1. Ensure that all of the text is formatted as body text and not headers.
2. Select the entire document and double check the font and font size have not changed inadvertently.
3. Check for any footnotes, text boxes, and endnotes that may not be included in the word count.
4. Manually count the words and check this is in agreement with the automatic word count.
5. Go to the view menu and select Field Codes to ensure there are not any special fields of information that are being shown in the document but are not being included in the document property settings.