{"id":3146,"date":"2016-04-26T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T13:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=3146"},"modified":"2016-04-26T10:49:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-26T17:49:31","slug":"toefl-tuesday-important-spelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-important-spelling\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL Tuesday: How Important Is Spelling?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I could answer this question in two words: \u201cnot very.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"TOEFL Tuesday: How Important Is Spelling?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jy75qSnef5Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t mean to say that spelling is completely unimportant for TOEFL essays, but it\u2019s only one part, and it\u2019s not one of the most important aspects. Most of the time, spelling does not cause any problems. It\u2019s rare that I see an essay from a student in which the spelling caused more problems than other aspects. The most important areas to pay attention to are usually other areas: structure, grammar, vocabulary, details, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Partly, this is true because everybody makes some spelling mistakes, and they\u2019re sometimes just a sign of being rushed. After all, you have to write your TOEFL essays in very short time periods (20 and 30 minutes). Even the best writers will misspell words when writing quickly. <\/p>\n<p>So you can make spelling errors and get a perfect score. You can make several, in fact.<\/p>\n<p>But all this depends on two aspects:<\/p>\n<h2>1. How frequent are the spelling errors?<\/h2>\n<p>If you have five spelling errors in your TOEFL essays, it\u2019s not important. If you have 50, that may cause a real problem.<\/p>\n<p>There is no special number or percentage for how many mistakes you can make. It\u2019s a spectrum\u2014the more mistakes you make, the more possibility there is for communication problems. So although spelling errors aren\u2019t a major problem, you want to minimize them. If the reader has trouble understanding your essay because there are three misspelled words in every sentence, you will lose points. Don\u2019t be completely careless! Keep in mind the reader\u2014the TOEFL is a test of communication.<\/p>\n<h2>2. How big are the spelling mistakes?<\/h2>\n<p>Did you accidentally switch an \u201ci\u201d and an \u201ce\u201d so the text says \u201cconveneint\u201d instead of \u201cconvenient\u201d? That\u2019s not a big deal. But if you wrote \u201ccounveinnt\u201d instead, that is a problem. If you write a word completely incorrectly, the reader might not be able to figure out what you meant. And if that happens, you will lose points for not communicating.<\/p>\n<p>Usually, when I see essays in which the spelling does cause a real problem, there are at least three words that are so misspelled I can\u2019t understand them at all. <\/p>\n<h2>Realistically, don\u2019t worry about it<\/h2>\n<p>If you are worried about your spelling during the exam, you will hesitate and waste time. Never spend more than a few moments trying to decide the spelling of a word. If you are unsure, keep moving. Write what you think it is, and move on. But at the same time, don\u2019t let yourself make mistakes that you know are mistakes. Both be careful enough that you minimize mistakes and don\u2019t spend valuable time deciding when you\u2019re unsure.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, take that time to think about the more important parts of your essay: how specific are the details? Do the sentences and paragraphs transition well? Do you include all the important information from the lecture? Are your sentences complete and well-formed? Those are the areas to best spend your energy on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I could answer this question in two words: \u201cnot very.\u201d I don\u2019t mean to say that spelling is completely unimportant for TOEFL essays, but it\u2019s only one part, and it\u2019s not one of the most important aspects. Most of the time, spelling does not cause any problems. It\u2019s rare that I see an essay from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13605],"tags":[13621],"ppma_author":[13628],"class_list":["post-3146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-skills","tag-video"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TOEFL Tuesday: How Important Is Spelling? - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/toefl-tuesday-important-spelling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOEFL Tuesday: How Important Is Spelling?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I could answer this question in two words: \u201cnot very.\u201d I don\u2019t mean to say that spelling is completely unimportant for TOEFL essays, but it\u2019s only one part, and it\u2019s not one of the most important aspects. 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