How to spell a difficult word

1. Slowly repeat the word out loud. Sound out each part carefully, only one syllable at a time. Remember spelling rules such as silent E's and "I before E except after C, or when sounded like A, as in neighbour and weigh".
2. Know (or guess) the word's language of origin and think about that language's spelling patterns.
3. Close your eyes and try to imagine what the word might look like. How is it spelled?
4. Once you have written the word, see if it looks right. If something looks funny, try different spellings to see which looks best. If that still doesn't work, spell the word in phonics and then in proper letters.
5. Try different forms of the word; if "derivation" is too hard, think about it as "derive" then worry about the suffix.

Tips

• When all else fails, ask someone, look up the word, or use spell-check.
• After you spell it correctly, look back and see how and why it's spelled like that so the next time it will be more automatic.

http://www.wikihow.com/Spell-a-Difficult-Word