TEST FOR SPELLERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 26

TEST FOR SPELLERS

;. Paul Wing, spelling master of the wave lengths, who has conducted fiftysix regular "bees" over WJZ's hook-up,' has made the most of his opportunity to study words and the spellers who spell them into space, says the "New York Times." He says that first and foremost' a good speller is pictureminded. "He visualises the word before him," explained Mr. Wing, "as if it were spelled out on an imaginary blackboard. As he spells the word,, his eyes move from left to right, following the syllables of the words as he imagines he sees them written out in space before him. Somehow, words seldom fail these spellers. Glibness and cocksureness are not clues that a person is a good speller. Good spellers are born, not made. "Misspellers will never be good spellers no matter how hard they study," Mr. Wing contends. "The best spellers I have come in contact with have been those who syllabised each word. The persons who spell words at random, that is, without grouping them in syllables, are much more apt to make mistakes."

Mr. Wing has a list of fifty words, neither uncommon nor tricky, which he says have proved stumbling-blocks to the best of spellers. He tried therri out on Carl Carmer, author, and Linton Wells, radio commentator; each got forty-seven right, which, according to Mr. Wing, is the average for a good speller. This is the list:—

Misspell, withe, puerilely, languor, jaguar, gelid, obeisance, equestrienne, wryly, bacillus, harelip, corollary, expel, velocipede, liaison, propitious, veracious, caromed, palfreys, poignant, trestle, tyrannical, hiddenness, opossum, surlily, trellis, unlikeliesf, atoll, querying, villainy, abattoir, coolly, übiquity, colicky, omnibuses, propeller, supersedure, iniquitous, consensus, camaraderie, sacrilegious, malevolent, peaceable, wainscot, picador, reneged, corral, sibilant, beleaguerment, callus (the noun).