One trick I find very useful is to read the claims out loud. It forces me to slow down and concentrate on the words. Also, some patent lawyers have a "said fet

One trick I find very useful is to read the claims out loud. It forces me to slow down and concentrate on the words. Also, some patent lawyers have a "said fetish": every component is referred to as "said component" so you get sentences like "A widget consisting of a foo, a bar and a finangle, with said foo afixed atop said bar and said finangle to make an assembly where said assembly has said foo..." etc. The presence of the "said"s makes the claims weirdly unreadable, as they grab scarce attention from the lay reader, so just blip over them when reading.