Here is a link to help strip the formatting from MS Word,.. https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-remove-formatting-in-word-4690629
Here is another resource for converting MS word to plain text.
How to convert Word Document files into plain-text files
I usually use this one:
- open the document in Word,
- do a “Save as” in Word (goto File > Save as),
- select “Save as type” as “plain text”,
- click “Save”,
- when the dialogue box appears (for non-English OSs) check “allow character substitution” and “line breaks” then click “OK”,