As Collins Dictionaries would no doubt agree, people could improve their own spelling by not being too proud to use a dictionary. The dictionary is one of my 'tools of the trade' - nobody can be expected to always spell words correctly. Spellcheckers, however, should not be relied upon. (Simply Words Editing Services)

Dallas Willcox , Benfleet, England

If spelling kept its own rules it would help readers and spellers. For example, 67% of the 120 worst ‘spelling demons’ are booby-trapped by surplus letters. Speed the trend to cut them, as with words like demon, duet, economy, error, program, exotic and horror. Dictionaries’ thousands of alternative spellings could include more ‘surplus-cut’ spellings.

Valerie Yule, Melbourne, Australia

@Paul
Lose/loose is not such a problem in English-speaking countries, but it sure is in germanic English: along with my pet peeve, standart.

Britt Johnston, Basel, Switzerland

I agree with Sarah, London.
To spell well, one must see words via reading, and then have
efficient visual recall to be sure of accuracy.
The most problematic word for spelling that I observe is 'benefited'.
Let's teach rules for regular words, mnemonics for irregular words, & forget obscure words.

Joyce, Peterborough, England

Surely the most misspelt words are 'loose' and 'lose'. The computer program used by the researchers would be unlikely to pick this one up!

Paul, Zurich, Switzerland

Mechin

Discrete - separate, unconnected
Discreet - quiet, using subterfuge or tactful.

Not OED definitions but good enough I wot.

Claire, London, UK

Does it matter? We have spell-checkers these days. Broadly speaking, most people only ever write at School!

Robin Laundon, Cambridge, UK

A commonly misspelt word I find is fourty instead of forty because we know the spelling of four and fourteen.
As Sarah pointed out,people can't 'see' when a word looks wrong having hardly seen it in print.

Clem, Kampala,

And now with sms English firmly entrenched as the 'mobile phone lingo of preference',spelling reformers will need to dig deep.

Clem, Kampala,

The Shorter Oxford English dictionary (3rd edition - reprinted 1970 - page 523) gives discreet and discrete as doublets.What are the two 'totally different meanings' you mention ?Thank you

MECHIN, Champigny sur marne , France

Spelling reform will never be achieved by some edict. It happens gradually through common usage, if u no what I mean.

Stephen Bird, Järvenpää, Finland

Didn't Shakespeare spell the same words differently?
It is the quality of the article rather than the spelling that is important.
As a matter of fact, researchers have shown that most people can read sentences with vowels removed. If you can do that, what significance is there to correct spelling?

Tim, Toronto,

A little learning is a dangerous thing, if you wish to quote Alexander Pope.

Alexandra MacKay Binnie

Alexandra Vivien MacKay Binnie, London,

What about discreet and discrete? Both spellings are correct, the words are pronounced identically, yet they have totally different meanings!

Stuart Dickson, Palma, Mallorca, Spain

I thought the most common misspelt word was "mediaeval".

Charlie Castelnau, Barnes, UK

After a week working with special needs kids who couldn't spell I always found that they still couldn't spell, and neither could I. You internalise the idiomatic spellings and then when you start to think about them and question them you become uncertain about them.

John Ledbury, Kings Lynn, England

If there was spelling reform as mentioned, where would the line be drawn? How would it take into account regional differences? Would it hide etymological roots? Seems like dumbing down to me; an excuse to lower expectations and reduce the importance placed on English language teaching in schools.

Becky, Kingston,

No mention of accommodation, which nine out of ten people seem to get wrong, even hoteliers.

Joy, Duns, Scotland

The misquotation of the rule "i before e" is far too common. As pointed out by Mr Marston, it applies ONLY to words where the "ie" or "ei" is pronounced "ee" . Supersedere, by the way, doesn't mean desist in Latin: it means "sit above" and therefore "take the place of".

David Craig, Great Haywood, Staffs UK

One reason why spelling is bad is that people don't seem to read as much so they can't 'see' when a word looks wrong, as they've not seen the words before. More and more people are writing "of" instead of "'ve" as in 'could of.' Also, I saw 'bonified' instead of 'bona fide' in a comment on this site

Sarah, London,

You quote only two-thirds of the i before e rule that I ws taught: I before E except after C, when the sound is double-E. With the full form of the rule, weird, seize, neighbour and foreign are not exceptions, and leisure only transgresses if you adopt the American pronunciation of lEEsure!

Henry Marston, Rotherham, S Yorks

Trouble is, when Collins run their tests on "thousands of internet documents" they come across lots of articles like this one, and by campaigners for spelling reform, thus discovering numerous examples of misspelt words.

Laurence, Bristol, UK