The middle school students preparing for the regional WITF Central PA Spelling Bee collect obscure words the way most teens add songs to their iPods. In a day when spellcheck and texting ...

In the Middle Ages, "proper" spelling was not a cultural aspiration. People wrote words down as they pronounced them.

Jacques Bailly, the bee’s pronouncer, has a few tricks to ensure every word is said correctly. Mr. Bailly, who won the competition in 1980, tries to make eye contact with the speller and ...

The National Spelling Bee is full of kids who are smarter than most people -- or at least better at spelling than perhaps even Microsoft Word's spellcheck. But it's really their strategy on ...