• Wake up to spelling. Pay attention to how words are spelled. As you read, as you write, as you talkto people, and as you listen, pay attention to how words are configured — letter by letter, syllable by syllable.
• Sloppy spellers are spell-blind. They do not see words. They do not understand that correct spelling goes hand in hand with convincing writing; nor have they learned to pay attention to letter patterns.
• Don't be spell-blind. Open your eyes; sharpen your mind. Think spelling. Respect skillful spelling. Raise your personal expectations for producing error-free spelling.

• A frequent cause of misspellings is mispronunciation. We usually spell as we pronounce, and if we say goverment, sophmore, nucular, Febuary, and athalete, chances we will spell them that way—incorrectly. As you shake off your spell-blindness, pay careful attention to how words are pronounced.

• The responsible journalist carries a dictionary at all times--and uses it constantly. The journalist's spelling motto is: When in doubt, check it out. Don't guess. Don't assume.
• Shortcuts, in the long run, are inefficient. It takes much less time to look up a word than to explain away spelling blunders and professional carelessness.

• Usually, there is a pattern to spelling mistakes. Keep an inventory of your spelling errors. You'll begin to see which errors keep recurring — which rules you keep breaking.
• Devise a system that works for you--a chart with several columns, say, in which you match a misspelled word with its corrected version and the rule (if there is one) that applies. This way you'll trigger awareness of where you tend to slip up, so you can practice systematically.

• Stretch your word power by learning new words, how they are used in context, and how they are spelled. Notice which spelling rules apply to them.
• Practice using new words in sentences and try them out in speech while seeing in your mind's eye how they are spelled.

• Proofread with the care of a detective poring over possible clues. Remember: When you write, you get so immersed in the process that you do not see your own errors. Take a break after finishing a piece. Return to it with fresh eyes.
• Run the piece through a spell-check program, but don't rely on it; spell-check can't determine context. Become your own best spell-checker.

• People often learn best when they have to teach the material in question. Teach someone the following rules to spell by as you learn them yourself.

Rule #1: ie & ei

• Usually, i comes before e (chief, pierce, and field).
• But in some words i comes after c (receive, perceive, receive).

And if the two letters are pronounced a (as in tray), usually e comes before i, as in neighbor, weigh, sleigh, eight.

Indicate which of the spellings is correct.

1
			A)	believe
			B)	beleive
2
			A)	releive
			B)	relieve
3
			A)	seige
			B)	siege
4
			A)	yield
			B)	yeild
5
			A)	freight
			B)	frieght
6
			A)	nieghbor
			B)	neighbor
7
			A)	wiegh
			B)	weigh
8
			A)	height
			B)	hieght
9
			A)	cieling
			B)	ceiling
10
			A)	reciept
			B)	receipt