1. Choice of Words. There has been a careful selection of those words best suited for the various grades or years in school.

2. Grouping of Words. These words have been so grouped as to favor their being taught economically, and to impress upon the pupil that spelling rests largely upon a basis of law and order. In the earlier grades the sequence of lessons gives an orderly development of phonic forms; by this arrangement spelling and phonic reading can be made mutually helpful.

3. Dictation Exercises. These are so constructed as to give in the briefest space an adequate test of the words taught. They should be supplemented by sentences constructed by the pupil, embodying the new and difficult words he is learning.

4. Reviews. There are regular reviews at short intervals. Many of the hardest words appear several times, but with some change of context. At the end of each year's work there is given in alphabetical order a list of the most difficult words used therein.

5. Seat Exercises. These exercises are intended to lead the pupil to make lists of words having a phonic element in common, to show how words are built up, and, later, to give practice in derivation.

6. Homonyms. There has been a systematic use of these throughout the book, but in the junior grades they are not given together, in order to prevent the confusion that often results from such a practice.

7. Spelling Rules. There are numerous and varied exercises to lead, inductively, to a knowledge of the most useful rules for spelling.

8. Authority. The authority usually followed for spelling and pronunciation is The Concise Imperial Dictionary. The pupil should be taught the system of diacritical marks employed therein.