Light, Medium or Heavy Levels

On page 13 in the textbook, we read about how copyediting work can be classified as light, medium or heavy. The different descriptions are given to let a copyeditor know how much time and effort to give to a piece of work. These classifications vary based on the quaility of writing, audience, schedule, budget and author's notoriety. In this blog post, I tried to think of/look up pieces of writing and try to classify them as light, medium or heavy.

A piece in UNF Spinnaker by an English student, printed at the end of the month: Light. This is because the student would have a firm grasp on the basic mechanics of grammar and spelling so the quality of writing would be higher. It is also light because the budget would be fairly low. Additionally, it would be light because it does not reach a very large audience outside of the school.

A folio piece due to be printed in a week: Medium. This audience is a bit larger, the budget higher and the time frame smaller.  Additionally, may need work with permissions in addition to mechanical, language and content editing.

A novel published by an important local author: High. The audience on this could be very large and the budget would be much higher. The piece would require editing on all fronts and it would likely require many weeks of back and forth between author and editor.