Where should a semi-colon be added? if you consider yourself a poor speller, you are not alone [1] and lots of notable people are on your side. Benjamin Franklin felt your pain [2] in 1768 he proposed an improved, or phonetic, spelling system. In 1906, the simplified spelling board presented a list of 300 high frequency words with simplified spellings [3] such as tho, thru, and det. Perhaps your greatest ally way president andrew jackson [4] sho remarked that it was a poor mind indeed that couldn’t come up with at least two spellings for any word.