HEAVY EDIT (“It’s halfway between the first and final draft.”)
A heavy edit is for documents midway between first and final draft. Main ideas and form are mostly there in this earlier stage of development, but the text still looks and feels unfinished and at times even sloppy. Authors whose text needs a heavy edit often have had little time to closely read and review the document themselves, to clean it up, remove repetition, develop more logical and elegant ways to express ideas, or pay attention to details. Sentences, paragraphs, and even entire sections have been added to satisfy journal editors and reviewers in a revise-and-resubmit situation.
When I edit heavily, I clean up sentences, paragraphs, and the entire document to clearly and fluently communicate the ideas you intended. I polish sentences, connect ideas, and pull everything together. The text I return to you is ready to submit (or resubmit). Expect significant markup, comments, and rephrasing.
Example of a heavy edit
Example of a heavy-level edit on one sentence, before and after: