12.1 METHODS TOUSE ON THE COMPUTER
You can do some proofreading while your document is still in digital form. First, you may want to enlarge the font size while you proofread. Enlarging the font (say, to 20- or 22-point size) can have two benefits.
First, you can focus more easily because you will have a smaller number of words on the screen at a time. Second, it will be easier to distance yourself from the text because the font change will significantly change the way the document looks. Proofreading on a screen also allows you to use your computer software’s Find and Replace feature to your advantage. Although your eyes get tired, the computer never misses on a search, presuming you are searching precisely.1. Pronoun search. Use the Find and Replace feature to search for he, she, it, they, and so on. Stop when you hit a pronoun and scrutinize it to make sure that the reader will have no doubt about the noun you are referring to (the antecedent). Also, make sure that you have not mistakenly used they in place of it. For example, a court or corporation should be referred to in the singular as it.
2. Apostrophe search. If you tend to use too many apostrophes, use the Find feature to search for s’ or ‘s so that you can scrutinize whether you’ve used each apostrophe correctly. If you use too few apostrophes, your task is a little harder. You could use the Find and Replace feature to find words that end in s by searching for s[space] or s.[space]. Once you are zeroed in on the potential problem words, consult grammar guidelines to see if you are using apostrophes correctly. Appendix A includes advice about some common apostrophe problems.
3. Quotation mark search. The rule in American English is that periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, even if you are quoting only one word or one letter: 
WRONG EXAMPLE Judge Wald has noted that finding errors in a brief makes her “go back to square one in evaluating the counsel”.
CORRECT EXAMPLE Judge Wald has noted that finding errors in a brief makes her “go back to square one in evaluating the counsel.” 
WRONG EXAMPLE The word “ace”, which refers to both tennis and poker, begins with the letter “a”. CORRECT EXAMPLE The word “ace,” which refers to both tennis and poker, begins with the letter “a.” To find errors of this type, use the Find feature to search for quotation marks, and check your punctuation. Also, check to make sure that all quotation marks come in pairs. Too often, when writers block and copy quotations, they place an opening quotation mark, then copy the language into the text, and neglect to insert the closing quotation mark. This is the punctuation equivalent of leaving the refrigerator door open, and it is very annoying to readers. Be sure to proofread specifically for this problem.
4. Citation search. To review your citations, search [begin underline] or [begin italics] or even v. to help you find citations and scrutinize them in isolation. Three types of errors are particularly common: (1) incorrect volume or page numbers, (2) misspelled party names, and (3) missing pinpoint page numbers. As noted earlier, presume that every citation should have a pinpoint. Even if you are citing only to a general principle from the case, find a page on which that general principle appears, and use it as the pinpoint.
While you are looking at your citations, take a look at your long-form citations and make sure that you have included the appropriate court abbreviation in the parenthetical. If you are not sure what court the case comes from, check the caption of the opinion. Note, for example, that F. Supp. 3d publishes only district court decisions, so any opinion printed in an edition of F.
Supp. cannot be a circuit court decision.5. Spell-check. Run the spell-check early and often, but keep a few things in mind. First, keep your hand away from the mouse, or your finger off the button, so that you don’t hit Replace or Skip by mistake. Second, don’t hit Skip as soon as you see a party name or a case name; make sure that you’ve spelled each one properly and consistently.
Third, after completing spell-check, use the Find and Replace feature to search for typos that the spell-check function won’t catch. In every document, look for statue for statute, untied for united, form for from (and vice versa), reasonable for reasonably (and vice versa), and probable for probably (and vice versa). You might consider setting your quickcorrect feature to change pubic to public to avoid that potentially embarrassing error. If your document is about probable cause or reasonable doubt, it is even more important to do this kind of search. I have read several briefs in which students claim that there was no “probably cause” for the defendant’s arrest, or that the defense could not establish “reasonably doubt.” Because both forms of certain problem words could appear in the text, search for each form separately and make sure each use is proper.
In the alternative, you might use your software’s quick-correct feature to create a shortcut for any word that you tend to misspell, or that is particularly likely to crop up in this document. For example, you might program “rd/” to convert to “reasonable doubt” to ensure you don’t make the reasonable/reasonably error. If you will sometimes need to type “reasonably doubt,” you could create another shortcut, such as “rdy/.”
As you can see, the Find and Replace feature can help you to proofread on the computer in many different ways. You may be able to figure out other ways to make the computer’s tireless brain work for you.