diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index f5edea6a7..6beb3e38b 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ general philosophy of the Idris project, which can be summarised as follows:
   properties of programs, but will not *require* them to do so
 
 Many contributions will require acccompanying tests and documentation updates.
-Bug fixes in particular should be accompanied by tests, to avoid future
+Bugfixes in particular should be accompanied by tests, to avoid future
 regressions.
 
 Library functions should be `total` as far as possible, and at least `covering`
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ Things we probably won't accept
     We encourage following the camp site rule: leave the code tidier than you
     found it!
 * Primitive updates without a strong justification
-  - Primitives increase the burden on back end authors, for example. They may
+  - Primitives increase the burden on backend authors, for example. They may
     be necessary to support a new library, if a foreign function call is not
     appropriate, but we won't accept a primitive on the basis that it could be
     useful in future.
@@ -128,9 +128,9 @@ Things we probably won't accept
   Idris 2 API, to minimise the maintenance burden on the compiler.
 * Similarly, anything which adds an external dependency. We aim to keep
   dependencies minimal for ease of initial installation.
-* New back ends. You can implement new back ends via the Idris 2 API - and indeed
-  several people have. The back ends in this repository are limited to those
-  we are able to commit to maintaining.
+* New backends. You can implement new backends via the Idris 2 API - and indeed
+  several people have. The backends in this repository are limited to those we
+  are able to commit to maintaining.
 
 Other possible contributions
 ----------------------------
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2773fd6f2..23b461fe7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -18,9 +18,9 @@ is often one of `scheme`, `chezscheme` or `chezscheme9.5` (depending on the
 version). On a modern desktop machine, this process (including tests)
 should take less than 5 minutes.
 
-Idris 2 is mostly backwards compatible with Idris 1, with some minor
-exceptions. The most notable user visible differences, which might cause Idris
-1 programs to fail to type check, are:
+Idris 2 is mostly backward compatible with Idris 1, with some minor exceptions.
+The most notable user visible differences, which might cause Idris 1 programs
+to fail to type check, are:
 
 + Unbound implicit arguments are always erased, so it is a type error to
   attempt to pattern match on one.
@@ -70,8 +70,8 @@ Summary of new features:
   declarations.
 + Better type checker implementation which minimises the need for compile
   time evaluation.
-+ New Chez Scheme based back end which both compiles and runs faster than the
-  default Idris 1 back end. (Also, optionally, Racket and Gambit can be used
++ New Chez Scheme based backend which both compiles and runs faster than the
+  default Idris 1 backend. (Also, optionally, Racket and Gambit can be used
   as targets).
 + Everything works faster :).
 
@@ -80,9 +80,9 @@ language `TTImp`, which is essentially a desugared Idris, and is cleanly
 separated from the high level language which means it is potentially usable
 as a core language for other high level syntaxes.
 
-Javascript
+JavaScript
 ----------
-The javascript codegen uses the new BigInt, hence nodejs 10.4 or higher is required.
+The JavaScript codegen uses the new BigInt, hence Node.js 10.4 or higher is required.
 
 Editor Plugins
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