The ability to spot words is at the heart and soul of scrabble, at its core, this has been the integral aspect of the game that has drawn millions to the game. Spotting words may be likened to an artform. There is an element of creativity and self expression associated with it.
You are well aware that the objective of the game is to win by scoring as many points as possible. The true passion for the game is lost somewhere along the way by many who aspire to improve their game by treating it purely as an analytical exercise of numbers and sequences of letters to be placed on squares for maximum scoring potential. If you want to keep improving your scrabble no matter what stage you are on your journey, focus on gaining a renewed interest on your ability to spot and learn words, the other aspects that need improving concurrently will automatically fall into place, trust me.
I find that scrabble coaches / tutors emphasise factors such as strategy, points and being defensive to aspiring players. This makes the whole process heartless and mechanical. A player’s development usually plateaus and may cause irreparable damage to their anagramming ability.
All of us want that EUREKA ( which is a valid scrabble word, by the way ) moment when we’ve just spotted a really obscure word ( usually under pressure ). Even as I type this, I recall a practice session that I had today with one of my students, it was only a casual game where I was coaching her, after a few turns I ended up with EHIMNST on my rack, there was an A and then an empty space, and then the letter I, it was simply euphoric spotting HISTAMINE for 94 points. ( I wasn’t being a show off to my student, after playing the word I drew level in score ).
There are various strategies that you could adopt to spot words. Those familiar with the how the English language is structured will straight away identify the recurring patterns.
Identifying common prefixes and suffixes ( ie. REwire, happIER )
Common pairs of letters ( THank, briCK )
At the end of every test, there is an explanation given on the patterns that you could identify to spot words.
Here are some exercises that you could do to improve your ability to form words.
Word spotting activity
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