It is an unfortunate fact that, in our culture, literacy skills are often regarded as the benchmark for intelligence. However, we maintain that it is a serious mistake to equate poor spelling with a lack of 'intelligence' in this way. Good spellers simply have an innate ability to process symbolic information and to remember the 'shape' of words easily but that does not make them particularly intelligent. Invariably, they have learned to read and spell with little conscious effort - regardless of any strategies their teachers may have used. Other people, however, do not have this innate ability. They do not remember how to spell high frequency words easily and are often labelled slow - or even lazy - by teachers and others who simply cannot understand why these children appear to struggle so much with reading and spelling. Most people have learned to read and spell so easily that they cannot even remember the process and thus find it difficult to understand how others may find the attainment of functional literacy such a hard task. It is worth remembering, moreover, that people with weak literacy skills are often highly skilled and efficient in fields that do not require the processing and manipulation of symbols.
Parents and teachers often complain that they can get their students over the reading hurdle but poor spelling remains an intractable problem. Indeed, in Britain, the debate over poor spelling skills has intensified with the Government sending out long lists of words (often difficult and phonetically inconsistent) to schools that all students are expected to be able to spell. Firstly, we have to say that - providing the words are actually intelligible - poor spelling simply should not be a matter of great concern. Indeed, standardised spelling only came in with the advent of typesetting when it was the typesetters, rather than the actual writers, who decided what constituted 'correct' spelling. Furthermore, in the modern age, writing is increasingly done on computers with ever more sophisticated spell checkers at hand. Teachers and others should be encouraged to avoid making value judgements about their students' intelligence and potential on the basis of weak spelling and to concentrate more on content, ideas and imagination.

Having said all of the above, we do recognise that people - however unfairly - tend to judge a person's intelligence on their spelling. Perhaps understandably, employers will have such prejudicial attitudes when confronted with, what may seem to them, bizarre spelling mistakes. This is particularly the case with the Most Used Words. People may not be surprised to see separate incorrectly spelled as seperate but are shocked and may even be annoyed, to see wich rather than which. This tendency to be judgemental can make students self conscious and embarrassed about their spelling ability. They may feel disinclined to read and write and, as a consequence, do not develop the strategies necessary to improve their literacy skills.
This vicious circle becomes ever more damaging in an economy where service industries are increasingly replacing manufacturing as the main source of employment. In the past, the fact that people were functionally illiterate could go unnoticed if their employment did not require such skills. However, as economies and information technology continue to develop, such jobs are rapidly becoming scarcer.
Those affected by dyslexia are often inhibited as writers and reluctant even to put pen to paper in many cases. Together with improving literacy skills, this manual is designed to increase the confidence and self esteem of such students. It does this by concentrating on the Most Used Words in the English language. Many people are unaware that only 12 words make up one quarter of all those we read and write.  100 words form half and 300 account for approximately three quarters of all the words we use. Once students can read and spell these words confidently and accurately, it makes an enormous difference to their ability and inclination to express themselves in writing.