Which term describes writing spoken words down by mapping sounds to letters?

• A. Phoneme isolation
• B. Onsets and rimes
• C. Encoding
• D. Grapheme

Answer: (C)

Encoding is the process of writing spoken words down by mapping sounds to letters. In spelling, encoding means taking the sounds you hear and choosing letter(s) to represent each sound, turning speech into written words. For example, the sounds /k/ /æ/ /t/ are written as C-A-T, showing encoding in action. This differs from grapheme, which is the written symbol itself (like a letter or letter group that represents a sound). Phoneme isolation is about picking out a single sound in a word, and onsets and rimes describe parts of a syllable; neither describes the act of writing sounds as letters.