TWENTIETH CENTURY SPELLERS BY WILLIAM L. FELTER, PH. D. SEVENTH YEAR INTER NOLIA NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY KD 36467 HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPT. OF EDUCATION LIBRARY GIFT OF THE PUBLISHER JUN 12 1916 LIBRA 48*8 COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY PREFACE THERE is an undoubted tendency among teachers to return to the use of a spelling book. The numerous complaints from business men who employ graduates of the schools that these graduates are poor spellers, have increased this tendency and emphasized the need of a change in school procedure. Words chosen at random by teachers of successive grades without regard to whether these words have been taught before, or whether the words are in common use, and therefore likely to be needed in business life, have proved insufficient. What is imperatively needed is, first and foremost, a list of words based upon common usage, these words to be determined by scientific investigation. Such a list this series of spellers contains. All of the words ascertained through an investigation conducted by the Sage Foundation to be words frequently found in business correspondence are included in these spellers. The troublesome words oftenest mis-spelled, which are here called "arch-demons," are also presented. Such experience as has grown out of many years of actual classroom practice in choosing words has been utilized. While there is no royal road to spelling, there may be sign posts on the road. Carefully selected and graded word lists, valuable memory gems showing the words in their proper settings, lessons in capitalization, in punctuation, in grammatical forms, in word building and in elementary letter writing are such sign posts. The self-activity of the child has been enlisted in forming word lists with a common phonetic element, in word building, in word analysis, and in completing elliptical sentences. The student in the upper grades is referred in most cases to the dictionary for definitions. The division into syllables and the accentuation cor V |