Read extensively in English and write by hand at least some of the time. Extensive reading will familiarize you with the English spelling system. Writing by hand rather than on the computer will help you visualize and practice correct spelling.
Use proven memory methods to learn the spelling of new words. Joanna Sterling, author of a new book on spelling, suggests the "look, cover, remember, write, check" method. Look at the new word, saying it aloud. Then cover it up. Visualize or remember it in your head. Write it in your own handwriting. Then check or compare to see if you have spelled it correctly.
Study the correct spelling of homonyms, those words that have similar sounds but different meanings. Examples include words like "affect" and "effect" or "to," "two" and "too." Learn the grammar behind the difference in the possessives "their," "its" and "whose" and the subject-verb homonyms "they're," "it's" and "who's." You can study these and many other sound-alike groupings in many spelling books or on the OWL at Purdue website.
Learn the rules for short and long vowels in English. These tell how to pronounce single or double vowels and vowels followed by one or two consonants. For example, you normally spell a long vowel in English using two vowels. The word can have two vowels together, as in "coat;" or the word can have a single vowel, followed by a consonant and a silent "e," as in "cape" and "code." A word with a single vowel followed by a single consonant will have a short vowel, as in "cot," "cap" and "cod." Learn also the rule for "ie" or "ei" in English on the Free Homeschool Curriculum Web site.
Learn the rules for spelling and pronouncing consonants, especially groups of consonants like "ch" and consonants with more than one sound, such as "c" and "j." For example, "c" before "a" in the word "case" sounds like "k." "C" before "e" in the word "cease" sounds like "s."
Learn the spellings for important grammar changes in English. Practice forming plural and possessive nouns and adding "s" to verbs, as in "hits," "carries" or "fixes." Practice when you should double a consonant before adding "-ed" or "-ing" to the verb. You can find these rules along with exercises in spelling texts or online, for example, with the Free Homeschool Curriculum Spelling Course."
Learn how to spell common word parts, such as prefixes, which we add to the beginning of a word, and suffixes, which we add to the end. Vocabulary and spelling books have lists of these, as do websites such as Reading from Scratch.