Students compete in school, county, regional, and state spelling bees to qualify for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Winners receive cash prizes and scholarships. Being a good speller can lead to success in language and writing skills.
Reaching the Scripps National Spelling Bee requires competing with several bees along the way. Most students start in their school’s spelling bee. The winners of these bees go on to compete in an all-county or all-city bee. These bees usually have all shifts conducted orally. Competitors in regional or zone bees often have written evidence for the early elimination rounds and the final rounds are conducted orally.
Students who win regional or zone bees advance to the state competition. State winners also have written rounds and finish with oral rounds. State winners make the trip to Washington, DC to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, sponsored by the EW Scripps Company, a news syndicate.
States can send more than one winner to the spelling bee. The number of spellers each state can send is determined by how many sponsor newspapers there are in that particular state. A sponsoring newspaper need not be owned by the Scripps Company—it just needs to be willing to organize state and/or community spelling bees. The average number of spellers at the national spelling bee is usually around 260.
The ratio of males to females varies from year to year, and the 81 winners are split almost evenly between males and females. Eligibility rules dictate that the student cannot be over 16 at the time of the National Spelling Bee and cannot have reached 9th grade by the time of his school final. The contest is run on a non-profit basis, so spellers are not required to post entry fees for any bee competition.
Spellers have some good incentives to win the national spelling bee. The first place winner goes home with over 30,000 US Dollars (USD) in cash and scholarships. Each contestant takes home some nice prizes. State-level awards are usually determined by the sponsoring newspaper. A national television network often covers the finals live, and the winners of the competition receive a great deal of media attention.
Being a good speller helps a student to be successful in linguistic and literary studies and helps to write well and think in an organized way. These skills can help a student achieve goals far beyond the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
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