diff --git a/docs/skin.txt b/docs/skin.txt
index 2f414cb3e36..1459d7afd03 100644
--- a/docs/skin.txt
+++ b/docs/skin.txt
@@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ MediaWiki includes four core skins:
 * Modern: An attractive blue/grey theme with sidebar and top bar. Derived from
   Monobook.
 
-* Cologne Blue: A lightweight skin with minimal formatting. The oldest of
-  currently bundled skins, largely rewritten in 2012 while keeping the looks.
+* Cologne Blue: A lightweight skin with minimal formatting. The oldest of the
+  currently bundled skins, largely rewritten in 2012 while keeping its
+  appearance.
 
 
 Several legacy skins were removed in the 1.22 release, as the burden of
@@ -27,20 +28,20 @@ supporting them became too heavy to bear. Those were:
   This skin is now used for the old Wikipedia snapshot at
   http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/
 
-* Chick: A lightweight Monobook skin with no sidebar, the sidebar links were
+* Chick: A lightweight Monobook skin with no sidebar. The sidebar links were
   given at the bottom of the page instead.
 
 * Simple: A lightweight skin with a simple white-background sidebar and no top
   bar.
 
-* MySkin: Monobook without the CSS. The idea was that you customise it using
-  user or site CSS.
+* MySkin: Essentially Monobook without the CSS. The idea was that it could be
+  customised using user-specific or site-wide CSS (see below).
 
 
 == Custom CSS/JS ==
 
 It is possible to customise the site CSS and JavaScript without editing any
-source files. This is done by editing some pages on the wiki:
+server-side source files. This is done by editing some pages on the wiki:
 
 * [[MediaWiki:Common.css]] -- for skin-independent CSS
 * [[MediaWiki:Common.js]] -- for skin-independent JavaScript
@@ -73,7 +74,7 @@ $wgSkipSkins[] = '<name>';
 
 This technique is used by the more ambitious MediaWiki site operators, to 
 create complex custom skins for their wikis. It should be preferred over 
-editing the core Monobook skin directly. 
+editing the core Monobook skin directly.
 
 See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skinning for more information.
 
diff --git a/includes/Skin.php b/includes/Skin.php
index 245fac2a59b..15b85453b76 100644
--- a/includes/Skin.php
+++ b/includes/Skin.php
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
  */
 
 /**
- * The main skin class that provide methods and properties for all other skins.
+ * The main skin class which provides methods and properties for all other skins.
  * This base class is also the "Standard" skin.
  *
  * See docs/skin.txt for more information.
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ abstract class Skin extends ContextSource {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * Fetch the list of usable skins in regards to $wgSkipSkins.
+	 * Fetch the list of user-selectable skins in regards to $wgSkipSkins.
 	 * Useful for Special:Preferences and other places where you
 	 * only want to show skins users _can_ use.
 	 * @return array of strings
@@ -96,13 +96,13 @@ abstract class Skin extends ContextSource {
 	public static function getUsableSkins() {
 		global $wgSkipSkins;
 
-		$usableSkins = self::getSkinNames();
+		$allowedSkins = self::getSkinNames();
 
 		foreach ( $wgSkipSkins as $skip ) {
-			unset( $usableSkins[$skip] );
+			unset( $allowedSkins[$skip] );
 		}
 
-		return $usableSkins;
+		return $allowedSkins;
 	}
 
 	/**
diff --git a/skins/Vector.php b/skins/Vector.php
index d477c6595ab..ad309bad267 100644
--- a/skins/Vector.php
+++ b/skins/Vector.php
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ class SkinVector extends SkinTemplate {
 		parent::initPage( $out );
 
 		// Append CSS which includes IE only behavior fixes for hover support -
-		// this is better than including this in a CSS fille since it doesn't
+		// this is better than including this in a CSS file since it doesn't
 		// wait for the CSS file to load before fetching the HTC file.
 		$min = $this->getRequest()->getFuzzyBool( 'debug' ) ? '' : '.min';
 		$out->addHeadItem( 'csshover',