"The praktice, for exampull, of seeing in a 'distence' two marrked posishuns on a practickally rijid body is somefing whitch is lodged deaply in our habit of thawt. We are ackustomed furthur to reegard three points as beeing sitchuated on a straite line, if their apparant posishuns can be made to coinside for obsurvation with one eye, undar suiteble choise of our place of obsurvation."

- Albert Einstein
Relativity: The Special and General Theory

 

Einstein's Theory of Relativity is often regarded as one of the most brilliant essays ever written. So why were you likely unimpressed when you read this excerpt? Because it doesn't matter how smart you are if you can't spell.

As a teenager you spend a lot of time learning and just as much time proving to others how smart you've become. You're turning in the usual homework assignments while applying for colleges, internships, and even full time jobs.

That's a lot of writing. And guess what? It's not going to stop. Most professional careers require you to engage in some writing activity on a regular basis. Even if the writing is light, odds are you're going to change jobs often in your career, and doing so usually requires a cover letter and resume.

If your spelling suffers, chances are your future will too.

Not to worry -- even if your spelling skills are weak, you're a young dog who can be taught new tricks. The first step is identifying misspelled words. We've assembled three professional documents, each with their share of misspelled or misused words.

The first two can be used for practice: Select either of the writing samples and read it. Then go back through and identify the incorrect words.

Next to the sample will be some clues and answers that you can check.

	mmmmm
Internship Request ­ Cover Letter		Resume ­ First Job

Once you're comfortable with identifying misspelled words, you can try your hand at the final sample. In this one, click on a misspelled word and it will fix itself. But be careful -- If you click on a word that isn't misspelled, an ugly black smudge will appear, and you'll find yourself caught without an eraser.

Short Essay ­ College Application

Finally, we owe Albert Einstein an apology. We took his original words and altered them to make a point about spelling. The actual excerpt appears below.

"The practice, for example, of seeing in a 'distance' two marked positions on a practically rigid body is something which is lodged deeply in our habit of thought. We are accustomed further to regard three points as being situated on a straight line, if their apparent positions can be made to coincide for observation with one eye, under suitable choice of our place of observation."

- Albert Einstein
Relativity: The Special and General Theory