thesis play spelling

Words and phrases

Personal account.

• Access or purchase personal subscriptions
• Get our newsletter
• Save searches
• Set display preferences

Institutional access

Sign in with library card

Sign in with username / password

Recommend to your librarian

Institutional account management

Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic

thesis-play noun

• Hide all quotations

What does the noun thesis-play mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun thesis-play . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the noun thesis-play ?

Where does the noun thesis-play come from?

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun thesis-play is in the 1900s.

OED's earliest evidence for thesis-play is from 1902, in Edinburgh Review .

thesis-play is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: thesis n. , play n.

Nearby entries

• these, n. a1600–48
• these, pron. & adj. Old English–
• Thesean, adj. 1815–
• Theseid, n. 1725–
• Theseium, n. 1819–
• these-like, adj. 1644–
• thesial, adj. 1654
• thesicle, n. 1863–
• thesis, n. a1398–
• thesis-novel, n. 1934–
• thesis-play, n. 1902–
• thesmophilist, n. 1644–
• Thesmophorian, adj. 1891–
• Thesmophoric, adj. 1788–
• thesmothete, n. 1603–
• thesocyte, n. 1887–
• thesp, n. 1962–
• Thespian, adj. & n. 1675–
• Thespianism, n. 1914–
• Thessalian, adj. & n. 1594–
• thester, n. Old English–1540

Thank you for visiting Oxford English Dictionary

To continue reading, please sign in below or purchase a subscription. After purchasing, please sign in below to access the content.

Meaning & use

Entry history for thesis-play, n..

Originally published as part of the entry for thesis, n.

thesis, n. was first published in 1912; not yet revised.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1912)

• Find out more

OED Second Edition (1989)

• View thesis in OED Second Edition

Please submit your feedback for thesis-play, n.

Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback. OUP will not use this email address for any other purpose.

Citation details

Factsheet for thesis-play, n., browse entry.

• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Definition of thesis

Did you know.

In high school, college, or graduate school, students often have to write a thesis on a topic in their major field of study. In many fields, a final thesis is the biggest challenge involved in getting a master's degree, and the same is true for students studying for a Ph.D. (a Ph.D. thesis is often called a dissertation ). But a thesis may also be an idea; so in the course of the paper the student may put forth several theses (notice the plural form) and attempt to prove them.

Examples of thesis in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'thesis.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

in sense 3, Middle English, lowering of the voice, from Late Latin & Greek; Late Latin, from Greek, downbeat, more important part of a foot, literally, act of laying down; in other senses, Latin, from Greek, literally, act of laying down, from tithenai to put, lay down — more at do

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3a(1)

Dictionary Entries Near thesis

the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children

thesis novel

Cite this Entry

“Thesis.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thesis. Accessed 30 Jun. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of thesis, more from merriam-webster on thesis.

Nglish: Translation of thesis for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of thesis for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about thesis

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Plural and possessive names: a guide, your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), popular in wordplay, it's a scorcher words for the summer heat, flower etymologies for your spring garden, 12 star wars words, 'swash', 'praya', and 12 more beachy words, 8 words for lesser-known musical instruments, games & quizzes.

• Subscriber Services
• For Authors
• Publications
• Archaeology
• Art & Architecture
• Bilingual dictionaries
• Classical studies
• Encyclopedias
• English Dictionaries and Thesauri
• Language reference
• Linguistics
• Media studies
• Medicine and health
• Names studies
• Performing arts
• Science and technology
• Social sciences
• Society and culture
• Overview Pages
• Subject Reference
• English Dictionaries
• Bilingual Dictionaries

Recently viewed (0)

• Save Search

Edited by: Dennis Kennedy

• Find at OUP.com
• Google Preview
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

More on this Topic

• View overview page for this topic

Related Content

In this work.

• Augier, Émile
• Dumas, Alexandre
• Brieux, Eugène
• Ibsen, Henrik
• Shaw, George Bernard

Related Overviews

Émile Augier (1820—1889)

Eugène Brieux (1858—1932)

Alexandre Dumas (1824—1895)

View all related overviews »

• Publishing Information
• Preface and Principles
• Names and romanization
• Dates of plays and translation of titles
• Advisory Editors
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements

thesis play  

A translation of the French term pièce à thèse , a thesis play investigates controversial social and moral issues in order to stimulate discussion and direct debate. Usually identified with the work of ... ...

Access to the complete content on Oxford Reference requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.

Please subscribe or login to access full text content.

If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.

For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs , and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us .

• Oxford University Press

PRINTED FROM OXFORD REFERENCE (www.oxfordreference.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice ).

date: 30 June 2024

• Cookie Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility
• [91.193.111.216]
• 91.193.111.216

Character limit 500 /500

Does spelling instruction make students better spellers, readers, and writers? A meta-analytic review

• Published: 16 May 2014
• Volume 27 , pages 1703–1743, ( 2014 )

Cite this article

• Steve Graham 1 &
• Tanya Santangelo 2  

11k Accesses

199 Citations

58 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

Despite the importance of spelling for both writing and reading, there is considerable disagreement regarding how spelling skills are best acquired. During this and virtually all of the last century, some scholars have argued that spelling should not be directly or formally taught as such instruction is not effective or efficient. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of experimental and quasi-experimental studies to address these claims. The corpus of 53 studies in this review included 6,037 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and yielded 58 effect sizes (ESs) that were used to answer eight research questions concerning the impact of formally teaching spelling on spelling, phonological awareness, reading, and writing performance. An average weighted ES was calculated for each question and the quality of included studies was systematically evaluated. Results provided strong and consistent support for teaching spelling, as it improved spelling performance when compared to no/unrelated instruction (ES = 0.54) or informal/incidental approaches to improving spelling performance (ES = 0.43). Increasing the amount of formal spelling instruction also proved beneficial (ES = 0.70). Gains in spelling were maintained over time (ES = 0.53) and generalized to spelling when writing (ES = 0.94). Improvements in phonological awareness (ES = 0.51) and reading skills (ES = 0.44) were also found. The positive outcomes associated with formal spelling instruction were generally consistent, regardless of students’ grade level or literacy skills.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

The use of cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education.

The Impact of Peer Assessment on Academic Performance: A Meta-analysis of Control Group Studies

Ethical Considerations of Conducting Systematic Reviews in Educational Research

References marked with an asterisk indicate studies included in the meta-analysis.

Adams, M. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Google Scholar  

Allred, R. (1977). Spelling: The application of research findings . Washington, DC: National Education Association.

*Anderson, P. A. (1973). Effectiveness of specific spelling lessons on an individualized spelling program (Unpublished master’s thesis). Fargo, ND: North Dakota State University.

*Andrews, L. (1984). Visual imagery training and encoding (spelling) performance in third grade students (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.

Bean, W., & Bouffler, C. (1987). Spell by writing . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Berninger, V. (1999). Coordinating transcription and text generation in working memory during composing: Automatic and constructive processes. Learning Disability Quarterly, 22 , 99–112.

Article   Google Scholar  

Berninger, V., Mizokawa, D., & Bragg, R. (1991). Theory-based diagnosis and remediation of writing disabilities. Journal of School Psychology, 29 , 57–79.

*Berninger, V. W., Vaughan, K., Abbott, R. D., Begay, K., Byrd, K., Curtin, G., et al. (2002). Teaching spelling and composition alone and together: Implications for the simple view of writing. Journal of Educational Psychology , 94 , 291–304.

*Berninger, V. W., Vaughan, K., Abbott, R. D., Brooks, A., Abbott, S., Rogan, L., et al. (1998). Early intervention for spelling problems: Teaching functional spelling units of varying sizes with a multiple-connection framework. Journal of Educational Psychology , 90 , 587–605.

Bornstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgins, J. P., & Rothstein, H. R. (2009). Introduction to meta-analysis . West Sussex: Wiley.

Book   Google Scholar  

Brown, A. (1990). A review of recent research on spelling. Educational Psychology Review, 2 , 365–397.

*Burzenski, C. (1990). The effects of structured writing on the vocabulary and spelling achievement of second grade students (Unpublished master’s thesis). Bellingham, WA: Western Washington University.

*Butkovich, J. (2003). Differences in the spelling proficiency of first graders using the “buddy system” method versus a more traditional spelling approach (Unpublished master’s thesis). Atlanta, GA: Mercer University.

*Butyniec-Thomas, J., & Woloshyn, V. E. (1997). The effects of explicit-strategy and whole-language instruction on students’ spelling ability. Journal of Experimental Education , 65 , 293–302.

Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (1966). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

*Catterall, M. M. (1957). An evaluation of the effectiveness of spelling enrichment exercises as an aid to learning and retention in grade VII (Unpublished master’s thesis). Boston, MA: Boston University.

Clarke, L. (1988). Invented versus traditional spelling in first graders’ writing: Effects on learning to spell and read. Research in the Teaching of English, 22 , 281–309.

*Conrad, N. J. (2008). From reading to spelling and spelling to reading: Transfer goes both ways. Journal of Educational Psychology , 100 , 869–878.

Cornman, O. (1902). Spelling in the elementary school: An experimental and statistical analysis . Boston, MA: Ginn.

Cortina, J. M., & Nouri, H. (2000). Effect size for ANOVA designs (Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, 07-129). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Cummings, D. (1988). American English spelling . Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Cutler, L., & Graham, S. (2008). Primary grade writing instruction: A national survey. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100 , 907–919.

Datchuk, S. M., & Kubina, R. M. (2012). A review of teaching sentence-level writing skills to students with writing difficulties and learning disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 34 , 180–192.

*Davis, L. H. (2000). The effects of rime-based analogy training on word reading and spelling of first-grade children with good and poor phonological awareness (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University.

*Devonshire, V. & Fluck, M. (2010). Spelling development: Fine-tuning strategy-use and capitalising on the connections between words. Learning and Instruction , 20 , 361–371.

*Diaz, I. (2010). The effect of morphological instruction in improving the spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension of high school English language learners (ELLs) (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Cypress, CA: Trident University International.

Edelsky, C. (1990). Whose agenda is this anyway? A response to McKenna, Robinson, and Miller. Educational Researcher, 19 , 7–11.

Edelsky, C., Altwerger, B., & Flores, B. (1991). Whole language: What’s the difference? . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Ehri, L. (1987). Learning to read and spell words. Journal of Reading Behavior, 19 , 5–31.

Ehri, L. C. (2005). Learning to read words: Theory, findings and issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9 , 167–188.

Fitzgerald, J., & Shanahan, T. (2000). Reading and writing relations and their development. Educational Psychologist, 35 , 39–50.

Fitzsimmons, R., & Loomer, B. (1977). Spelling research and practice . Iowa City, IO: Iowa State Department of Public Instruction and University of Iowa.

*Frank, A. R. (2008). The effect of instruction in orthographic conventions and morphological features on the reading fluency and comprehension skills of high school freshmen (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). San Francisco, CA: The University of San Francisco.

*Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hamlett, C. L., Powell, S. R., Capizzi, A. M., & Seethaler, P.M. (2006). The effects of computer-assisted instruction on number combination skills in at-risk first graders. Journal of Learning Disabilities , 39 , 467–475.

Gates, A. (1926). A modern systematic versus an opportunistic method of teaching. Teachers College Record, 27 , 679–700.

Gettinger, M. (1993). Effects of invented spelling and direct instruction on spelling performance of second-grade boys. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26 , 281–291.

Gilbert, J., & Graham, S. (2010). Teaching writing to elementary students in grades 4 to 6: A national survey. Elementary School Journal, 110 , 494–518.

Gleser, L. J., & Olkin, I. (2009). Stochastically dependent effect sizes. In H. Cooper, L. V. Hedges, & J. C. Valentine (Eds.), The handbook of research syntheses and meta-analyses (2nd ed., pp. 357–376). New York, NY: Russell Sage.

Goodman, K., & Goodman, Y. (1982). Spelling ability of a self-taught reader. Language and literacy: The selected writings of Kenneth S. Goodman . London: Gollash.

Goodwin, A. P., & Ahn, S. (2010). A meta-analysis of morphological interventions: Effects on literacy achievement of children with literacy difficulties. Annals of Dyslexia, 60 , 183–208.

Gordon, J., Vaughn, S., & Schumm, J. S. (1993). Spelling interventions: A review of literature and implications for instruction for students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 8 , 175–181.

Graham, S. (1983). Effective spelling instruction. Elementary School Journal, 83 , 560–568.

Graham, S. (1999). Handwriting and spelling instruction for students with learning disabilities: A review. Learning Disability Quarterly, 22 , 78–98.

Graham, S. (2000). Should the natural learning approach replace traditional spelling instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92 , 235–247.

Graham, S., Bollinger, A., Booth Olson, C., D’Aoust, C., MacArthur, C., McCutchen, D., et al. (2012). Teaching elementary school students to be effective writers: A practice guide . Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

*Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2005, February). The impact of handwriting and spelling instruction on the writing and reading performance of at-risk first grade writers. Paper presented at the Pacific Coast Research Conference, Coronado, CA.

*Graham, S., Harris, K. R., & Fink-Chorzempa, B. F. (2002). Contribution of spelling instruction to the spelling, writing, and reading of poor spellers. Journal of Educational Psychology , 94 , 669–686.

Graham, S., Harris, K. R., & Hebert, M. (2011). It is more than just the message: Analysis of presentation effects in scoring writing. Focus on Exceptional Children, 44 (4), 1–12.

Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2011). Writing to read: A meta-analysis of the impact of writing and writing instruction on reading. Harvard Educational Review, 81 , 710–744.

Graham, S., McKeown, D., Kiuhara, S., & Harris, K. R. (2012b). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for students in the elementary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104 , 879–896.

Graham, S., & Miller, L. (1979). Spelling research and practice: A unified approach. Focus on Exceptional Children, 12 (2), 1–16.

Graham, S., Morphy, P., Harris, K., Fink-Chorzempa, B., Saddler, B., Moran, S., et al. (2008). Teaching spelling in the primary grades: A national survey of instructional practices and adaptations. American Educational Research Journal, 45 , 796–825.

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99 , 445–476.

*Hall, D. P., Cunningham, P. M., & Cunningham, J. W. (1995). Multilevel spelling instruction in third-grade classrooms. In K. A. Hinchman, D. L. Leu, and C. Kinzer (Eds.), Perspectives on literacy research and practice (pp. 384–389). Chicago, IL: National Reading Council.

Hammill, D., Larsen, S., & McNutt, G. (1977). The effects of spelling instruction: A preliminary study. Elementary School Journal, 78 , 67–72.

Hedges, L. V. (1982). Estimation of effect size from a series of independent experiments. Psychological Bulletin, 92 , 490–499.

Hedges, L. V. (2007). Effect sizes in cluster-randomized designs. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 32 , 341–370.

Hedges, L. V., & Hedberg, E. C. (2007). Intraclass correlation values for planning group-randomized trials in education. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 29 , 60–87.

Hedges, L. V., & Olkin, I. (1985). Statistical methods for meta-analysis . San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Henderson, E. (1990). Teaching spelling (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Hillerich, R. (1971). Evaluation of written language. Elementary English, 48 , 839–842.

Hillocks, G. (1986). Research on written composition: New directions for teaching . Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

*Hilte, M. & Reitsma, P. (2011). Effects of explicit rules in learning to spell open- and closed-syllable words. Learning and Instruction , 21 , 34–45.

Horn, E. (1944). Research in spelling. Elementary English Review, 21 , 6–13.

Horn, T. (1969). Spelling. In R. L. Ebel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of educational research (4th ed., pp. 1282–1299). New York, NY: Macmillan.

*Horn, P. L. (1985). Spelling in written context: An evaluation of instructional emphasis on student achievement (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University.

*Ise, E. & Schulte-Körne, G. (2010). Spelling deficits in dyslexia: Evaluation of an orthographic spelling training. Annals of Dyslexia , 60 , 18–39.

Ivernizzi, M., & Hayes, L. (2004). Developmental-spelling research: A systematic imperative. Reading Research Quarterly, 39 , 216–228.

*Jones, J. L. (1966). Effects of spelling instruction in eighth grade biological science upon scientific spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension; general spelling, vocabulary and reading comprehension; science progress; and science achievement (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). College Park, MD: University of Maryland.

*Jurka, P. A. (1992). The effects of invented spelling and direct spelling instruction on the spelling ability of first grade students (Unpublished master’s thesis). Chicago, IL: Chicago State University.

*Kirk, C., & Gillon, G. T. (2009). Integrated morphological awareness intervention as a tool for improving literacy. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 40 , 341–351.

*Kirkbride, S., & Wright, B. C. (2002). The role of analogy use in improving early spelling performance. Educational and Child Psychology , 19 , 91–101.

Krashen, S. (1989). We acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading: Additional evidence for the input hypothesis. Modern Language Journal, 73 , 440–464.

Krashen, S. (2002, Dec 11). Reading improves students’ spelling. Education Week. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2002/12/11/15letter.h22.htm .

Krashen, S., & White, H. (1991). Is spelling acquired or learned? A re-analysis of Rice (1897) and Cornman (1902). Internationaler Technischer Literaturanzeiger, 91–92 , 1–48.

Lipsey, M. W., & Wilson, D. B. (2001). Practical meta-analysis . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Loomer, B., Fitzsimmons, R., & Strege, M. (1990). Spelling research and practice: Teacher’s edition . Iowa City, IA: Useful Learning.

*Lougheed, J. A. (1980). Training of self-study spelling strategies and their effectiveness on fourth grade students (Unpublished master’s thesis). Brockport, NY: State University College at Brockport.

*Louis, R. N. (1950). A study of spelling growth in two different teaching procedures (Unpublished master’s thesis). Ellensburg, WA: Central Washington College.

Marshall, J. C., & Powers, J. M. (1969). Writing neatness, composition errors, and essay grades. Journal of Educational Measurement, 6 , 97–101.

*Martins, M. A., & Silva, C. (2006). The impact of invented spelling on phonemic awareness. Learning and Instruction , 16 , 41–56.

*Mason, G. P. (1959). Word discrimination drill and spelling: An experimental study of the effect on spelling of drill in word discrimination (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Pullman, WA: State College of Washington.

McCutchen, D. (1988). “Functional automaticity” in children’s writing: A problem of metacognitive control. Written Communication, 5 , 306–324.

*McElwee, G. W. (1974). Systematic instruction in proofreading for spelling and its effects on fourth and sixth grade composition (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin.

Moats, L. (1995). Spelling development, disabilities, and instruction . Baltimore, MD: York.

Moats, L. (2005/2006). How spelling supports reading: And why it is more regular and predictable than you may think. American Educator , Winter, 12–43.

*Montésinos-Gelet, I. & Morin, M. (2005). The impact of a cooperative approximate spelling situation in a kindergarten setting. Educational Studies in Language and Literacy , 5 , 365–383.

*Nollau, C. B. (1974). A comparison of a linguistic approach to spelling and the test-study method of instruction in spelling (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). State College, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.

*Norton, P., & Heiman, B. (1988). Computer literacy and communication disordered students: A research study. Educational Technology , 28 (9), 36–41.

*Nunes, T., Bryant, P., & Olsson, J. (2003). Learning morphological and phonological spelling rules: An intervention study. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7 , 289–307.

*O’Connor, R. E. & Jenkins, J. R. (1995). Improving the generalization of sound/symbol knowledge: Teaching spelling to kindergarten children with disabilities. Journal of Special Education , 29 , 255–275.

*Ouellette, G. (2010). Orthographic learning in learning to spell: The roles of semantics and type of practice. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 107 , 50–58.

*Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2008). Pathways to literacy: A study of invented spelling and its role in learning to read. Child Development , 79 , 899–913.

*Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2010). Invented spelling: An intervention strategy for kindergarten. Retrieved from Canadian Council of Learning website: http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Research/FundedResearch/201010OOuelletteSpelling.html .

Perfetti, C. (1997). The psycholinguistics of spelling and reading. In C. A. Perfetti, L. Rieben, & M. Royol (Eds.), Learning to spell (pp. 21–38). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

*Pittman, R. T. (2007). Improving spelling ability among speakers of African American vernacular English: An intervention based on phonological, morphological, and orthographic principle (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). College Station, TX: Texas A&M University.

Pressley, M., Graham, S., & Harris, K. R. (2006). The state of educational intervention research. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76 , 1–19.

*Radaker, L. D. (1963). The effect of visual imagery upon spelling performance. Journal of Educational Research , 56 , 370–372.

*RahimOf, F., Amiri, S., Aboutalebi, M., & Molavi, H. (2011). The effects of multi-sensory training on spelling disability of gifted, primary school students. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences , 29 , 1457–1461.

*Reutzel, D. R., Fawson, P. C., & Smith, J. A. (2006). Words to Go!: Evaluating a first-grade parent involvement program for “making” words at home. Literacy Research and Instruction , 45 , 119–159.

Rice, J. (1913). Scientific management in education . New York, NY: Hinds, Noble, & Elderedge.

*Rieben, L., Ntamakiliro, L. Gonthier, B., & Fayol, M. (2005). Effects of various early writing practices on reading and spelling. Scientific Studies of Reading , 9 , 145–166.

Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1986). Written composition. In M. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3rd ed., pp. 778–803). New York, NY: MacMillan.

Schlagel, B. (2007). Best practices in spelling and handwriting. In S. Graham, C. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Best practices in writing instruction (pp. 179–201). New York, NY: Guilford.

*Sénéchal, M., Ouellette, G., Pagan, S., & Lever, R. (2012). The role of invented spelling on learning to read in low-phoneme awareness kindergartners: A randomized-control–trial study. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal , 25 , 917–934.

Shadish, W. R., Robinson, L., & Congxiao, L. (1999). ES: A computer program for effect size calculation . Memphis, TN: University of Memphis.

*Shippen, M. E., Reilly, A., & Dunn, C. (2008). The effects of the intensity of spelling instruction for elementary students at risk for school failure. Journal of Direct Instruction , 8 , 19–28.

*Simle, M. A. (1992). The effects of guided and unguided creative writing activities on spelling achievement in fifth grade (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.

Smith, F. (1982). Writing and the writer . New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

*Stephens, M., & Hudson, A. (1984). A comparison of the effects of direct instruction and remedial English classes on the spelling skills of secondary students. Educational Psychology , 4 , 261–267.

*Sussman, G. L., (1998). The effects of phonological constructed spelling on first graders’ literacy development (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). New York, NY: Fordham University.

Treiman, R. (1993). Beginning to spell . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Tukey, J. W. (1977). Exploratory data analysis . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

*Turco, T. L. (1987). Acceptability and effectiveness of group contingencies for improving spelling achievement (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University.

*Uhry, J. K., & Sheperd, M. J. (1993). Segmentation/spelling instruction as part of a first-grade reading program: Effects on several measures of reading. Reading Research Quarterly , 28 , 219–233.

*Wagner, J. H. (1978). Peer teaching in spelling: An experimental study in selected Seventh-day Adventist high schools (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Gainesville, FL: University of Florida.

Wanzek, J., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Swanson, E. A., Edmonds, M., & Kim, A. (2006). A synthesis of spelling and reading interventions and their effects on the spelling outcomes of students with LD. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39 , 528–543.

*Weber, W. R., & Henderson, E. H. (1989). A computer-based program of word study: Effects on reading and spelling. Reading Psychology , 10 , 157–171.

Weiser, B., & Mathes, P. (2011). Using encoding instruction to improve the reading and spelling performances of elementary students at risk for literacy difficulties: A best-evidence synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 81 , 170–200.

Wilde, S. (1990). A proposal for a new spelling curriculum. Elementary School Journal, 90 , 275–289.

*Wilson, B. L. (1947). The effect of the incidental teaching of spelling in two tenth-grade social studies classes (Unpublished master’s thesis). Boston, MA: Boston University.

Wolf, I. (1986). Meta - analysis: Quantitative methods for research synthesis (Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, 07-04). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

Steve Graham

Arcadia University, Glenside, PA, USA

Tanya Santangelo

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steve Graham .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Graham, S., Santangelo, T. Does spelling instruction make students better spellers, readers, and writers? A meta-analytic review. Read Writ 27 , 1703–1743 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-014-9517-0

Download citation

Published : 16 May 2014

Issue Date : October 2014

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-014-9517-0

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Meta-analysis
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Plural of Thesis

What is the plural of thesis.

The Quick Answer

Table of Contents

Are You Good at Plurals?

The standard rules for forming the plurals, why is there confusion over the plural of thesis.

• Ready for the Test?

This page was written by Craig Shrives .

You might also like...

Was something wrong with this page?

Use #gm to find us quicker .

Create a QR code for this, or any, page.

mailing list

grammar forum

teachers' zone

Confirmatory test.

expand to full page

show as slides

download as .doc

print as handout

send as homework

display QR code

• Game Theory

TEACHING SPELLING THROUGH GAMES

• Visipena Journal 9(1):137-150
• 9(1):137-150

• University of Szeged

• Universitas Bina Bangsa Getsempena

Discover the world's research

• 25+ million members
• 160+ million publication pages
• 2.3+ billion citations
• Glenda Elizabeth Ruiz Villacrés
• Luis Antonio Paredes Rodríguez
• Clara Die Mee Yieng

• Michelle L Peters
• Edmund H. Henderson

• Louisa Moats
• Michael Pressley
• Joan Rankin

• Bob Schlagal

• TOP LANG DISORD

• APPL PSYCHOLINGUIST
• CHARLES  REECE 

• J J Masterson
• Recruit researchers
• Join for free
• Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

• Features for Creative Writers
• Features for Work
• Features for Higher Education
• Features for Teachers
• Features for Non-Native Speakers
• Learn Blog Grammar Guide Community Events FAQ
• Grammar Guide

Thesis Checker: Free Online Editor

Start typing, paste, or use

Get more suggestions to enhance this text and all your future writing

Your suggestions will show once you've entered some text.

Great job! We didn't find any suggestions in your text.

Works wherever you do

Get spelling, grammar, and style suggestions everywhere you write.

Why should you use an online thesis checker?

You’ve already done countless hours of research to write your thesis. You don’t want to spend countless hours correcting it, too.

You’ll sound professional

Wow your supervisors with how grammatically sound your writing is, how clear it is, and how well it flows.

You’ll save time

ProWritingAid’s thesis checker saves you hassle by acting as the first line of defense against pesky grammar issues.

You’ll become a better writer

Every time you run your thesis through ProWritingAid, you’ll see what your common mistakes are and how to fix them.

Professors and students love using ProWritingAid

Great tool for academic work. Easy to use and the reports and summary evaluation of your documents in several categories is very useful. So much more than spelling and grammar!

Debra Callender

If you’re an English teacher, you need to take a look at this tool—it reinforces what you’re teaching, highlights strengths and weaknesses, and makes it easier to personalize instruction.

Jennifer Gonzales

Only reason I managed to get an A in all my freshmen composition classes.

Chris Layton

Your first line of defense before submission

Save time on editing so you can focus on your research. ProWritingAid’s thesis checker helps you quickly and easily improve your grammar and style.

Academic writing made easier

Stop stressing over your first draft. Now you can improve any sentence in just a few clicks. Shorten sentences , correct informal language, expand your sentence variety, and add transitions.

Catch every easy-to-miss mistake

Typos and grammar errors can slip into anyone’s work. ProWritingAid’s AI-powered thesis checker can catch and fix even the trickiest issues so your ideas can shine.

In-depth analysis whenever you need it

Sure, that email might only need a cursory check. But a 100-page thesis needs more comprehensive reviews. Use our structure analysis , complex paragraph alerts , and transitions report to improve your work.

Write clearly, concisely, and accurately

Strike the right balance between clarity and academic rigor with analytical language goals and power verb suggestions . You can ensure your work is professional without sacrificing readability.

Get access to a library of expert resources

With ProWritingAid, you get more than just an app—you get the tools to become a better writer. Our in-app learning tool comes packed with helpful explanations for every suggestion.

Want more? Join our community or read our blog for advice from our resident experts on how to become a better writer.

ProWritingAid’s Thesis Checker FAQs

1. how do i use the online thesis checker.

Sign up for free, upload your thesis, and run any of ProWritingAid’s 20+ reports. You’ll see a number of suggestions that you can either accept or reject.

2. Does the essay checker work with British English and American English?

The thesis checker works with British English, American English, Australian English, and Canadian English. Just choose the one you’d like to use, and ProWritingAid will tailor its suggestions to match.

3. Is using a thesis checker cheating?

Not at all. The thesis checker won’t ever write the thesis for you. It will only point out possible edits and advise you on changes you need to make. You have full autonomy and can decide which changes to accept.

4. Is there a student discount?

Students who have an eligible student email address can get 20% off ProWritingAid Premium. Email [email protected] from your student email address to access your discount.

5. Can ProWritingAid check my thesis for free?

Absolutely. ProWritingAid offers a free membership to everyone, always, and you can edit up to 500 words at a time. If you need to edit more work, you can upgrade to Premium at any time.

6. Does ProWritingAid have a plagiarism checker?

Yes! ProWritingAid’s plagiarism checker will check your work against over a billion web-pages, published works, and academic papers, so you can be sure of its originality. Find out more about pricing for plagiarism checks here .

Submit your thesis with confidence

Drop us a line or let's stay in touch via :

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

Bachelor thesis or Bachelor's thesis

During my final year at university, I wrote what I thought was a "bachelor thesis". Right before printing it I stumbled upon several documents stating the name "bachelor's thesis". (Here we do not call it a dissertation just yet, so this question is only about the possessive bachelor's vs. bachelor .) A couple of Google search queries later, I had not found out which of these terms is correct. Which should I use?

• word-choice
• differences

• 2 It's a master's thesis and a doctoral thesis. Going by these, it should be a bachelor's thesis or a bacheloral thesis . Except bacheloral isn't a word. What is the adjective form for bachelor? Oh, it's bachelor. So by analogy, it's either a bachelor's thesis or a bachelor thesis . I think both should be fine. –  Peter Shor Commented Jul 19, 2012 at 16:06

4 Answers 4

First off, I would mimic the term that your university uses. Does that give you a satisfactory resolution? (Or are they inconsistent in their use?)

If not, do you use the full term "Bachelor of Arts" or "Bachelor of Science" in your thesis title? If so, you don't need the apostrophe s (and you should capitalize the words as indicated). However, if you are referring to the degree program more informally, then I think you should use "bachelor's thesis." ( See this Wikipedia entry in which bachelor's is used throughout.)

Also, the Associated Press Styleguide has these guidelines for Academic Degrees:

• Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s degree, a master’s, etc.
• There is no apostrophe in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science.

I think that would apply to bachelor's thesis as well.

• Inconsistency is the problem. I have seen both versions come up, so it's not about being correct with respect to the university, it's more a question of my curiosity. As BA/BSc is concerned, we do not distinguish between them, we're simply bachelors. I read through some style guides, but none of them address theses specifically, so I was not sure about its application based on "bachelor's degree" and other uses. So your implication may or may not be correct. Still it's the closest I got to a backed answer. –  Ondrej Commented May 10, 2012 at 10:25

In some countries/universities, the word "thesis" or a cognate is used as part of a bachelor's or master's course, while "dissertation" is normally applied to a doctorate, while in others, the reverse is true.

In USA and Canada,

• Research-based papers presented as the final empirical study of a bachelor with honours (honors) degree are normally called bachelor thesis or honours thesis (in USA, "thesis" is in more commonly use).
• Major papers presented as the final project for a master's degree are normally called thesis .
• Major papers presenting the student's research towards a doctoral degree are called theses or dissertations .

In Germany,

• A bachelor's thesis is often 40–60 pages long, other theses are usually even longer.
• The required submission for the doctorate is called a Dissertation or Doktorarbeit.

• 4 1) This does not address my issue at all. As I said, it's not about thesis/dissertation, regional specifics, ..., it's only about the first word of the term. 2) The whole answer is only a compilation of excerpts from the "Thesis" Wikipedia entry. Don't worry, read that already. –  Ondrej Commented May 10, 2012 at 10:19
• Ahem... I double-checked Mac's Oxford dictionaries and they confirm that "thesis" is singular and "theses" is plural; your answer suggests a semantic difference. I've suggested a minimal edit to make the answer consistent with this. –  Blaisorblade Commented Jun 26, 2016 at 15:07

As I understand it, you are the bachelor (or at least the bachelor candidate) by virtue of being on the course, and the thesis is yours, so bachelor's thesis is the correct way to go.

On the thesis/dissertation thing, a thesis is your argument or proposition, and a dissertation is the discourse you defend it with.

At the college I attended, we used the terms Senior Paper or Senior Thesis to describe that it occurs in the final year of schooling. There are no post-graduate programs at the college in question, which avoided confusion with doctoral or master's level work.

Nomenclature of this final year thesis will vary depending on the institution.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged word-choice differences or ask your own question .

• Featured on Meta
• Upcoming sign-up experiments related to tags

Hot Network Questions

• Cathay Pacific Online Booking: When to Enter Passport Details?
• Can I get a refund for ICE due to cancelled regional bus service?
• SMTP Header confusion - Delivered-To: and To: are different
• Do I need to indicate 'solo' for wind/brass instruments in shared staff?
• Geometry question about a six-pack of beer
• Did the BBC censor a non-binary character in Transformers: EarthSpark?
• What are these courtesy names and given names? - confusion in translation
• Is it unfair to retroactively excuse a student for absences?
• Is it possible to complete a Phd on your own?
• Why can't LaTeX (seem to?) Support Arbitrary Text Sizes?
• Is the FOCAL syntax for Alphanumeric Numbers ("0XYZ") documented anywhere?
• How to make D&D easier for kids?
• How many steps are needed to turn one "a" into at least 100,000 "a"s using only the three functions of "select all", "copy" and "paste"?
• Do Christians believe that Jews and Muslims go to hell?
• Does Matthew 7:13-14 contradict Luke 13:22-29?
• Why potential energy is not considered in the internal energy of diatomic molecules?
• Was Paul's Washing in Acts 9:18 a Ritual Purification Rather Than a Christian Baptism?
• Nesting two environments
• Viewport Shader Render different from 1 computer to another
• Navigation on Mars without Martian GPS
• Why we use trace-class operators and bounded operators in quantum mechanics?
• Can front gear be replaced on a Retrospec Judd folding bicycle?
• Can you arrange 25 whole numbers (not necessarily all different) so that the sum of any three successive terms is even but the sum of all 25 is odd?
• Summation not returning a timely result