10-second review: Proposes the concept of “spelling consciousness,” whether students recognize that they have misspelled words.
Source: WJ Valmont. “Spelling Consciousness: A Long Neglected Area.” Elementary English [No Date] 1219-1221. Elementary English preceded Language Arts as the elementary school publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Comment: I never heard anything more about this concept after the publication of this article. Of course, spelling checkers now tell people if they have misspelled words. And people are able to have words they frequently misspell automatically spelled correctly in a word processor. The one thing that has not changed: misspell words in written communications and you will be charged with illiteracy, laziness, sloppiness, and lack of a desire for excellence. I have personally seen an English department chairperson spot a misspelled word in a resume and, without reading any further, dropped it in a waste basket.
Problems with spelling are tied to proofreading. The best method I know of to find words that I have misspelled is to start with the last word and read, word by word, back to the first word. Because I am not reading for meaning, I will see each and every word. Tedious, but spelling is important. RayS.
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