The Book of Spells & Misspells

is now out of print, but can be downloaded here as a pdf

Chapter 1. Spelling and Culture

Spelling as culture - Olde Worlde spelling - Modern spelling - They spell with their thumbs Words without spelling – Letters as words - Words without spelling – reading logos - Funny Biznis – Spel’n ‘n a Biskit - Sclambred Slepnilg – the cosmic mess - Spelling and technology - When spell checkers succeed - When spell checkers fail
Geography - The American way of Spelling - Dialect, Scots, Pidgin, Australian and Black spelling - The world spells back - International English spelling - International spellings for English - Eurospelling
History - A dated history of spelling - A pocket history of spelling
Spelling in literature - Dickens – Spelling at Dotheboys Hall - An old-time American Spelling Bee - Mark Twain – Spelling in ancient Egypt - Spelling by numbers - Verse and werse - Spelling limericks - The Chaos – Double-Dutch - Chaucer on spelling - Not quite Sir Walter Scott - Hamlet, partly written by Shakespeare - Keats looks into the spelling of Chapman’s Homer - Spelling drama

Chapter 2. What you don't know about spelling

The wild shores of spelling - The def and dum alfabet - The wild shores of consonants - The wild shores of vowels - Double-dealing curiosities - Back-to-front spelling - Infernal spelling – the spelling demons - I before E after tea - Double trouble consonants - Homographophobia - 100 words are half the words you read – How dictionaries spell - The Chomsky legend - Is English spelling irregular?

Chapter 3. Spelling Ideas - Sealed Sexion

Unprintable spelling - Laptop dancing - Spelling stripping - Spam spelling - Gorgeous spellings - Vulgar spelling - Spelling on Mars and Venus - The spelling adventures of Don Quixote - English spelling and the world - In Xanadu did Khublai Khan

Chapter 4. Pun and games

Only punning - Synchronized Spelling as an Olympic sport - A Spelling ABZ - Ghoti on the menu - Spelling as a joke - Trivia Box

Chapter 5: The Psychology of Pspelling

How children want to spell - How people spelled when they could spell as they liked - How people want to spell - They can’t spell to save themselves - Acid opinions and spelling rage - Personalise your spelling - The spelling ethic - Spelling and society

Chapter 6: It’s Thyme U Gnu

Spelling for fun - Spelling for communication

Short Bibliography

A treasury of spelling for everyone, that does for spelling what Lynne Truss does for punctuation,
but it laughs at the spelling, not at the spellers.

REVIEWS:
'Highly recommended/reccomended/recomended '
'I couldn't stop laughing.'
'Better than the telephone book any day'
' The Book of Spells & Misspells is full of witty and original insights into the world of written English, from Shakespeare's inventiveness to Dr Johnson and text messaging; from spelling as the flagship of culture to the the Australian national anthem in the original Anglo-Saxon.'

Further pages on spelling:

1. Introduction
Introduction to spelling improvement. /spockham.htm. Text of a radio broadcast
Rationale. How assumptions and barriers against improving the writing system do not hold. Answering the common objections to spelling improvement. /sration.htm

2 Needs and abilities of users and learners: -

i. Needs and abilities of readers /sreadsp.htm
ii. Needs and abilities of writers to spell - /swritsp.htm
iii. Needs and abilities of learners - /slernsp.htm
iv. Needs and abilities of users of international English - /sintrnt.htm
v. Spelling reform for the Internet (an older page) http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/spinternet.htm

3. The nature and teaching of English spelling

See the online video, http://www.ozreadandspell.com.au
The underlying English spelling system that could be made more consistent - /spelsys.htm
Spelling patterns for the English vowels - /svowchart.htm
The Book of Spells & Misspells - a treasury of spelling for everyone
22 Lessons in reading and spelling - v01acover.htm
The 16 word spelling test for anyone who thinks they can spell - 16sp.htm
Spelling and classroom practices - sclassprac.htm

4 Improving English spelling

Spelling improvement. 2002. - /spelimp.html
Seven principles to repair English spelling, 2005 - /sp7princ.htm
Cutting out the surplus letters in words.Streamline - a first step in updating spelling. /ssurplu.htm
Quik gidelines for a next step, with sampl texts, and furthr notes /sfastrs.htm. FASTR Spelling
Cutting out surplus letters. /intspel.htm 2002
Further steps you can try yourself, with f, j, consistent word endings and vowel spellings. /intspel2.htm
Further experiments to spel sensibly - Pronunciation and gramr, and a final solusion? /intspel3.htm 2000
The future of English spelling. What can be done? /sfutspe.htm

5. Spelling as an entertainment

Spelling Games - starting with a Spelling ABC - different from a Spelling BEE
16-word Spelling Test of 16 common words that few experts can spell all correctly. /16sp.htm
International English Spelling Day, October 9 /spday.html
How people spelled when they spelled as they liked before the 18th century dictionaries /spfree17c.htm
Don Quixote spells in 'Spelling without traps'. - /spquixote.htm. To come
Twelve Short Short storys about the fùtùr. Can u imagin a mor ùser-frendly speling sistem? Look at every wurd to see if u think its speling is a trap for lerners.

The Book of Spells and Misspells