I can spell large chemical words like stoichiometry and phenolphthalein without issue. Still, I had to ask a friend how to spell was once. I also worked for years to correctly spell stoichiometry and phenolphthalein because I chose to go into chemistry. These are words I really needed to know how to spell.

I still sing the Oscar Mayer Weiner song to spell B-O-L-O-G-N-A.

I have Dan Quayle to thank for teaching me to spell potato.

If you haven’t gathered by now, I am not a good speller.

Thankfully, I have tools I can use to help with my deficiencies in orthography. I rely heavily on spell check and Google search to make sure I am spelling a word correctly or to make sure I am using the word I mean to use. I especially love talk-to-text features on my phone so I can pronounce the word I am trying to spell. Unfortunately, phonetics isn’t always helpful for spelling English vocabulary. For example, I always need to look up the difference between breath and breathe to ensure I am using the correct word. Thankfully, I do know the difference between some of the most commonly mixed-up terms – it’s and its; their, there, and they’re; your and you’re; and two, to, and too.

Looking up the words I want to use has helped improve my spelling over the years, but only since the invention of the internet. Despite what my third and fourth-grade teacher told me, looking it up in the dictionary didn’t improve my spelling. I was usually so frustrated trying to find the word in the pages of Merriam-Webster that I had no energy left to commit the order of its letters to memory when I finally found it.

I recently decided to up my spelling and grammar game. I do a lot of technical writing for my classes (developing worksheets, labs, and other course materials). I also write this blog. In December, I invested in myself by purchasing a one-year membership to Grammarly. This program checks your work for spelling and grammar mistakes and offers tips on improving. I recently used it to improve a book summary I wrote for a graduate class I took a year ago. I thought I wrote an excellent paper for the course. It earned an A. Grammarly showed me so many issues with the paper – misspelled words, passive voice, and issues of clarity with my message. LOTS of passive voice. I was actually kind of embarrassed that I submitted THAT paper in a grad class. After using Grammarly to review my writing for the past couple of months, I am much more aware of my use of passive voice in my writing. It’s a hard habit to break, but the feedback and guidance have been constructive for me. My writing is clearer, uses an active voice, and is more polished.