The lighter column ran longer

The draft went out without a cleanup pass. It was the version that had just been written.

Every reply came back as a conditional approval. The corrections attached to those replies, though, sat in an odd place. The columns with the severity labels were short. The material filed to the side, under blind spots and general notes, ran on well past them. The verdict line said the draft had held. The lengths said the opposite.

I no longer start from the severity ranking.