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VIDEO introduction to Personal Best Spelling |
Personal Best Spelling Word Lists
Using word lists
Personal Best Spelling™ users can purchase and use hundreds of word lists when the program is registered. Unregistered, the program contains two word lists for demonstration purposes only.
Instructions for registering the program and importing word lists are here.
There are hundreds of word lists for adults and for children; for U.S. and U.K./Oz spelling conventions; and for various professional groups like medical practitioners and police officers. New lists become avalable, from time to time.
For convenience, most word lists lists are organised into categories, e.g., nouns; specific areas of professional practice, e.g., neurology; words that typically cause spelling problems (demons); and so on.
Please note the following details about these lists:
- Lists are zipped text files (ASCII DOS TEXT) contained in a compressed (zipped) file, take up very little disk space on your computer, will download quickly and are accompanied by a brief description.
- Most lists are available in both U.S. English and U.K./Oz English.
- These lists are provided "as is" and, apart from being updated from time to time, there is no further support provided for these lists.
- New lists become available, from time to time.
The file containing an entire set of word lists is delivered as an attachment to an email we will send you after you place your order. To install the word lists:
- Right-click on the email attachment you ordered, namely wordsallus.zip, wordsalluk.zip, medwordssorted.zip or policewords.zip
- Select Save As and save it to your Downloads folder.
- Start the spelling program.
- Click Import and navigate to the Downloads folder.
- Screen shots showing these steps in greater detail can be found here.
As useful as these word lists are, they cannot hope to cover all the words you might want or need to learn.
Therefore, the spelling program lets you create your own word lists. This can be done either within the program itself or by using a text editor or word processor and then importing the list. Instructions are contained within the program and here.
You can fully edit word lists—add new terms, delete outdated terms and alter the spelling of any word in the list to suit your own spelling conventions. In fact, you are encouraged to edit the lists in order to make them more suitable for your own use.
You can create your own word lists that include only those words that you habitually misspell or always have to look up in a dictionary.
Word lists can contain different kinds of entries all mixed together. A word list can contain entries that consist of one word, e.g., enucleated, or an entry can be a medical term that consists of multiple words, e.g., arcus senilis. An entry can also consist of an abbreviation along with its expanded form, e.g., CIS (carcinoma in situ).
This flexibility in creating your own word lists is also useful when learning a foreign language that may require word list entries to contain multiple words, e.g., billet-doux.
Basically, you can enter whatever you like into a word list. The important thing to note, though, is that when the program asks you to spell (enter) the word, you must type it from memory exactly as it was first entered, including any spaces, brackets, hyphens, punctuation marks, and so on.
If what you type does not mirror exactly what was originally entered then it will register an error and you will be asked to re-enter the item. For this reason, you may wish to edit some of the entries in the word lists prior to use, in order to make each entry more suitable for your own preferences.
Here are three examples of different ways you can use the word lists that you create.
- You have received a list of new words that you have to learn.
Create a word list containing these words using the spelling
program and then use the Learn New Words section of the program
to learn the words in the word list.
Important - keep your word lists short, say no more than 5 words in a list, especially when using the program for the first time. Far better to have two lists each containing 5 words than one list with 10 words.
Why? The program takes time to walk you through each word list and if the list is long then the whole process imay be too lengthy and demanding. As well, the program won't let you stop half way through a list and then pick up from where you left off when you restart the program next time; it makes you start all over again from the beginning of a word list.
Therefore, you should work through all the words in a word list in one sitting. That is no problem if your word list is short but it can become somewhat strenuous if your word list is long.
You may find that some of the word lists that are supplied with the program are simply too long to learn in one session. This problem can be overcome by splitting the word list into two or more shorter lists. This can be done within the program or by using a word processor or text editor such as Notepad or WordPad. Word lists must be saved as a "text" file with a .txt extension. - You have some words that you are unsure how to spell and you always have to look up the spelling. Create one or more word lists containing these words and then use the Correct Words section of the program to learn how to spell and remember these words, once and for all.
- You have learnt some new words using the Learn Words section
of the program and now want to practice those words and test
yourself. Use the Test Spelling section of the program to do
this. It will improve your memory for spelling and provide the
necessary practice.
Of course, the best way to practice your spelling is to use the new words that you have learned in your day-to-day writing. Remember, if you don't use it; you lose it!
NOTE: Although all care is taken to compile useful and accurate word lists, it is the end user's responsibilty to ensure that the spelling of words is correct for current acceptable usage and that the list is suitable for the end user's particular needs. Word lists can be edited within the program or edited by a word processor or text editor and then imported as a text (.txt extension) file.
Adult spelling lists
Unregistered, the program contains two word lists for demonstration purposes.
Registered users can purchase and download one or more of the following word lists, as well as create their own word lists.
These are the currently available lists contained in a single file you can purchase for $3:
- Commonly misspelled words (demons).
- Most common words in reading.
- Most common nouns in reading.
- Core of words that people should be able to spell on sight, without sounding.
- Most common words that cover about three-quarters of adult reading.
All the above word lists, available in one file, in U.S. English or U.K./Oz English.
The file containing the entire set of word lists is delivered as an attachment to an email we will send you after you place your order. To install the word lists, right-click on the email attachment named wordsalluk.zip or wordsallus.zip, select Save As and save it to your Downloads folder. Then, start the spelling program, click Import, navigate to the Downloads folder, select your file and click Open. Screen shots showing these steps in greater detail can be found here.
Child/school lists
Word lists for children and schools contain words that pose problems for school age children. Words are graded/grouped for age level and by first letter of the word, for convenience. The word lists cover commonly misspelled words (demons); the most common words in children's reading; the most common nouns; a core of words that people should be able to spell on sight, without sounding; and the most common words that cover about three-quarters of children's reading.
These are the currently available lists, contained in a single file you can purchase for $3:
- Commonly misspelled words (demons).
- Most common words in children's reading.
- Most common nouns in children's reading.
- Core of words that children should be able to spell on sight, without sounding.
- Most common words that cover about three-quarters of children's reading.
- Grade 2 words.
- Grade 3 words.
- Grade 4 words.
- Grade 5 words.
- Grade 6 words.
All the above word lists, available in one file, in U.S. English or U.K./Oz English.
The file containing the entire set of word lists is delivered as an attachment to an email we will send you after you place your order. To install the word lists, right-click on the email attachment named wordsallus.zip or wordsalluk.zip, select Save As and save it to your Downloads folder. Then, start the spelling program, click Import and navigate to the Downloads folder. Screen shots showing these steps in greater detail can be found here.
Professional word lists
Unregistered, the program contains two word lists for demonstration purposes.
Registered users can purchase and download hundreds of word lists, as well as create their own word lists.
The currently available professional terms word lists are for medical practitioners and police personnel.
Medical terms
Medical word lists are available for Personal Best Spelling™ V2 for AUD$3. Words follow the U.S. spelling convention but can easily be edited to conform to other spelling conventions—here are some conversion examples. Intending users should check that the terms are suitable for use within their own medical practice.
Medical terms are sorted into approximately 600 separate word lists covering the following medical fields, among others:
- cardiovascular
- dermatology
- gastrology
- male reproductive
- musculoskeletal
- nephrology
- neurology
- neuropsychology
- obstetrics and gynecology
- oncology
- opthalmology
- radiology
- respiratory
- urology
- oncology
Medical word lists are organised alphabetically within each medical specialty. Words are listed alphabetically within each word list.
Medical terminology "demons", those terms that typically cause spelling problems, are also covered in 65 lists.
You can fully edit word lists—add new terms, delete outdated terms and alter the spelling of any word in the list to suit your own spelling conventions.
You can even create your own word lists and include only those words that you habitually misspell or always have to look up in a medical dictionary. This is the best way to use the spelling program.
The file containing the entire set of word lists of police terms is delivered as an attachment to an email we will send you after you place your order. To install the word lists, right-click on the email attachment named medwordssorted.zip, select Save As and save it to your Downloads folder. Then, start the spelling program, click Import, navigate to the Downloads folder, select your file and click Open. Screen shots showing these steps in greater detail can be found here.
More information about these medical terms word lists is provided on the medical spelling page.
Police terms
Police word lists are now available for Personal Best Spelling™ V2, for $3. At the time they were compiled, these lists were used by the Victorian Police (Australia). Intending users should check that the spelling of these words is consistent with their country's spelling conventions and that the terms are comprehensive and suitable for use within their own police department.
The file containing the entire set of word lists of police terms is delivered as an attachment to an email we will send you after you place your order. To install the word lists, right-click on the email attachment named policewords.zip, select Save As and save it to your Downloads folder. Then, start the spelling program, click Import, navigate to the Downloads folder, select your file and click Open. Screen shots showing these steps in greater detail can be found here.
Note that these lists are provided "as is" and apart from being updated from time to time there is no further support provided for these lists.
