Spelling:

Misspelling a word is the quickest way to win the disrespect of colleagues, lose a job promotion, screw up a hot date.

Dan Quayle lost the presidency because he misspelled potato:

watch?v=Wdqbi66oNuI

Know that some words called homophones sound the same but mean different things.

A list of homophones:

http://www.all-about-spelling.com/list-of-homophones.html

Know spelling rules:

i before e except after c (believe, relieve, sieve, niece, frieze)

e before I (receive, ceiling, conceive)

A poem to help you remember some exceptions:

Neither leisure foreigner seized their heifer on the weird heights.

Other exceptions: sleigh, freight, eight.

Familiarize yourself with commonly misspelled words:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html

Spell check is not always correct.

A little poem to help you remember that spell check is often wrong.

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.