Welcome to the Real Spelling™ Toolbox!

This is the online version of RealSpelling's™ Toolbox 2, a rich and deep multimedia resource for those who would like to learn about (and perhaps teach) the way written English really works.

To get an idea of the resources available here, view our sample Theme, Learning from Love.

You can also get an idea of the scope of the 6 Kits in this Overview.

If you are interested and think this resource would be helpful, you can subscribe to the site, either annually or for the life of the site (and we have no idea how long that will be). Please read this note about pricing changes.

• Annual subscription: $45 per year. 
• Lifetime (of the site, not of you!): $220.

Please note the following important caveats -- PLEASE READ!

• While we have tested this on several different computers, systems, and browsers, we cannot guarantee that it will work on every combination. Especially on older systems and computers, and of course the very outdated Internet Explorer, it may not work. As with many other sites, Chrome can also be problematic: Firefox and Safari are best. Please test your setup on our sample Theme, Learning from Love, before you subscribe. Subscriptions are not refundable.
• We have also tested it on some smartphones and tablets. If you plan to use them, please test it on your smartphone and/or tablet before purchase.
• The site is in progress. It is not complete. Right now, Kit 1, Kit 2, Kit 3, Kit 4, Kit 5, Kit 6, RealScript, the Interactive Suffix Checker, Orthographic Phonology, Orthographic Analysis, and the 70 Matrices sections are complete. There is also a video gallery (that contains all of the videos from Themes that have been converted plus many more, organized by topic) and an eBook gallery (that has all of the eBooks from Themes that have been converted plus, for Lifetime subscribers, the full original RealSpelling User's Self-Training Manual. More videos and eBooks are added to those sections as we convert the first Theme in which they appear.
• We will continue to add the other sections as fast as we can, but it is a very time consuming process, and will undoubtedly take at least a couple of years or more to complete. We will send notes to subscribers whenever a new section is added, probably at the rate of 1 or 2 per month. In the meantime, there are links to unfinished sections that, for Annual subscribers, just lead to a page that says that this page will be coming soon. For Lifetime subscribers, the page includes a link to download the original pdf of that Theme, which may or may not be fully usable on your particular system.
• The multimedia resources include videos, sound files, images, and pdfs. Some of the pdfs are downloadable eBooks. Right now these eBooks should be readable, but the embedded media in them may or may not work on your computer/system/browser. We have begun converting these eBooks to pages on the website, starting with the Self-Training Manual, and in the meantime provide the pdf versions of unconverted eBooks as-is as stopgaps until the web versions are done.

• The thinking and language used by Real Spelling evolved considerably in the decade between the first Tool Box in 2001 and the revised, interactive Tool Box 2. We include the non-interactive pdfs of unconverted sections and the Real Spelling User’s Manual from 2001. These are extremely rich resources, but understand that they did not always represent the most current thinking of the author before his passing — which of course also evolved further in the years between the publication of Tool Box 2 and his death. All references, including Tool Box 2, should be interrogated to build understanding.

The Concept of a ‘Tool Box’

Real spelling resources are for scholarship, not pedagoguery

In the case of orthography — i.e., the cognitively-driven construction and reconstruction of sense and meaning — all of its conceptual elements operate in conjunction and simultaneously. It is, quite simply, impossible to confine real orthographic activity to one conceptual element.

This leads to why we call the real spelling resource a Tool Box. 

Any tool box is a set of tools that need to be used to perform a specific task. A good craftsman needs a full set of tools always at his disposal to deal with any need that might arise. The most important thing is that the tools be simply and readily - and all - available for any need as and when - and only when, of course,  - it does arise.

The tools will certainly be arranged, sorted and stored in a way that makes them easily accessible. That does not mean that every tool in the tool box must be used just because it is there. 

The current task in hand determines the tools, not the reverse. 

We happen to have a large monkey wrench in our tool box. We have never used it because the need for that particular tool has never arisen. But should that need arise, we have what we need - and we know exactly where to find it.

It would be absurd to assign a sequence of usage to tools: "The order of the drawers in my tool box is: 1. screwdrivers, 2. pliers and wrenches, 3. saws and drills...", therefore that is the order in which I must use them!" Imagine the absurd situation of needing to use a saw, but not being allowed to because, in an opinion that some “researcher” parades as fact, you are required to master the screwdriver, pliers and wrench first!

Real spelling resources are constructed to be in parallel with epistemological and cognitve verity, not channelled and packaged for the unidimensional production line of schooling delivery-line methods.

and remember that most pictures, like this one, can be clicked to enlarge them.