From the Book - First U.S. edition.
The nature of the problem: Pooh and his friends on spelling --
The size of the problem --
Building the alphabet: letter origins --
The basic weaknesses: hope for us all --
Keeping things long: more than letters --
Keeping things short: spelling as tragedy --
Seeing the link: forensic spelling --
Know your Latin and French: spelling as reputation --
New letters for the old --
Old letters in new words: Tarzan learns to read --
Old sounds in new positions: spelling as stratagem --
New sounds in old places --
More exceptions: avoiding the vulgar --
Showing the difference: Charles Dickens and his characters reflect upon spelling --
Noting the similarity: silent letters --
New sounds in old letters --
A printer's practice: Mark Twain on spelling --
The urge to reform: George Bernard Shaw on spelling --
More etymologies: a word I always mispell --
Spelling 'rules': Mrs Malaprop on reading and spelling --
The role of personalities --
Printers and publishers: spelling wars --
Changing practices: Roger McGough on spelling --
The internet: lower case only --
Unpredictability: Ogden Nash on names --
Exotic vowels: disenvowelling --
Exotic consonants: the spread of education --
Spelling noises: unspellable noises --
Learning the system: George Crabbe on learning --
The future of English spelling. A teaching appendix: Avoiding isloation ; Towards a linguistics of spelling.
