When Nikki Hernon D'Aleo was a young girl, she said spelling the somewhat easy word "smile" caught her off guard. “I wouldn’t put the ‘e’ on the end,” said the now ninth- and 10th-grade English ...

It had all the lip-biting drama of a traditional spelling bee, but with a major dose of español. As if spelling obscure, multisyllabic words in a single language wasn't difficult enough, 25 students ...

In the day and age that we live in, proper English spelling and grammar seem to have taken a backseat for students. With internet lingo and texting ruling the hearts and minds of youngsters, learning ...

"People will stop me pretty regularly and say, 'That spelling bee is awesome.' It's fun because you have such a wonderful group of people who like books." Intellectuals. Academics. Avid readers.

Not long ago, someone brought a bowl of citrus into the University of Washington office where Josh Malamy works as an assistant. To Malamy, the sweetest thing was not the taste of the fruit but the ...