Spelling is fun.  Really, it is! But if you find spelling practice boring or repetitive, it’s probably because you’re using the wrong activities. Here are some ways to spice up your spelling practice and become a Master Speller in no time.

Word Sorting: Learn Words in Groups

To learn difficult or hard to remember spellings you can practice word sorting.  Word sorting helps you develop phonemic awareness so that you can know how a sound translates into a word.

For instance, phonemic awareness lets you know that the letter A has two pronunciations. Sometimes it’s pronounced with a short vowel sound (as in ‘mat’) and sometimes with a long vowel sound (as in ‘gate’), but in both cases it’s simply written as the letter ‘a.’

Another example is grouping words by their suffixes, or other similar characteristics. You might make up a list with a group of words ending in the letters –cious. You could also choose to learn a list of words where the letter K is silent, as in ‘knight’ and ‘knee.’

When you truly understand spelling patterns, you will be able to apply these when spelling unknown words. One such spelling pattern could be the soft and hard G.

The letter G is pronounced “hard” in words such as gate, gap, goat and grow but “soft” in words such as gym and giraffe.

You can learn this sound-letter pattern with this rule:

When followed by A, O, or U, the G is pronounced with a “hard” sound.

When G is followed by I or E or Y, then the sound is “soft.”  

Knowing these letter patterns helps you correctly guess the spelling of an unknown word when you hear it pronounced out loud. You will be able to decipher that the correct spelling of ‘gymnastics’ is with a G and not a J, because you’ll recognize the pattern and remember the rule.

This technique of word sorting can be applied to a number of spelling activities. You can learn spelling with groups of words like these:

1) Learning words ending in –at and –an, as in the case of ‘pat’ and ‘pan’

2) Words with a silent E such as ‘cake’, ‘love’, ‘dove’ and ‘jove’

3) Learning words with diphthongs, such as ‘oy’ and ‘ow’

4) Learning the difference between the long and short A sounds in words like ‘hat’ and ‘safe’

Spelling patterns help you make generalized rules on how spelling works. Implementing these rules, once you know them, helps you arrive at the correct spelling of new words.

Once your phonological awareness is expanded through this technique, you can start practicing with games and spelling activities to consolidate that knowledge.

Spelling Knowledge Consolidation: Spelling 24/7

In order for you to truly master spelling you need to practice in a consistent yet fun manner. In fact, you can incorporate spelling practice in almost everything you do! Here are some ways to do it:

Gather together newspaper clips or online content and look for spelling words you’ve learned in the previous week or two. Seeing words in context helps you form a mental image of the correctly-spelled word.

Create a story based on the words you’ve just learned, or use them to practice the one you learned a while back. Collect 5 to 10 words and create a short narrative with them.  The more creative and funny the story, the more enjoyable this will be.

Shrink your spelling “black list” by studying your frequently misspelled words using a technique called “spelling stairs.” In this process, you start with the first letter, then add a single letter at a time until you form your word, like this:

T

Ta

Tab

Tabl

Table

Tablet

Play online spelling games and take advantage of the hundreds of spelling games that are variations of classic word games and spelling activities, like Scramble and Hangman. When you’re having fun, you’ll enjoy the practice, and you’ll spend more time at it.

Mnemonics: The Expert’s Technique

Invent mnemonics for tough words to help you remember them. Sometimes, no matter how much you study a word you always seem to get it wrong, and mnemonic techniques can help. For example, say you always misspell the word ‘dilemma.’ Create a mnemonic for it that helps you remember the correct spelling, like this one:

Emma faced a dilemma.

Here’s another example: you can memorize the sentence “Goofy George always exaggerates” to remember to spell ‘exaggerate’ with a double G.

Follow Ultimate Spelling on Facebook, Twitter and Googe+ for more tips and advice.

Check out eReflect’s Profile on Wikipedia, Youtube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Crunchbase and Training Industry as well!

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments

There’s so much talk these days about the best ways to advance career prospects and what the best course of action to take is that it’s easy to get lost in the sea of advice. eReflect, dedicated to providing self-development software, also supports people in their efforts to sharpen their skills and acquire new ones. The company knows that by doing so, people have a better chance at succeeding in today’s cut-throat job market.

Among the many skills people are expected to master by the time they professionally enter the job market, eReflect finds that vocabulary, spelling, and touch typing are in most employers’ “Top Ten” lists when it comes to skills that catch their eye in the hiring process. This is not solely eReflect’s opinion, but something that has been established as a given in the 21st century socioeconomic landscape.

eReflect has been witnessing a steady growth since it was established back in 2006 with its first and most successful self-improvement software, Ultimate Vocabulary™. Today, 10 years later, eReflect serves customers from over 110 countries, helping young people and adults master essential 21st century skills for better career prospects and more fulfilling lives. eReflect is now a leader in the self-development software niche.

Building an armor of words – Ultimate Vocabulary™

People often fail to appreciate the importance of a rich vocabulary in the workplace. They believe that skills like assertiveness and confidence are the only traits they need to stay ahead of the game. But the truth is, without basic skills such as an extended, up to date, and relevant vocabulary it’s easy to lose the competitive edge against candidates and colleagues with more eloquence.

Ultimate Vocabulary™ helps you build a strong vocabulary that makes others notice you. A vocabulary that has a positive impact on people instantly increases and enhances your career prospects and your promotion potential.

People’s first impression of you is largely based on your word choice, so by making those first words count, you’re getting a head start, leaving others lagging behind with clichés and gobbledygook while you speak with intention, accuracy and large-scale impact.

Here are some of the main benefits of a rich, robust vocabulary can bring to your career prospects:

– You’ll have top-notch communication skills, both face-to-face and in email, video conferencing and more.

– Your communication skills will give you credibility, authority and respect. Having other people respect and admire you gives you the competitive advantage over less assertive colleagues.

– Your authority and the respect you get from others means that you’ll always stand out from the crowd.

Do you ever wonder why inspiring speakers are often called charismatic? They have the ability and talent to persuade and move others with their mere choice of words. By building your vocabulary you are effectively gathering a strong arsenal you can draw upon in the right circumstances to bring forth the right effect.

These are but a few reasons why you should consider improving your vocabulary with a program designed according to scientific evidence on lexical capacity and acquisition and with integrated technologies to accelerate learning without minimizing effectiveness and overall knowledge retention.

When vocabulary just doesn’t cut it – Ultimate Spelling™

Building a strong vocabulary is not always enough. Without orthography skills, people you are communicating with electronically will be distracted by your misspellings and cringe each time you spell simple words wrong, such as mixing up “you’re” and “your.” While these errors can be sometimes overlooked, your communication will suffer from a lack of accuracy and understanding when you have problems with more difficult words like “affect” vs. “effect” or the easily-confused word pair “principle” and “principal.”

eReflect has created a software product that helps children and adults learn spelling in a way that’s not boring and tedious but time-efficient and fun. Through a series of handpicked and well-designed spelling activities and games a learner can gradually improve their spelling skills and become a person that can write professionally and without any mistakes.

While spelling is not the be-all and end-all of a job search, a resume marred by misspellings and typos (more on that later) is bound to land your application in the “not worth bothering with” pile.

If you’re wondering why spelling is so important — or if you think it’s not important at all — let us convince you otherwise.

Spelling and vocabulary are interconnected. If you know the meaning of one word but cannot spell it, you don’t really know it.

To completely know a word you must be able to use it equally well both in conversation and in written communication. Good spelling is invisible, in a way: nobody notices your spelling skills unless you don’t have them.

So what does it mean to have great spelling skills?

Well-prepared

You’re equipped with an indispensable skill for college and for job hunting later on. Employees assume the people they hire have mastered such basic skills. You’d be surprised, however, at the number of spelling errors found in official reports and other corporate publications.

Spelling is, in a sense, the key to a company’s quality. If your brand has certain qualities you need to emphasize, don’t sabotage those with misspellings.

Credibility

Spelling ascribes credibility and leadership to your writing and, by extension, you. People won’t take you seriously if you cannot write an error-free report or email.

Good spelling skills infuse your professional image with positive traits: credibility, trustworthiness, authority, professionalism — the list is endless.

Why use Ultimate Spelling™ though?

Ultimate Spelling™ has been designed with effectiveness in mind. It’s free of those factors that sabotage learning, like uninspiring, tedious activities. It abandons useless passive learning techniques, and instead is equipped with star-studded features and practice material.

With Ultimate Spelling you can improve your orthography through interactive games and  intuitive tools like a word explorer, and use cutting-edge technologies for progress monitoring to achieve better results.

What makes Ultimate Spelling™ different from anything else is the level of personalization it lends itself to. The software can be as appealing to a 4-year-old as it is to a 44-year old wishing to spruce up their spelling skills.

Who doesn’t like learning through play?

Click, Clack, Click-Click, Clack

That’s the sound of you touch typing. Ever wonder how often you touch type on your keyboard?

An increasing number of people are using mobile touch-screen devices for all of their personal and work-related tasks: emailing, shopping, chatting, international meetings, and even legal negotiations.

In fact, in 2016 it is expected that over 3.5 million mobile devices will be purchased and used. Our growing dependence on mobile, Internet-enabled devices means we need to become efficient users. One basic skill that helps with this is touch typing – the ability to type not only quickly, but accurately too.

Technology and research companies predict that it won’t be long before mobile devices outnumber people. At this point, it is forecast that in 2014 there will be more than 7.3 billion active cell phones on the planet. Tablets, PCs, and smartphones are proliferating at an accelerated rate as well.

So why stay behind with a peck and hunt typing method when you can type at a professional level at more than 80 words per minute?

eReflect comes to the rescue once more.

Typesy™  uses the latest technology to help you improve your typing skills through video tutorials that are easy to follow and intuitive. It’s like having a personal tutor at your service.

Wondering what the perks of touch typing mastery are?

– You’ll save up to 47 hours a month. That’s a big deal. Depending on the amount of touch typing you do each day, you can save literally two days a month just by typing faster and more accurately!

– You’ll avoid common computer-related health issues. Touch typing is not only about typing super fast and error-free, it’s about sustainable and healthy typing habits. Typesy™ teaches you ergonomic techniques so that you can spare yourself from painful, irritating problems like carpal tunnel syndrome and RSI.

The world is taking large strides towards an overwhelmingly tech-driven society. Skills like touch typing and proper spelling are indispensable, especially in the fiercely competitive job market young people are getting in today, where the jobs are scarce and the requirements are numerous.

Build your vocabulary and improve your spelling skills; achieve a new touch typing word-per-minute record, and see your career prospects catapult to unimaginable new levels!

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments

Ultimate Vocabulary guarantees to help you increase your vocabulary knowledge! Learn more words and apply them in your writings.