Scripps National Spelling Bee
Encyclopedia
The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly called the National Spelling Bee) is a highly competitive annual spelling bee
in the United States
, with participants from other countries as well. It is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company and is held the week following Memorial Day weekend
, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center
hotel in Oxon Hill, Maryland
near Washington, D.C.
Historically, the competition has been open to, and remains open to, the winners of sponsored American regional spelling bees. Over the years, the competition has been opened to contestants from Canada, Mexico
, Jamaica
, New Zealand
, Guam
, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa
, Ghana
, Germany
, South Korea
, and the Bahamas. Participants from countries other than the United States must be regional spelling-bee winners as well. Since 1994, ESPN
has televised the later rounds of the bee; since 2006, earlier rounds have aired on the cable channel during the day, and the Championship Finals have aired in primetime on ABC.
in Louisville
. Frank Neuhauser
won the first National Spelling Bee held that year, by successfully spelling "gladiolus." Later, the E.W. Scripps Company acquired the rights to the program. The bee is held in late May and/or early June of each year. It is open to students who have not yet completed the eighth grade, reached their 15th birthday, nor won a previous National Spelling Bee. Its goal is educational: not only to encourage children to perfect the art of spelling
, but also to help enlarge their vocabularies and widen their knowledge of the English language.
An insect bee is featured prominently on the logo of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, despite the word "bee" being completely unrelated to the name of the insect. The origin of the word "bee" as used in "spelling bee" is unclear. "Bee" refers to "a gathering", where people join together in an activity., and the origin of this sense of "bee" is related to the word "been".
The Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 288 sponsors in the United States, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Guam, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.
Sponsorship is available on a limited basis to daily and weekly newspapers serving English-speaking populations around the world. Each sponsor organizes a spelling bee program in its community with the cooperation of area school officials: public, private, parochial, charter, virtual, and home schools.
Schools enroll with the national office to ensure their students are eligible to participate and to receive the materials needed to conduct classroom and school bees. During enrollment, school bee coordinators receive their local sponsor’s program-specific information—local dates, deadlines, and participation guidelines.
The official study booklet is available free online.
The champion of each sponsor’s final spelling bee advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in Washington, D.C.
Most school and regional bees (known to Scripps as local spelling bees) use the official study booklet. Until 1994, the study booklet was known as "Words of the Champions"; from 1994 to 2006, the study booklet was the category-based "Paideia", and in 2007 was changed to the 701-word "Spell It!". The current booklet is published by Merriam-Webster in association with the National Spelling Bee. "Spell It!" contains about 1150 words, divided primarily by language of origin, along with exercises and activities in each section. This booklet will be changed yearly. Bees preliminary to the regional level mostly use the School Pronouncer's Guide which contains a collection of Spell It! words as well as surprise words not in Spell It! but in Scripps' official dictionary, Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged.
The regional bees are given a Sponsor Bee Guide by Scripps. There are two volumes, which each contain Spell It! words as well as surprise words. Bees need not use the words from Spell It! to be considered official.
, the Bee's official pronouncer, pronounces each word, its language of origin, definition, and usage in a sentence. Spellers then are given a 30-second pause in which to write down their word with the 2 pens given to them, and then Dr. Bailly repeats the word and all information. Another 30-second pause, and then they move onto the next word.
Each correctly spelled word on the Round One written test is worth one point.
Round One and all rounds from Round Four until the end of the contest are dictionary rounds. Words are selected from Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged and its addenda section, and words in these rounds may or may not be found on old published study lists.
The Consolidated Word List, published by Scripps, consists of all words used in the National Bee as far back as 1950, including various study lists published by Scripps since then. It is organized into three sections: Words Appearing Infrequently, Words Appearing with Moderate Frequency, and Word Appearing Frequently. Nearly 800 pages and 24,000 words long, the Consolidated Word List is intended for those who have already mastered the words in Spell It!. The Consolidated Word List is a helpful study aide for the Round One written test and Rounds Four-end of the National Bee, as well as for the "surprise" words in regional and local bees. The list can currently be found on the Scripps website at this link.
A chime signals that regular time has expired, and the judges inform the speller that Finish Time has begun. The speller may watch a clock counting down from thirty seconds; no timing devices are allowed onstage. During Finish Time, a speller may not make further requests to the pronouncer but rather must begin spelling the word. Any speller who exceeds the time limit is automatically eliminated; judges do not acknowledge letters spelled after the end of Finish Time. A speller is allowed to stop spelling a word and restart spelling, but if s/he changes the letters already said, the alteration counts as a misspelling and causes automatic elimination.
, $2,600 in reference works and a lifetime membership to Britannica Online Premium from Encyclopædia Britannica
, $5,000 cash prize from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, and an online course and a Nook eReader from K12 Inc.
All spellers receive Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged on CD-ROM from Merriam-Webster, the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, which is a $100 U.S. Savings Bond, and a cash prize from Scripps. These cash prizes are determined based on the round in which the speller is eliminated. They range from $100 for a speller eliminated before the Quarterfinals to $12,500 for the second place finisher.
-nominated documentary
Spellbound
follows eight competitors, including eventual national winner Nupur Lala, through the 1999 competition.
, based on Myla Goldberg
's novel
, follows a young girl's journey through various levels of spelling bee competition to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, as did the film Akeelah and the Bee
the following year. Contestants in the Broadway
show The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
are competing for a spot in the National Spelling Bee. The 2007 novel Spelldown by Karon Luddy is a fictional account of a South Carolina girl's journey from the Shirley County spelling championships to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Related media sites
Spelling bee
A spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States....
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, with participants from other countries as well. It is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company and is held the week following Memorial Day weekend
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center
Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center
The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center is a large hotel and convention center located in National Harbor, Maryland and owned by Gaylord Hotels, a division of Gaylord Entertainment Company...
hotel in Oxon Hill, Maryland
Oxon Hill, Maryland
Oxon Hill is part of the Oxon Hill-Glassmanor census-designated place in southern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Oxon Hill is a suburb of Washington, DC located southeast of the downtown district and east of Alexandria, Virginia...
near Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Historically, the competition has been open to, and remains open to, the winners of sponsored American regional spelling bees. Over the years, the competition has been opened to contestants from Canada, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, and the Bahamas. Participants from countries other than the United States must be regional spelling-bee winners as well. Since 1994, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
has televised the later rounds of the bee; since 2006, earlier rounds have aired on the cable channel during the day, and the Championship Finals have aired in primetime on ABC.
History
The National Spelling Bee was formed in 1925 as a consolidation of numerous local spelling bees, organized by The Courier-JournalThe Courier-Journal
The Courier-Journal, locally called "The C-J", is the main newspaper for the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the paper is the 48th largest daily paper in the United States and the single largest in Kentucky.- Origins :The...
in Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
. Frank Neuhauser
Frank Neuhauser
Frank Louis Neuhauser was an American patent lawyer and spelling bee champion, who won the first National Spelling Bee in 1925 by successfully spelling the word "gladiolus." Today, the bee is known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee.Neuhauser was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 29,...
won the first National Spelling Bee held that year, by successfully spelling "gladiolus." Later, the E.W. Scripps Company acquired the rights to the program. The bee is held in late May and/or early June of each year. It is open to students who have not yet completed the eighth grade, reached their 15th birthday, nor won a previous National Spelling Bee. Its goal is educational: not only to encourage children to perfect the art of spelling
Spelling
Spelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters...
, but also to help enlarge their vocabularies and widen their knowledge of the English language.
An insect bee is featured prominently on the logo of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, despite the word "bee" being completely unrelated to the name of the insect. The origin of the word "bee" as used in "spelling bee" is unclear. "Bee" refers to "a gathering", where people join together in an activity., and the origin of this sense of "bee" is related to the word "been".
The Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 288 sponsors in the United States, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Guam, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.
Sponsorship is available on a limited basis to daily and weekly newspapers serving English-speaking populations around the world. Each sponsor organizes a spelling bee program in its community with the cooperation of area school officials: public, private, parochial, charter, virtual, and home schools.
Schools enroll with the national office to ensure their students are eligible to participate and to receive the materials needed to conduct classroom and school bees. During enrollment, school bee coordinators receive their local sponsor’s program-specific information—local dates, deadlines, and participation guidelines.
The official study booklet is available free online.
The champion of each sponsor’s final spelling bee advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in Washington, D.C.
Qualifying Regional Competitions
To qualify for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a speller must win a regional competition. Each region may set its own rules for a spelling bee. Regional rules may not correspond exactly with the national spelling bee.Most school and regional bees (known to Scripps as local spelling bees) use the official study booklet. Until 1994, the study booklet was known as "Words of the Champions"; from 1994 to 2006, the study booklet was the category-based "Paideia", and in 2007 was changed to the 701-word "Spell It!". The current booklet is published by Merriam-Webster in association with the National Spelling Bee. "Spell It!" contains about 1150 words, divided primarily by language of origin, along with exercises and activities in each section. This booklet will be changed yearly. Bees preliminary to the regional level mostly use the School Pronouncer's Guide which contains a collection of Spell It! words as well as surprise words not in Spell It! but in Scripps' official dictionary, Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged.
The regional bees are given a Sponsor Bee Guide by Scripps. There are two volumes, which each contain Spell It! words as well as surprise words. Bees need not use the words from Spell It! to be considered official.
Sponsors
To participate in the national competition, a speller must be sponsored. Scripps has 288 sponsors (mostly newspapers) from the U.S., Canada, Bahamas, New Zealand, and Europe covering a certain area and conducting their own regional spelling bees to send spellers to the national level.Round One
In the few years prior to 2008, Round One consisted of a 25-word multiple-choice written test. However, as of 2010, changes have been made in the formatting of this test. Now referred to as the Round One Test, it consists of 25 words, sometimes called "the written round. All spellers gather at the Maryland Ballroom by 8:00 am sharp. Jacques BaillyJacques Bailly
Jacques A. Bailly was the 1980 champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee and now serves as the official pronouncer of the Bee, a position he has held since 2003....
, the Bee's official pronouncer, pronounces each word, its language of origin, definition, and usage in a sentence. Spellers then are given a 30-second pause in which to write down their word with the 2 pens given to them, and then Dr. Bailly repeats the word and all information. Another 30-second pause, and then they move onto the next word.
Each correctly spelled word on the Round One written test is worth one point.
Round Two
Round Two is an oral round, in which spellers spell a word from Merriam Webster's Spellit! or the Rounds 2 & 3 study guide. Every speller participates and has a chance to take the stage. A correct oral spelling in Round Two is worth three points. If they miss their word, the head judge will NOT ring the bell, nor be escorted off stage. Instead, Dr. Bailly will offer the correct spelling, and the speller is expected to return to their seat.Round Three
Round Three is an oral round. Every speller spells a word from either Spell It! (the official study booklet) or from a list of extra words released only to the spellers. Like Round Two, it is worth three points. The judges total scores from the first three rounds to determine scores. The maximum possible is 31. The top 50 spellers qualify for Round Four.Round Four onward
Beginning in Round Four, each speller participates in a single-elimination oral round, where they receive one word to spell. A speller who spells incorrectly is eliminated; otherwise, they move on to the next round.Round One and all rounds from Round Four until the end of the contest are dictionary rounds. Words are selected from Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged and its addenda section, and words in these rounds may or may not be found on old published study lists.
The Consolidated Word List, published by Scripps, consists of all words used in the National Bee as far back as 1950, including various study lists published by Scripps since then. It is organized into three sections: Words Appearing Infrequently, Words Appearing with Moderate Frequency, and Word Appearing Frequently. Nearly 800 pages and 24,000 words long, the Consolidated Word List is intended for those who have already mastered the words in Spell It!. The Consolidated Word List is a helpful study aide for the Round One written test and Rounds Four-end of the National Bee, as well as for the "surprise" words in regional and local bees. The list can currently be found on the Scripps website at this link.
Remaining Rounds
Rounds continue until a champion is declared. If, at the end of a particular round, there is only one speller remaining, that speller must correctly spell one additional word to win. If they misspell the word, all spellers present at the beginning of the previous round return for another round. If there are two or three spellers remaining at the beginning of a round, the pronouncer moves to the Championship Words section of the word list. Spellers alternate spelling words from this list of 25 words until only one remains. However, if all 25 Championship Words are exhausted before a champion is declared, then all remaining spellers are declared co-champions.Regulations of oral rounds
Before 2004, spellers were not asked to spell any word until the judges deemed that the word had been clearly pronounced and identified by the speller; only then would the judges force a speller to begin spelling. Starting in 2004, the Bee adopted new rules. A speller is given two minutes and thirty seconds from when a word is first pronounced to spell it completely. The first two minutes are Regular Time; the final thirty seconds are Finish Time. During this time limit, a speller is allowed to ask the pronouncer for the word's:- Definition
- Part of speech
- Use in a sentence
- Language(s) of origin (not the complete etymologyEtymologyEtymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
, though some spellers call the language(s) of origin the etymology) - Alternate pronunciations
- RootRoot (linguistics)The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
(A speller may ask whether a word comes from a particular root word or word element, but s/he must specify that root's language of origin and definition.)
A chime signals that regular time has expired, and the judges inform the speller that Finish Time has begun. The speller may watch a clock counting down from thirty seconds; no timing devices are allowed onstage. During Finish Time, a speller may not make further requests to the pronouncer but rather must begin spelling the word. Any speller who exceeds the time limit is automatically eliminated; judges do not acknowledge letters spelled after the end of Finish Time. A speller is allowed to stop spelling a word and restart spelling, but if s/he changes the letters already said, the alteration counts as a misspelling and causes automatic elimination.
Recent spelling bees
| Year | Competition details |
| 2005 | 78th Competition 78th Scripps National Spelling Bee The 78th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held June 1–2, 2005 in Washington D.C. 272 students competed.Anurag Kashyap, 13, won the competition. He spelled the word appoggiatura, a musical term, correctly. 11-year-old Samir Patel of Colleyville, Texas and Aliya Deri, 13, of Pleasanton,... |
| 2006 | 79th Competition 79th Scripps National Spelling Bee The 79th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, D.C., on May 31 and June 1, 2006. For the first time in the Bee's history, ABC broadcast the Championship Rounds on primetime television.... |
| 2007 | 80th Competition 80th Scripps National Spelling Bee The 80th Scripps National Spelling Bee occurred on Wednesday, May 30, and Thursday, May 31, 2007. There were 286 spellers: 139 boys and 147 girls.... |
| 2008 | 81st Competition 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee The 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee took place on May 30, 2008.-Competition:Two hundred eighty-eight champion spellers competed in the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., the most ever to date. Most of the spellers were from the United States, with a small showing from other... |
| 2009 | 82nd Competition 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee The 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee took place between May 26, 2009, and May 28, 2009, and involved 293 participants.-Champion:The winner was Kavya Shivashankar. Her winning word was Laodicean. She was sponsored by The Olathe News. She won $35,000 in cash and more than $5,000 in prizes... |
| 2010 | 83rd Competition 83rd Scripps National Spelling Bee The 83rd Scripps National Spelling Bee was an event held from June 2, 2010 to June 4, 2010 at Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington D.C., United States of America.- Competition details:... |
| 2011 | 84th Competition 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee The 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held from May 31 - June 2, 2011 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland near Washington, D.C.... |
Prizes
The winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee receives a $30,000 cash prize and an engraved loving cup trophy from Scripps, a $2,500 savings bond, a reference library from Merriam-WebsterMerriam-Webster
Merriam–Webster, which was originally the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is an American company that publishes reference books, especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language .Merriam-Webster Inc. has been a...
, $2,600 in reference works and a lifetime membership to Britannica Online Premium from Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
, $5,000 cash prize from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, and an online course and a Nook eReader from K12 Inc.
All spellers receive Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged on CD-ROM from Merriam-Webster, the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, which is a $100 U.S. Savings Bond, and a cash prize from Scripps. These cash prizes are determined based on the round in which the speller is eliminated. They range from $100 for a speller eliminated before the Quarterfinals to $12,500 for the second place finisher.
Documentary
The 2002 Academy AwardAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
-nominated documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Spellbound
Spellbound (documentary)
Spellbound is a 2002 documentary that was directed by Jeffrey Blitz. The film follows eight competitors in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature; Yana Gorskaya's editing won the ACE Eddie award for best editing of documentary...
follows eight competitors, including eventual national winner Nupur Lala, through the 1999 competition.
Fiction
The 2005 film Bee SeasonBee Season (film)
Bee Season is a 2005 American drama film adaptation of the 2000 novel of the same name by Myla Goldberg. The film was directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel and written by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. It stars Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche.-Plot:...
, based on Myla Goldberg
Myla Goldberg
Myla Goldberg is an American novelist and musician.-Biography:Goldberg was born into a Jewish family. She was raised in Laurel, Maryland, and graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School. She majored in English at Oberlin College, graduating in 1993...
's novel
Bee Season
Bee Season is a 2000 novel by Myla Goldberg. It follows a young girl as she attempts to win the national spelling bee, and the repercussions of her success on the other members of her family.-Plot summary:...
, follows a young girl's journey through various levels of spelling bee competition to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, as did the film Akeelah and the Bee
Akeelah and the Bee
Akeelah and the Bee is a 2006 American drama film written and directed by Doug Atchison. It tells the story of Akeelah Anderson, portrayed by Keke Palmer, an 11-year-old girl who participates in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, her mother, portrayed by Angela Bassett, schoolmates, and also her...
the following year. Contestants in the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
show The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a one act musical comedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finn, a book by Rachel Sheinkin and additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley...
are competing for a spot in the National Spelling Bee. The 2007 novel Spelldown by Karon Luddy is a fictional account of a South Carolina girl's journey from the Shirley County spelling championships to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Nonfiction
The book American Bee, by James Maguire, profiles 5 spellers who made it to the final rounds of the competition: Samir Patel, Katharine Close, Aliya Deri, Jamie Ding, and Marshall Winchester, as well as giving an overview of the history of the bee.Further reading
- Gormley, Amelia. Verbomania: Experiencing the National Spelling Bee
- Maguire, James. American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds
External links
- Official website of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
- http://www.sweetspelling.comMore than 70 thousand spelling words to practice online free.
- 2008 Spelling Bee Press Release
- Final rounds of 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee to be broadcast live on ABC during primetime (press release)
Related media sites
- When Spelling Bee Champs Grow Up on Time.com (a division of Time Magazine)