oughgoing. Not only
are those words which most commonly give difficulty arranged for, but
the method of testing insures that each pupil will eliminate his own
peculiar errors. No pains have been spared to obtain this thoroughness
without wasting the pupils' time in mere routine review.

During the week in which each lesson is taught for the first time,
each pupil is tested three times on every word in the lesson. He
spends his time in concentrated attack on the words which have given
him difficulty. One month later this lesson is given as a test, and
the words missed by each pupil re-learned by him. At the end of the
week this lesson is again given as a test.

In addition, at the beginning of each grade above the first, the words
which have been previously taught, but which according to Doctor
Ashbaugh's investigation still give difficulty, are thoroughly
reviewed. Finally, in the seventh grade, the words which are most
frequently missed by grammar grade pupils are given additional review.

It must be kept in mind that these reviews are not haphazard, nor are
they a matter of guesswork. Each review list is made up on the basis
of the most careful scientific study of persistent errors.

=Grading.=--The lessons in each grade are those which the pupils in
that grade may most profitably study. The words have been graded in
the following manner: On the basis of Doctor Horn's compilation of
correspondence vocabularies, all of the 4578 words were ranked
according to the frequency with which they are used in correspondence.
On the basis of Doctor Ashbaugh's study of the difficulty of these
words in the various grades, the words were arranged in order of ease
of spelling. With these two sources of data, the lessons are arranged
so that in general the easiest words and those most commonly and
frequently used are placed in the lower grades. In addition, on the
basis of scientific analysis of the vocabulary of first, second, and
third readers, the authors determined which words occurred most often
in these readers. The words included in the lessons for the first
three grades are not only easy and fairly common, but are found also
in popular readers of the grades in which they are placed. For
example, the word "and" was found 23,773 times in the letters analyzed
in the various investigations upon which the book is based; and it is
misspelled by but four second grade children out of a hundred. It also
occurs in every one of ten c