Here’s another simple tip to make your editing a little easier:

Print it out.

That’s right, print it out. Get a pen and mark up your document.

Editing onscreen is hard, and you’re likely to miss so much. When reading off of a screen, we read quite fast. We have to, because there’s so much information that we have to get through every day on the internet. If we read at a slower, more careful pace, we couldn’t possibly get through it all.

So when you go to proof your document, you might try to slow down, but it’s unlikely you’ll be able to read slow enough and careful enough to catch all your mistakes.

Print it out, and make your edits with a red pen. You’ll find yourself catching so many more mistakes than you would have if you’d edited solely on your computer. Eyestrain won’t make you have to skim the document, and you’ll find yourself much more able to focus on individual words, instead of full sentences and phrases.