What are the words most commonly misspelled by the average high school
pupil? In an endeavor to solve this problem, two thousand letters,
with five postal cards in each, were sent to representative high
schools in every state in the United States, requesting the heads of
the various departments to report the words most commonly misspelled
in their classes. From the many thousand replies, this text-book has
been compiled.
The first word in Lesson I was sent in by seven hundred high school
teachers; the other words in this lesson show, by their order, the
frequency with which they appear in the replies. No word has been
considered unless suggested by at least two teachers. This book, then,
built on the judgment of those best qualified to know--the teachers
themselves--contains only the words most frequently misspelled by the
average high school pupil.
A simple phrase is placed after each word, illustrating its use, and
serving to identify it better than would a short, abstract definition.
The division of words into syllables with accent marks will be of
great assistance to the pupil, should there be any question in his
mind as to the correct pronunciation. The typography is based on the
idea that it will be a great help to the pupil in visualizing the
words if he sees them in script as well as in print.