diff --git a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 23d4baa..71c5770 100644
--- a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 `usmapdata` is open to any of the following contributions:
-* Map data updates from official shape files
 * Augmentation or improvement of existing features
 * Bug fixes and code refactoring
 * Additional or improved documentation (especially new examples, typo fixes, clearer language, etc.)
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 6a30e7d..9237f20 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@ Version: 0.2.1.9999
 Description: Provides a container for data used by the 'usmap' package.
     The data used by 'usmap' has been extracted into this package so that the
     file size of the 'usmap' package can be reduced greatly. The data in this
-    package will be updated roughly once per year (plus bug fixes) as new
-    shapefiles are provided by the US Census bureau.
+    package will be updated roughly once per year as new map data files are 
+    provided by the US Census Bureau.
 Authors@R: person("Paolo", "Di Lorenzo", email = "dilorenzo@hey.com", role = c("aut", "cre"))
 Depends:
     R (>= 3.5.0)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 9bff66d..67eae75 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 # [unreleased]
 
+### Improvements
+* Improve language in `DESCRIPTION` and minor documentation, see [Issue #19](https://github.com/pdil/usmapdata/issues/19).
+
 ### Bug Fixes
 * `alaska_bbox()` and `hawaii_bbox()` now output correct `sf` type (`sfc polygon`).
 
diff --git a/R/create-us-map.R b/R/create-us-map.R
index e0d9d29..1185643 100644
--- a/R/create-us-map.R
+++ b/R/create-us-map.R
@@ -52,13 +52,13 @@ create_us_map <- function(
 ) {
   # check for dplyr
   if (!requireNamespace("dplyr", quietly = TRUE)) {
-    stop("`dplyr` must be installed to use `dplyr`.
+    stop("`dplyr` must be installed to use `create_us_map()`.
          Use: install.packages(\"dplyr\") and try again.")
   }
 
   type <- match.arg(type)
 
-  # import map shape file
+  # import map file
   us <- sf::read_sf(input_file)
 
   # ea: US National Atlas Equal Area