Writing Mini-Lessons: Proofreading for Spelling
Learning to spell is a time-consuming process even for naturally strong spellers. This year’s spelling program will consist of a combination of words and spelling patterns every sixth grader should know, the sixth grade no-excuse spelling words, your personal spelling survival list, and any words you misspell in the context of your writing. The goal is for you to move away from memorizing a set of words for a Friday spelling test simply to forget the correct spellings of these words by the following Monday and instead to internalize the correct spellings of words important to you so that they may be spelled correctly in the context of writing.
However, nobody can spell every word, and every writer makes spelling errors. Nevertheless, correct spelling matters. It makes writing easier to read and understand. Furthermore, correct spelling matters because written language represents an unspoken agreement between the writer and the reader. A reader expects to be able to decode and comprehend the written piece, and it is the responsibility of the writer to hold up that end of the bargain, being certain that a reader’s eye and mind will find what they need and understand the written work. The only thing that separates a writer who creates texts that contain misspellings from those who create accurate, readable writing is the process of proofreading. Proofreading for spelling is a tedious, time-consuming, challenging task, but it is also a necessary one. It requires a writer’s ability and willingness to slow down, focus on single words at a time, and ask of each word, "Am I absolutely certain that this is the correct spelling?" This is one part of the copy-editing process and should be completed as a distinct stage, either before focusing on conventions or after. Proofreading for spelling is a visual process that requires you to tap into your visual memory. If your eyes and memory are not certain that a word is spelled correctly, then that is a word that must be looked up to obtain the standard spelling, and if the word was misspelled, it will become a word for your personal spelling list. Below are the techniques you will use this year to proofread for correct spelling in all of your written work.
Techniques for Proofreading Spelling
- Circle each and every word you’re not absolutely, 100 percent certain of. Once you’ve proofed the whole piece, then go back and look up the spellings of the circled words. In other words, maintain your focus as a proofreader until you’ve finished the actual proofreading; the dictionary or spellchecker should only come into play once you’ve identified every potential misspelling.
- Scan each line of text backward, from right to left. Don’t allow your eyes to chunk text and attend to meaning. Instead, focus on one word and its spelling at a time.
- Slow down on common homonyms (your and you’re; to, too, and two; its and it’s; their, there, and they’re) and other homonym-type confusions (college and collage, effect and affect, chose and choose, lead and led, than and then, etc.). Check the word in question against what you know, or use a source.
- Slow down on demons, your own and the usual suspects. You know which words you’ve confused in the past or continue to struggle with. Give them particular attention: necessary, recommend, separate, a lot, all right, definitely, judgment, truly, restaurant, eighth, twelfth, etc.
- Slow down on words with tricky prefixes and suffixes:
- words in which the doubling of letters becomes an issue, like unnecessary, disappoint, disappear, granddaughter, occurred, writing, written, traveled, beginning, and finally
- words in which the dropping of letters becomes an issue, like absolutely, ninety, forty, lonely, and believable
- Slow down on plural nouns. Ask yourself: Is that word with an s at the end of it a possessive noun, requiring an apostrophe-s (for example, “I borrowed my brother’s CD”)?
- Use the available sources to help you check for correct spellings. These include a college dictionary, a Spellex speller, a good speller in the class, a master list of frequently misspelled words, the computer spellchecker, your personal spelling list, and, later on, your writing handbook, especially the lessons “Homonyms,” “The Truth about I before E,” “A Rule That Mostly Works: Prefixes,” and “Suffix Rules That Mostly Work.”
- After you’ve finished proofreading and editing for spelling, ask a good speller to recheck your text for misspellings if it’s handwritten, or use the computer spellchecker if the piece is word-processed.