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The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly known as the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee) is a highly competitive annual Spelling Bee run on a Non-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company , held at the Grand Hyatt Washington hotel in Washington, DC . (The word "bee" is used in the sense of "a gathering", and is unrelated to the insect, although the logo of the Scripps National Spelling Bee features it prominently.) The National Spelling Bee (or NSB) was formed in . The winner of each year's bee is awarded a cash prize including $12,000 from the Scripps National Spelling Bee and a cup. Other prizes include a $5,000 cash award from Leapfrog, a $5,000 cash award from Franklin Electronic Publishers , a $5,000 scholarship from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, a $1,000 savings bond from Merriam Webster along with a reference library, and a set of the '' Encyclopædia Britannica '', one set of the '' Great Books Of The Western World '', and the newest ''Britannica CD''. Every speller receives a commemorative watch from Scripps Howard, a $20 gift certificate from Franklin Electronic Publishers, a $100 savings bond, and the '' Webster's Third New International Dictionary , Unabridged'' on a CD. The 2002 Academy Award nominated Documentary '' Spellbound '' followed eight competitors during the 1999 competition, including winner Nupur Lala. A thirteen-year-old wordwise eighth-grader, Anurag Kashyap, won the " in the nineteenth round. This year, there were 273 spellers. Last year, there were only 15 rounds with 265 spellers. All states are represented, but some of the low population areas such as Wyoming only have one speller sent to the Bee. Many of the former spellers have formed an online study organization known as 'Speller Nation', designed to help students learn more about the English language. "SPN" has supposedly drawn criticism from the NSB's director, Paige Kimble, but reports of rumors of this criticism have been unfounded. Due to the success of ''Spellbound'', spellers from Canada and New Zealand and one each from the Bahamas, Jamaica participated in the 2005 NSB. The 79th Scripps National Spelling Bee will once again be held in Washington, DC, on May 31 and June 1, 2006. 275 spellers will participate in this competition. For the first time in the NSB's history, ABC will broadcast the championship rounds, and this broadcast will happen during primetime. The following are recent winners of the competition:
WINNING WORDS The following are the "winning words" (the word that was correctly spelled to win the Bee) from previous years (note that the Scripps National Spelling Bee was not held in the World War II years of 1943, 1944, and 1945): CRITICISM OF THE SPELLING BEE For some years now the spelling bee has been picketed by members of the American Literacy Society . They see the national spelling bee as reinforcing the illogical spellings that lead to "dyslexia, high illiteracy, and harder lives for immigrants". {Link without Title} Many spellers believe that the winning word for each year is too easy compared to the other words in the high rounds of the nationals. EXTERNAL LINKS
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