Copywriter, technical writer, translator (FR>EN, ES>EN, IT>EN), journalist

Speed up your writing

The longer the document you need to write, the slimmer the chance of getting it right on the first draft.

So don’t agonize over every word when you first write a document. Instead, dash through the first draft and, wherever you’re not sure about something, leave a comment about that uncertainty that you can return to later.

Comments are a great tool you can use to help you more quickly stream your thoughts to the page without slowing yourself down to agonize over specific details. The time for handling details is when you revise your document, after you complete a first draft.

Word comments act like sticky notes, staying to the side of a document where they don’t block your work. People who work on complex documents usually use comments to communicate their thoughts on specific sections, but there’s no reason you can’t use them to include reminders for yourself as well.

sample comment in a Word document

I created this comment to remind myself to do something after I finished writing the content.

 

You can insert comments in a Word document using the Comment icon in the Review ribbon (or toolbar on older versions of Word.)