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PHOENIXVILLE ROTARY SPELLING BEE
RULES AND REGULATIONS
1. The competitors will be given a practice round to acquaint them with the
procedures and give them a chance to relax. No one will be eliminated
during the practice round.
2. Each competitor, after being given a word, should SAY the word, SPELL
the word, and then SAY it again. If the word is mispronounced, the
spellmaster should correct the student (Homonyms should automatically be
put into a sentence or accompanied with a definition). The SAY-SPELL-
SAY procedure must be followed to ensure that: (1) the speller understands
the correct word, and (2) the judges know when the spelling is complete and
no more letters will be added. The head judge will stop the student if he
fails to pronounce the word before spelling, or if it is pronounced
incorrectly. NOTE: Failure to say-spell-say will not in itself eliminate the
speller from competition, but it will reduce the chances of correct spelling
and/or the ability to arbitrate.
3. Contestants must speak clearly and loudly. The spellmaster’s decision is
final in determining the correctness of the spelling, which may be
misunderstood if not spoken clearly.
4. The contestant may, before beginning to spell, ask for a definition of the
word, ask for the word to be used in a sentence, and/or ask for the word to be
repeated. Requests will be granted until the officials agree that the word has
been reasonably clear to the speller.
5. No proper nouns will be given.
6. No two word phrases will be given.
7. No Roman numerals will be given.
8. The student will have 30 seconds to spell the word from the time he begins
the word. Once a word is started, the student may start over, but may only
use the letters originally stated; no letter changes are allowed.
9. No talking will be allowed among contestants or between contestants and
members of audience. If a contestant receives assistances from anyone in
the audience, he will be disqualified.
10. When a word is misspelled, the spellmaster will say, “That is incorrect,”
then correctly spell the word for the contestant, and give the next word to the
next speller. However, when only two spellers remain, the procedures will
follow rules #12 and #13.
11. Rounds will continue, with a written record of which students went down in
which round, until four students remain. Then it will be announced that
third and fourth places will be determined by the next two contestants to go
out.
12. When only two spellers remain, the spellmaster will pause to announce the
change of elimination procedures. At that point, when one contestant
misspells a word, the other contestant shall be given an opportunity to spell
that same word. If the second contestant spells that word correctly, plus the
next word on the spellmaster’s list, then the second contestant shall be
declared the champion. If the second contestant misspells the word the
spellmaster will repeat the process.
13. At any point in the bee, if the competitors exhaust the word list for that
grade, the spellmaster is to use words from the next highest grade’s list. If,
after a number rounds, no one has been eliminated, the spellmaster is to
switch to the next higher grade’s word list. This applies even when there are
only two competitors remaining.