Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) is a pedagogical technique involving the

scientific investigation Scientific study is a kind of study that involves scientific theory, scientific models, experiments and physical situations. It may refer to: *Scientific method, a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, based on empirical or measurable ...

of the spelling of words. SWI considers

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

etymology Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...

, relatives, and

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

. The guiding principles of SWI are (1) "the primary function of English spelling is to represent meaning" and (2) "conventions by which English spelling represents meaning are so well-ordered and reliable that spelling can be investigated and understood through scientific inquiry."

Four questions

SWI uses four questions to investigate the spelling of a word: # What is the meaning of a word? # What are the morphemes of the word? # What are morphological and etymological relatives of the word? # What are the letters doing in the word (spelling phonemes, functioning as markers, zeroed)? The questions must be investigated in order starting with the meaning.

Word sums

A word sum shows how a word is built. A word sum is a "necessary tool to allow falsification of hypotheses of orthographic morphological structure." The following are examples of word sums: * de + sign -> design * de + sign + ate + ed-> designated * sign + al -> signal * sign + ate + ure -> signature * re + sign + ate + ion -> resignation

Word Matrices

A word matrix is a visualization of the morphology of related words. Sign word matrix

References

{{Reflist Etymology Spelling Orthography Writing Linguistic morphology Learning Learning to read Early childhood education