Look - Think - Cover - Write Check

LOOK - THINK - COVER - WRITE – CHECK

Here’s an example of how to use this most useful trick to memorize the spelling of new words.

Disestablishmentarianism!! Supposing I wanted to rememberhow to spell this word. I wouldLOOKat it carefully to see ifit would break up into smaller, much easier bits:

dis-est-ab-lish-ment-ar-ian-ism

And I wouldTHINKabout where the problems might be:

Dis- / No problem – spell it just as it sounds – a very common pattern
-est- / The letter e isn’t very clear when I say the whole word, so I would say it very clearly – like the e in egg
-ab- / No problem – spell it just like it sounds
-lish- / Again – just like it sounds
-ment- / When I say the whole word quickly the e in –ment- sounds rather like an a – so I need to stress that it’s e as in egg
-ar- / This might be a real difficulty – it sounds as if it should be spelled –er- . So when I said the word to myself I would make the sound of –ar- like the -arr- in carrot
-ian- / This bit is easy – it’s a boy’s name
-ism / Another very common ending – written just as
like you say it

Now: COVER the word, WRITE it, CHECK it

Sounds complicated? Only because it’s such a long, complicated word – which is why I chose it. But you can do the same with any word. Have a try at remembering disestablishmentarianism to show how easy it is. And to impress your friends!

This advice is based on my web page at http://www.spellitright.talktalk.net/mem2.html

To see a video about the Look-Think-Cover-Write-Check technique go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By6QouUEWTM