diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index facf46200d5f8af840db1b7fe5dfceb20cc30386..c77640fa9640cb8e30625702fa632ab0ec8b79ed 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ git installed.
 Installation
 ============
 
-On your VM, git is already installed. The remainder of this section
-is for when you want to install git on another machine. We recommend
-having git installed on your laptop or desktop computer.
+If you already have git installed, you can skip the rest of this
+section.  We recommend installing git on any machine (laptop or
+desktop) on which you expect to work.
 
 If you're on a Linux system, then it's somewhat likely that git is
 already installed; if not, you can use your favorite package manager
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ init
 ----
 
   This creates a repository, either in an empty directory, or one already
-  containing code. Create a new directory on your VM, let's call it "testing":
+  containing code. Create a new directory, let's call it "testing":
 
     mkdir ~/testing
   
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ config
     git config --global user.email "your_email@example.com"
 
   Any subsequent commits will now have more useful attribution. Make sure you
-  do this on your VM (or anywhere else you use git)!
+  do this anywhere you use git!
 
 More Advanced Git Operations
 ============================