, don’t change it …

joy + ful = joyful
repay + ment = repayment

… unless you’re looking at an exception to one of those two rules …

dry + ly = dryly
gay + ly = gaily
pray + ed = prayed

… and no matter what letter comes before the Y, if the suffix is -ing, keep the Y.

say + ing = saying
dry + ing = drying
study + ing = studying

The final Y usually gets changed to IE when you’re making words plural, if there is a consonant before the Y.

funny / funnies
puppy / puppies
sky / skies

You’ll also change Y to IE when adding the suffix -est to words:

happy / happiest
lovely / loveliest
busy / busiest

If you’re wise you’ll practice your Ys and then you’ll win the spelling prize.

Get Your Super Teaching Tools From Tim Weibel’s Websites

October 27, 2013

If you’re a teacher in a public school who’s looking for some new resource material, then you’ll be glad to know of a place where you can find worksheets on topics like spelling, grammar, multiplication, handwriting, geography, and astronomy. ESL instructors and homeschooling parents can also benefit from these handy lesson materials, and anyone who spends time teaching any subject can get inspiration by sharing information with other people in the teaching profession. For all of these reasons and more, Tim Weibel and his team have set up a series of websites that provide quality material and practical information for teachers at home, in schools, and around the world.

US: At your SuperTeacherIdeas.com website, you’ve got an ever-growing collection of tips provided by people who are experienced in providing education. Do you have a place for people to ask questions as well, if they’re looking for specific information?

TW: Yes, Super Teacher Ideas has thousands of lesson ideas and classroom activities, submitted by real teachers. Most of the ideas on the site are geared towards elementary school educators. There are math lessons, spelling games, science experiments, writing projects, and even craft ideas.

There is a contact button where teachers can submit their own teaching ideas. We do screen them, and the best ones are added to the website. Many times teachers do contact us with special requests. We do what we can to include the specific types of lessons that teachers want.

US: There are links on that site to a lot of spelling games, but they’re not the online spelling games that many sites offer. Instead, they’re classroom games that teachers can use to teach spelling to a group of children. Are you seeing a trend towards more computer-based games being used in classrooms?

TW: Nowadays classrooms have access to desktop computers, laptops, SMART Boards, and iPads. Of course there is a growing demand for on-line spelling games. Computers are changing the way we teach kids for the better. Online tools and software (like Ultimate Spelling) are amazing tools that just weren’t available twenty years ago.

At the elementary level, teachers will continue to use non-tech classroom lessons as well. Super Teacher Ideas was designed to be a resource for teachers looking for new, fun ways to help students learn using hands-on exploration, classroom games, and interactive activities.

US: Although most of the worksheets you provide on your SuperTeacherWorksheets.com website are only available to members, there are some free ones that can be downloaded. The site explains that schools can sign up at a group rate to receive full membership benefits – can a group of homeschooling parents sign up as a group, as well?

TW: Yes! Super Teacher Worksheets is our largest site, and it’s the only one of our sites that has any type of subscription fee. Super Teacher Worksheets has thousands of printable worksheets and lessons that were created by experienced writers and teachers. We only charge 20 bucks for a full-year individual membership, which is a pretty good deal for homeschooling families, parents, tutors, and school teachers who are on a budget.

We estimate that about 10% of our members are homeschooling families. We have reduced rates, which are priced similar to school site licenses, for large homeschooling co-ops.

Even those who don’t have a membership can use the website because nearly every page has free worksheets on it. You don’t need to sign up; you don’t need to enter your email; you don’t need to do anything to access the free resources.

US: According to the description on the website, these worksheets are designed for younger students, up to grade 5 (approximately 11-13 years old). What made you decide to stop with this age/grade group?

TW: My background is in elementary education. I was a teacher in elementary schools for over 10 years. When I launched the site in 2007, I was a full-time teacher who wanted to share worksheets that I’d made. Since that time the sites have grown a great deal, but our focus on the elementary grades has remained.

All three of our sites (Super Teacher Worksheets, Super Teacher Ideas, and Modern Chalkboard) offer exclusively elementary resources. However, we have received many requests to expand our collection to include middle school and high school content. It’s something we’re looking into. We’re a very small, family-run company, so it would be a big change for us.

US: Technology is changing classrooms, and you’ve set up the ModernChalkboard.com website to help people learn how to use the “interactive whiteboard” that’s becoming more common in schools and businesses. Can you explain to our readers what a SMART board is?

TW: When I was a kid, back in the caveman days, teachers wrote on a dusty chalkboard in the front of the room. The chalkboard was a teaching tool that allowed the teacher to write notes or demonstrate difficult concepts to the class.

The interactive Whiteboards (or SMART Board) is the 21st century chalkboard. It’s a large touch-screen monitor that’s five or six feet wide. Teachers and students write on it with a digital pen. It can display graphics from the web during lessons. Teachers can even design interactive lessons that are displayed on the screen while they teach. It’s still has all of the features of an old-fashioned chalkboard but, because it’s connected to a computer, it can do so much more.

The vast majority of classrooms in America now have interactive whiteboards in them now. As a teaching tool, interactive whiteboards are incredible, but it takes a great deal of time to develop a lesson with a professional presentation. Most teachers are busy people and they don’t have the time to design the lessons themselves. Our Modern Chalkboard site offers teachers free, downloadable lessons that are specifically designed to be used on SMART Boards.

Our goal for all three sites is to make teachers’ jobs easier by providing tools and resources that they can use in the classroom.

Cross-posted at The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog.

Get an A in Spelling With an “F”

October 24, 2013

Getting a good grade in school is important, and there’s a lot of pressure put on parents, children, and even teachers to make sure that students have the knowledge they need. Because there’s so much to learn, it’s a good idea to focus first on things that can help in several areas, such as basic English skills like spelling. Good spellers are better readers, and better readers have an easier time with school classes and homework, in general. As we’ve mentioned before, one good way to learn the spelling of a word is to look at the different pronunciation rules that can be confusing when it comes to how a word is spelled. However, sometimes simply looking at the confusing things can clear up the confusion. Once you’ve learned a word correctly, you’ll find each new word easier to learn to spell.

The sound represented by the IPA symbol /f/ is what we generally associate with the letter F in the English alphabet. It’s easy to think of words that have this sound, and many words are familiar to even the youngest child: fish, roof, feather, brief, fancy, deaf. Linking the F-sound with the F-letter is easy to do, and easy to remember. It isn’t hard to remember that the same F-sound can be produced by two F-letters together, as it these words: off, giraffe, affair, bluff, suffix, different.

Where things get complicated is when letters other than F can be used to make the F-sound when a word is pronounced. Sometimes it’s hard to explain to younger students exactly why the letters PH are pronounced /f/ when it seems completely logical to them to use the letter F instead. Unfortunately, in order to really explain why the word phone is not spelled fone, you’d have to summarize the last several hundred years of the evolution of the English language, which is probably more than a six-year-old wants to hear. Here are some other words that use the PH letter combination for the F-sound: dolphin, pharmacy, nephew, graph, phantom. And even adults might be confused by the fact that the F-sound is represented by the letter cluster PPH in the word sapphire!

Another confusing letter combination that produces the F-sound is GH. This form only sounds like /f/ when it’s used at the end of a word, and the most common examples are when these letters are combined with the vowels OU: cough, tough, rough. With the vowels AU you’ll get the word laugh – try not to laugh when your child logically spells this as laf.

Generally, the letter L in the word calf is silent, so it’s pronounced caf, but it’s important to remember silent letters and include them, so that words are spelled correctly.

Finally, for all you readers who speak “British English,” you’ll be familiar with the F-sound in the middle of the word lieutenant – where there’s no F at all!

How to Make Learning Spelling Easier

October 17, 2013

Can making a word harder to read make it easier to spell? That might seem counterintuitive, but according to a recent study done by educators at Clifton College, Bristol (UK), using a font that requires students to more carefully study the text has a significant impact on how much of that information they remember. According to physics teacher Matthew French, who led the study, when written text is presented in a more cursive-style font, the rate of recall by students on the material in that text rises by at least 13%. Even more interesting was the result he noticed in students with dyslexia; in that category, the rate of recall was up to 19%.

There are several theories about why this might happen, including the fact that when a cursive-style font is used, the letters such as “b” and “d” are not necessarily mirror images of each other. With dyslexia, the more a pair of letters resemble each other, the easier they are to mix up. Another reason that recall and retention of information is accelerated is because students are concentrating harder on the text, and so are more focused (even if unconsciously) on the actual information.

All of this leads to an approach that students, parents, and teachers can try if spelling is causing problems. Instead of writing out the word in block letters or another easy-to-read font style, try printing out the spelling worksheets using nonstandard fonts that have a range of typeface styles. Here are some suggestions:

Bernhard Fashion BT
Bradley Hand ITC
Curlz MT
Freestyle Script
Juice ITC
Lucida Handwriting
Mistral
Papyrus
Tempus Sans ITC
Vivaldi

(Note: typeface/font options will vary by computer, operating system, and program)

Learn 21st Century Language Skills From Erin Jansen At www.NetLingo.com

October 13, 2013

Long before computer jargon and “text speak” became part of the ongoing argument about spelling skills and the development of the English language, Erin Jansen saw the need to collect and document all of the terminology associated with the digital world, and the virtual world that followed. Now her site is the top-ranked resource for information on the language of the internet, of mobile chatting, and of 21st-century communication in general. We talked to Erin recently about the website, and how the English language is growing and adapting to keep up with the ongoing cyber-evolution of our world.

US: You were a pioneer in classifying and tracking the terminology associated with computers back in the mid-1990s and your website now covers vocabulary used in all aspects of the digital world, from the internet in general to blogging, texting, gaming, and marketing. What has been the biggest change in “cyberspeak” you’ve noticed over the last 15 years?

EJ: The biggest change in cyberspeak over the past 15 years has been the increasing use of acronyms and text shorthand, and specifically the use of numbers and symbols within acronyms and text shorthand. For example, 10Q means thank you; 143 means i love you; 182 means i hate you; <3 means a heart; 9 means a parent is watching; 99 means a parent is no longer watching. This kind of code has evolved rapidly into what is known as leetspeak.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes: “The digital frontier is a nurturing place where verbs and nouns are not only born, but in fact bear offspring.” —Don Altman

US: Here at Ultimate Spelling we’ve frequently discussed the topic of texting, and whether or not using abbreviations and acronyms has a negative impact on spelling skills. What’s your opinion on this?

EJ: I do not believe the use of abbreviations and acronyms while texting has a negative impact on spelling skills, it’s simply another way of talking or writing. While I don’t think this kind of shorthand is appropriate for school course work, I do think it can spur on the creative writing process. So the challenge for educators is to encourage creative writing in the first draft, but by the final paper, make sure the student is using proper grammar and spelling.

Here’s another favorite quote: “No language as depending on arbitrary use and custom can ever be permanently the same, but will always be in a mutable and fluctuating state; and what is deemed polite and elegant in one age, may be accounted uncouth and barbarous in another.” —Benjamin Martin

US: AFAIK, UNOIT, and HTNOTH look like serious cases of misspellings, but they’re fairly common acronyms used in text messages. In general, do people use acronyms like these rather than the phrases themselves, when they’re typing out e-mail messages or other non-texting communication?

EJ: Many people use these kinds of acronyms on a regular basis while others do not, it depends on the person. I continue to receive new acronym submissions on a daily basis, and I continue to see this type of shorthand even on social networking sites, not just in email or text messages. I get the feeling that people either love acronyms and use them as often as possible, or people don’t like acronyms and use shorthand sparingly.

Another favorite quote: “A dictionary is an historical monument, the history of a nation contemplated from one point of view, and the wrong ways into which a language has wandered … may be nearly as instructive as the right ones.” —Richard Chenevix Trench

US: The acronym WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) has been around long enough that it’s actually become a spoken vocabulary word, pronounced WIZZ-ee-wig. It’s even listed in the Oxford English Dictionary! Do you think that this illustrates the next step in the evolution of the English language?

EJ: I absolutely think that acronyms and tech talk in general illustrate the next step in the evolution of language. On a recent episode of the popular TV show “Dancing with the Stars” one of the stars was “talking in hashtags” when she said “OMG, hashtag intense” to refer to a posting she made on Twitter under “#intense” at which point the host responded “You talk in hashtags? OMG, please hashtag stop.” Acronyms and tech talk crossed over into mainstream media in the early 2000’s with the popularity of social media sites. NetLingo continues to track all of these terms as they keep evolving, and the good thing about the website as oppose to printed versions is that it is always updated and always growing. (The first NetLingo Dictionary book published in 2002 had 500 pages while the website had 5,000 pages; now in 2013 the website has 10,000 pages, it’s unrealistic to publish all of that in a book.)

A quote to help illustrate: “Telephone books are, like dictionaries, already out of date the moment they are printed.” —Ammon Shea

US: One of the sections of your website is titled “Top 50 Internet Acronyms Parents Need to Know.” What are the issues that come up between parents and kids, as far as “net lingo” is concerned?

EJ: The issues that come up between parents and kids as far as “net lingo” is concerned are primarily that parents don’t understand what kids are saying when they are texting and they don’t know what they are doing when spending time online. This is a problem because kids are often approached by strangers online. The statistics say it all: 95% of parents don’t recognize the lingo kids use to let people know that their parents are watching. One third of kids have been contacted by a stranger and half of these were considered inappropriate. 75% of youth who received an online sexual solicitation did not tell a parent. 81% of parents of online youth say that kids aren’t careful enough when giving out information about themselves online. These are unfortunate facts and it is why I try to educate parents about the lingo used online, and the need to stay engaged and set rules around online usage.

Here’s a cute joke to help illustrate: “The linguistics professor was explaining to his class that there were languages on this earth where a positive and a negative was always positive, some where this was always negative, and some where a double negative was in fact a positive, but that there was no language on earth where a double positive was a negative. To which a student at the back of the class called out, “Yeah right!” —Anonymous

Erin Jansen is the founder of NetLingo.com and author of “NetLingo The Internet Dictionary” and “NetLingo The Largest List of Text & Chat Acronyms.” She is online at ErinJansen.com.

How One Letter Changes Everything

October 10, 2013

Spelling is an important skill, one that will help you and your child succeed, whether that’s in school, at university, or in the job market. A lot of quick communication is done via text messages these days, and there’s an ongoing argument about whether that has a negative impact on spelling. Part of “text speak” is cutting letters out of words to save space and to save time, but when you’re looking at how to spell words correctly, removing a single letter can cause communication problems. We’ve devoted several posts to English words that are already easy to confuse because they’re so similar, often differing by just one letter. But what a difference that one letter makes!

Think about it. What if you went to the doctor because you’d hit your head, and the doctor said:

Here’s a medicine that will help you relive your pain.

You probably wouldn’t take that medicine – or go back to that doctor! Instead, you’d look for someone to provide a medicine that would help you relieve your pain. One single letter, but a world of difference. What would this breakdown in communication do to a doctor’s client list? What will a spelling mistake end up costing in your business if you lose the ability to communicate with your clients because of one missing letter?

On a lighter note, we found some “missing letter” examples where people took popular book titles and dropped one of the letters to make the titles mean something entirely different. Have you read “The Da Vinci Cod”? How about that celebrated work on the topic of Chinese cuisine, “A Heartbreaking Wok of Staggering Genius”? Check out these funny spelling errors for a laugh – and then get serious about working on your spelling skills.

Tip of the Day: About Spelling and Pronunciation

October 3, 2013

Spelling and pronunciation are linked, and when you practice one you’ll get better at the other. This means that when you’re working on improving your spelling of a word, you need to also take a few minutes to work on your ability to pronounce it correctly. That way you’ll be able to use the word when you speak as well as when you write. Sometimes the difference between two completely different words is a single letter and if both are valid words, your spell-checker won’t catch the mistake. But if you’ve been practicing pronunciation you’ll automatically use the right word, because your brain will connect the pronunciation of that word – even if you’re not saying it out loud – to the correct spelling, and your fingers will automatically hit the right keys when you type, or shape the right letters when you write something out by hand. Of course, if you’re writing something by hand you won’t have the support of a spell-checker in any case, so it’s a good thing to practice no matter what!

Here’s an example of how one letter can change a word’s spelling, pronunciation, and meaning:

moral vs. morale

Moral is pronounced MOH-rull and means “a short lesson or teaching story.” When you add just one letter, it becomes the word morale.

Morale is pronounced mor-AHL, and this word means “self-confidence, enthusiasm.” Obviously, this is not at all the same as the first word! Because the pronunciation is so different, you might not make a mistake when you’re speaking, but it’s easy to mistype or misspell the word by accidentally adding or dropping that final E. However, if you’ve made sure to focus on each word’s pronunciation at the same time as you’re concentrating on learning how to spell that word, you won’t be confused.

One good way of practicing words like these that are so easy to confuse is to put them into a sentence. If possible, try to use them in the same sentence or phrase, like this:

… and so the moral of the story is “don’t do anything to destroy your teammate’s morale before the beginning of the tournament!”

Spelling improvement isn’t a stand-alone process. In order to really be sure you know a word, study its spelling, but also learn the definition of the word, how to pronounce it, and how to use it correctly. All of these aspects of word knowledge will reinforce each other, and you’ll be more confident and capable in your spoken and written communication.

Tip of the Day: About Spelling and Pronunciation

Dan Dumitrache Teaches Spelling Skills And More At ESLVietnamZone.com

September 30, 2013

If you’re feeling frustrated about your English skills and think that you’ll never get to the fluency level you want, look for something or someone to inspire you to keep going forward with your vocabulary and spelling study. Dan Dumitrache is a good source of inspiration; he started out not wanting to learn English in school, but eventually started studying the language (his inspiration? love!) and now is a qualified English teacher himself. What’s more, he’s not a native speaker of English – he was born in Romania, and is now teaching in Vietnam. His story proves the global influence of English, and that anyone can learn English with the right motivation. We talked to Dan recently about how he motivates his students to learn.

US: Tell us about your ESL classes – do you teach children at school, or do you have adult students who take private lessons?

DD: At the moment I work for Binh An Secondary School, which is a state school located 30 minutes away from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I teach English for 14 year old students (they are in eight or ninth grade).

On Mondays I teach English for kids (3-4-5 years old) at Lan Anh Nursery School (kindergarten).

US: Why did you start the ESLVietnamZone website?

DD: Long time ago (I believe it was the summer of 2010) I tried to learn graphic design with the help of my wife (she is a graphic designer). In order to remember all of the techniques she taught me, mostly for retouching photos, I decided to create different files and write every step there. Soon, my computer became a complete mess and searching through all these file was painfully. So, I decided to create an online website (better organized) and be able to access everything from any of my devices. This is how I created my first website (it does not exist any more now). Everything was written in English since I communicate with my wife in English.

Writing for that website I realized how important writing is. It helped me learn new vocabulary, practice spelling, use grammar etc. It was a totally different experience than just communicating with friends in English. I felt (and I still feel) it was the best way of learning English. So, in 2011, I created ESL Vietnam Zone website, an informative blog related to learning and teaching English as a Second/Foreign language.

US: Should people concentrate on vocabulary and spelling first, or is it more important to get comfortable speaking English at the beginning?

DD: Everybody wants to speak first but it is impossible to speak if you don’t know vocabulary. In my opinion, people should concentrate on vocabulary first. Of course, spelling comes hand in hand with vocabulary. Using vocabulary in speaking (or writing) is equally important.

US: Your website provides information for ESL teachers as well, including lesson plans. Are these the same tools you use in your classes?

DD: Yes, mostly they are. I say mostly because sometimes it is just not possible.

US: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone who isn’t enjoying their English classes in school?

DD: This is a difficult question. There might be many reasons and identifying these reasons is the first step. Learners usually complain about teachers … “My teacher is not funny”. This is true in some cases and it can make a class less enjoyable. The vast majority of learners learn English because they have to learn not because they have a motivation. I believe that the lack of motivation is what makes someone not enjoying their English classes. Most of the learners don’t see results after a period of hard studying. My advice for someone who is not enjoying their English classes is: be active in the class and use English outside the class. In this way you see the benefits of learning English and it creates a strong motivation to continue studying English. These make your English classes more enjoyable.

A Spellchecker For Your Handwritten Texts?

September 26, 2013

We’re all used to seeing the red-underlined words on the computer screen that are the word processing program’s flag that you’ve typed a word that isn’t spelled correctly. But we don’t use computers for every bit of written communication – we still need, and use, pens and pencils to write letters, make lists, fill out forms, and take exams. So far, there’s nothing that makes those handy red lines appear underneath words that we’ve written out incorrectly; a misspelled word on paper won’t be highlighted by anyone but the teacher who hands back the corrected paper or test (along with the lowered grade).

However, an inventor in Germany has designed a pen that has a computer chip which tracks the movement of a person’s handwriting, and signals them when they’ve made a spelling mistake. Daniel Kaesmacher and Falk Wolsky are behind the Lernstift Smartpen, which is currently in development. According to the company founders, Wolsky had the idea to invent this pen in order to help his son with his homework. The pen will vibrate if it detects that the user has made a spelling error. Although the pen is still being worked on, and will only work for English and German spelling for now, this invention points to all sorts of interesting possibilities in the future.

What about a pen with a built-in laser reader that scans words as you write them, and blinks or buzzes when it sees a misspelled word? Or maybe a screen that you can write on which electronically analyzes the words before printing out a piece of paper with the text in your own handwriting.

No matter what marvelous spelling tools might come onto the market in the months and years to come, your brain is still the best tool you have for identifying and correcting spelling mistakes – and more importantly, for learning the correct spelling for words in the first place.

Find out more about the pen at the Lernstift website.

What is a Motor Engram?

September 24, 2013

“And,” you might be wondering, “what does it have to do with learning to type or improving spelling?” The answer lies in the connection between the mind and the body. You know that your mind controls the nerves and muscles that make your body move in specific ways – you can think that you want to pick up a book, and tell your arm to reach out and your hand to grasp the book. But when you think about it, do you really think about it? Most likely there’s no “thought” involved. You don’t consciously say, “Okay, now I’m going to extend my arm six inches forward and slightly to the right, lower it by 30 degrees, open the fingers of my hand, …” and so on. The act of “picking something up” has been encoded into a motor engram: a pattern of movement that is treated as a single unit. What’s more, the creation of this movement pattern is as much the work of the body as the brain.

Scientists have found that, just as repeated mental commands teach muscles to work in a certain way, repeated muscle motions translate back to mental stimulus. This means that when you do something over and over, it become automatic, and not something you have to think about. This “muscle memory” is what gives a ballet dancer the ability to perform complicated sequences of movements perfectly in time to the music in a performance. If the dancer had to stop and think “now I’m going to do this, now I’m going to do that” they would fall behind the music and the rhythm. In other words, your body can actually move faster than your mind, sometimes!

That’s what makes typing so important for people who want to improve their spelling. When you know how to spell a word, you’ll look at letter patterns, not individual letters. That means instead of spelling the word thoughtfulness as 14 separate letters, you’ll spell it as four clusters of letters: TH OUGHT FUL NESS. That’s because the TH combination is a common one, and there are many words that have the OUGHT pattern (drought, thought, bought, brought, etc.); NESS is a common suffix for adjectives. You might have to think briefly about the difference between FUL and FULL, but isn’t it easier to have only one spelling issue rather than many?

Here’s why learning to touch type improves spelling: the repeated muscle movements in specific patterns help embed those patterns in the brain and the body at the same time. When you have the right motor engram encoded in your mind, it means that the letter sequence OUGHT will be as automatic for you when spelling a word as when typing it. This is one reason why touch typing helps people with dyslexia. When dyslexia interferes with the way the eye processes letter patterns, typing allows a person to bypass the eyes and use the fingers instead. To remember a word’s spelling, simply imagine how your fingers move to type the word out, and you’ll be spelling it correctly.

Reference: J.A. Kleim, M.H. Monfils, E.J. Plautz. In search of the motor engram: motor map plasticity as a mechanism for encoding motor experience. Neuroscientist (October 2005)

Cross-posted at the Ultimate Typing blog.