diff --git a/docs/deployment/application-deployment.md b/docs/deployment/application-deployment.md
index 79257939f..0ccc37cef 100644
--- a/docs/deployment/application-deployment.md
+++ b/docs/deployment/application-deployment.md
@@ -1,11 +1,10 @@
 # Deploying to Dokku
 
-> Note: This document uses the hostname `dokku.me` in commands. For your server, please
-> substitute your server's hostname instead.
+> Note: This walkthrough uses the hostname `dokku.me` in commands. When deploying to your own server, you should set the `DOKKU_DOMAIN` value in the `Vagrantfile` before you initialize the Vagrant VM.
 
 ## Deploy tutorial
 
-Once Dokku has been configured with at least one user, applications can be deployed via a `git push` command. To quickly see Dokku deployment in action, you can use the Heroku Ruby on Rails example app.
+Once you have configured Dokku with at least one user, you can deploy applications using `git push`. To quickly see Dokku deployment in action, try using [the Heroku Ruby on Rails "Getting Started" app](https://github.com/heroku/ruby-getting-started).
 
 ```shell
 # from your local machine
@@ -15,7 +14,7 @@ git clone git@github.com:heroku/ruby-getting-started.git
 
 ### Create the app
 
-Create the application on the Dokku host. You will need to SSH onto the host to run this command.
+SSH into the Dokku host and create the application as follows:
 
 ```shell
 # on the Dokku host
@@ -24,7 +23,9 @@ dokku apps:create ruby-getting-started
 
 ### Create the backing services
 
-When you create a new app, Dokku by default *does not* provide any datastores such as MySQL or PostgreSQL. You will need to install plugins to handle that, but fortunately [Dokku has official plugins](/docs/community/plugins.md#official-plugins-beta) for common datastores. Our sample app requires a PostgreSQL service:
+Dokku by default **does not** provide datastores (e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL) on a newly created app. You can add datastore support by installing plugins, and the Dokku project [provides official plugins](/docs/community/plugins.md#official-plugins-beta) for common datastores.
+
+The Getting Started app requires a PostgreSQL service, so install the plugin and create the related service as follows:
 
 ```shell
 # on the Dokku host
@@ -36,11 +37,11 @@ sudo dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-postgres.git
 dokku postgres:create railsdatabase
 ```
 
-> Each service may take a few moments to create.
+Each service may take a few moments to create.
 
 ### Linking backing services to applications
 
-Once the service creation is complete, set the `DATABASE_URL` environment variable by linking the service.
+Once the services have been created, you then set the `DATABASE_URL` environment variable by linking the service, as follows:
 
 ```shell
 # on the Dokku host
@@ -48,12 +49,11 @@ Once the service creation is complete, set the `DATABASE_URL` environment variab
 dokku postgres:link railsdatabase ruby-getting-started
 ```
 
-> You can link a single service to multiple applications or use one service per application.
+Dokku supports linking a single service to multiple applications as well as linking only one service per application.
 
 ### Deploy the app
 
-> Warning: Your application *should* respect the `PORT` environment variable or it may not respond to web requests.
-> Please see the [port management documentation](/docs/networking/port-management.md) for details.
+> Warning: Your app should respect the `PORT` environment variable, otherwise it may not respond to web requests. You can find more information in the [port management documentation](/docs/networking/port-management.md).**
 
 Now you can deploy the `ruby-getting-started` app to your Dokku server. All you have to do is add a remote to name the app. Applications are created on-the-fly on the Dokku server.
 
@@ -69,9 +69,9 @@ git push dokku master
 > the upstream with the scheme `ssh://` like so: `ssh://dokku@dokku.me:ruby-getting-started`
 > Please see the [Git](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-clone#_git_urls_a_id_urls_a) documentation for more details.
 
-> Note: Your private key should be registered with ssh-agent in local development. If you get a
-> permission denied error when pushing you can register your private key by running
-> `ssh-add -k ~/<your private key>`.
+> Note: Your private key should be registered with `ssh-agent` in your local development environment. If you get a `permission denied` error when pushing, you can register your private key as follows: `ssh-add -k ~/<your private key>`.
+
+After running `git push dokku master`, you should have output similar to this in your terminal:
 
 ```
 Counting objects: 231, done.
@@ -98,9 +98,9 @@ Total 231 (delta 93), reused 147 (delta 53)
        http://ruby-getting-started.dokku.me
 ```
 
-When the deploy finishes, the application's URL will be shown as seen above.
+Once the deploy is complete, the application's web URL will be generated as above.
 
-Dokku supports deploying applications via [Heroku buildpacks](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/buildpacks) with [Herokuish](https://github.com/gliderlabs/herokuish#buildpacks) or using a project's [Dockerfile](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/).
+Dokku supports deploying applications via [Heroku buildpacks](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/buildpacks) with [Herokuish](https://github.com/gliderlabs/herokuish#buildpacks), as well as by using a project's [Dockerfile](https://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/).
 
 
 ### Skipping deployment
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ dokku config:set ruby-getting-started DOKKU_SKIP_DEPLOY=true
 
 ### Redeploying or restarting
 
-If you need to redeploy (or restart) your app: 
+If you need to redeploy or restart your app: 
 
 ```shell
 # on the Dokku host
@@ -123,9 +123,9 @@ dokku ps:rebuild ruby-getting-started
 
 See the [process scaling documentation](/docs/deployment/process-management.md) for more information.
 
-### Deploying with private git submodules
+### Deploying with private Git submodules
 
-Dokku uses Git locally (i.e. not a Docker image) to build its own copy of your app repo, including submodules. This is done as the `dokku` user. Therefore, in order to deploy private Git submodules, you'll need to drop your deploy key in `/home/dokku/.ssh/` and potentially add `github.com` (or your VCS host key) into `/home/dokku/.ssh/known_hosts`. The following test should help confirm you've done it correctly.
+Dokku uses Git locally (i.e. not a Docker image) to build its own copy of your app repo, including submodules, as the `dokku` user. This means that in order to deploy private Git submodules, you need to put your deploy key in `/home/dokku/.ssh/` and potentially add `github.com` (or your VCS host key) into `/home/dokku/.ssh/known_hosts`. You can use the following test to confirm your setup is correct:
 
 ```shell
 # on the Dokku host
@@ -134,11 +134,11 @@ ssh-keyscan -t rsa github.com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
 ssh -T git@github.com
 ```
 
-Note that if the buildpack or Dockerfile build process require SSH key access for other reasons, the above may not always apply.
+> Warning: if the buildpack or Dockerfile build process require SSH key access for other reasons, the above may not always apply.
 
 ## Deploying to subdomains
 
-The name of remote repository is used as the name of application to be deployed, as for example above:
+If you do not enter a fully qualified domain name when pushing your app, Dokku deploys the app to `<remotename>.yourdomain.tld` as follows:
 
 ```shell
 # from your local machine
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ remote: -----> Application deployed:
 remote:        http://ruby-getting-started.dokku.me
 ```
 
-You can also specify fully qualified names, say `app.dokku.me`, as
+You can also specify the fully qualified name as follows:
 
 ```shell
 # from your local machine
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ remote: -----> Application deployed:
 remote:        http://app.dokku.me
 ```
 
-This is in particular useful, then you want to deploy to root domain, as
+This is useful when you want to deploy to the root domain:
 
 ```shell
 # from your local machine
@@ -182,9 +182,9 @@ git push dokku master
 
 ## Dokku/Docker container management compatibility
 
-Dokku is, at its core, a Docker container manager. Thus, it does not necessarily play well with other out-of-band processes interacting with the Docker daemon. One thing to note as in [issue #1220](https://github.com/dokku/dokku/issues/1220), Dokku executes a cleanup function prior to every deployment.
+Dokku is, at its core, a Docker container manager. Thus, it does not necessarily play well with other out-of-band processes interacting with the Docker daemon.
 
-As of 0.5.x, this function removes all containers with the label `dokku` where the status is either `dead` or `exited`, as well as all `dangling` images. Previous versions would remove `dead` or `exited` containers, regardless of their label.
+Prior to every deployment, Dokku will execute a cleanup function. As of 0.5.x, the cleanup removes all containers with the `dokku` label where the status is either `dead` or `exited` (previous versions would remove _all_ `dead` or `exited` containers). The cleanup function also removes all images with `dangling` status.
 
 ## Adding deploy users