How to Improve Your Vocabulary and Spelling
Strong vocabulary and spelling skills are necessary throughout school and afterward in your career and everyday life. Both skills make it easier to write essays and complete college and job applications. A wide-ranging vocabulary helps you comprehend what you read and converse with others intelligently. With a little effort, you can learn a new word every time you pick up a book.
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Instructions
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Read frequently from a variety of materials. You must expose yourself to the written word in order to learn new words and see words you already know used in various ways. Reading novels, essays, biographies and informative texts will continually add words to your vocabulary.
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Write down unfamiliar words so you can look them up later. When you are reading a book, newspaper or magazine article and encounter new words, jot them down or look them up immediately, if possible. Doing so will increase your vocabulary and spelling knowledge at the same time.
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Remember some basic spelling rules. For example, the letter "y", not "i", is used to spell most words that end with the long "i" sound. There are many rules and exceptions so try to focus on the ones that are most common.
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Play vocabulary and spelling games. The Internet has many sites with fun, interactive games that get more challenging as you improve your skills. Vocabulary.com and Gamequarium feature multiple-choice quizzes and games that keep score as you progress.
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Commit to learning a new word every day. Thanks to sites such as Dictionary.com, you can easily learn a word of the day. These take just a moment to read and teach you a word's spelling, pronunciation, definition and its correct usage in a sentence.
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References
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