diff --git a/src/core/ActionWithValue.cpp b/src/core/ActionWithValue.cpp
index 7c4f7bf6a8250398911efb468345084af76bfe9b..1da495838b16862a12cc62349772818aca3ade41 100644
--- a/src/core/ActionWithValue.cpp
+++ b/src/core/ActionWithValue.cpp
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ namespace PLMD {
 void ActionWithValue::registerKeywords(Keywords& keys) {
   keys.setComponentsIntroduction("By default the value of the calculated quantity can be referenced elsewhere in the "
                                  "input file by using the label of the action.  Alternatively this Action can be used "
-                                 "to be used to calculate the following quantities by employing the keywords listed "
+                                 "to calculate the following quantities by employing the keywords listed "
                                  "below.  These quanties can be referenced elsewhere in the input by using this Action's "
                                  "label followed by a dot and the name of the quantity required from the list below.");
   keys.addFlag("NUMERICAL_DERIVATIVES", false, "calculate the derivatives for these quantities numerically");
diff --git a/src/secondarystructure/SecondaryStructureRMSD.cpp b/src/secondarystructure/SecondaryStructureRMSD.cpp
index 629ea1fc96aa856df1933f1e13c07447bc914715..0d611d3c06f5e2ecbd60ab81166081140e9e4783 100644
--- a/src/secondarystructure/SecondaryStructureRMSD.cpp
+++ b/src/secondarystructure/SecondaryStructureRMSD.cpp
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ void SecondaryStructureRMSD::registerKeywords( Keywords& keys ) {
   keys.use("LESS_THAN"); keys.use("MIN"); keys.use("ALT_MIN"); keys.use("LOWEST"); keys.use("HIGHEST");
   keys.setComponentsIntroduction("By default this Action calculates the number of structural units that are within a certain "
                                  "distance of a idealised secondary structure element. This quantity can then be referenced "
-                                 "elsewhere in the input by using the label of the action. However, thes Action can also be used to "
+                                 "elsewhere in the input by using the label of the action. However, this Action can also be used to "
                                  "calculate the following quantities by using the keywords as described below.  The quantities then "
                                  "calculated can be referened using the label of the action followed by a dot and then the name "
                                  "from the table below.  Please note that you can use the LESS_THAN keyword more than once.  The resulting "
diff --git a/user-doc/Colvar.txt b/user-doc/Colvar.txt
index 52200181f07fc7d92e13abcc8a233a4f2f108f14..122f49d28549d65da6c1ca374fadbeb0c6b482b9 100644
--- a/user-doc/Colvar.txt
+++ b/user-doc/Colvar.txt
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ perform these transforms are:
 
 \section multicolvarbias MultiColvar bias
 
-There may be occasitions when you want add restraints on many collective variables. For instance if you are studying a cluster
+There may be occasions when you want add restraints on many collective variables. For instance if you are studying a cluster
 you might want to add a wall on the distances between each of the atoms and the center of mass of the cluster in order to
 prevent the cluster subliming.  Alternatively, you may wish to insist that a particular set of atoms in your system all have a 
 coordination number greater than 2.  You can add these sorts of restraints by employing the following biases, which all act 
diff --git a/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-1.txt b/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-1.txt
index 1adc65d377f215cfde0a2f79906cbf0237d8386a..482f11a60623111c5abb6bbde732f663f19ba722 100644
--- a/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-1.txt
+++ b/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-1.txt
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ PRINT ARG=e2edist,comdist STRIDE=1 FILE=COLVAR
 ENDPLUMED
 \endverbatim
 
-NOTE: an action (i.e. CENTER or DISTANCE here) can be either label using LABEL as we did before or as label: ACTION as we have just done here.
+NOTE: an action (i.e. CENTER or DISTANCE here) can be either labeled using LABEL as we did before or as label: ACTION as we have just done here.
 
 With the above input this is what happen inside PLUMED with a STRIDE=1:
 
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ With the above input this is what happen inside PLUMED with a STRIDE=1:
 4. calculates the distance between the two atoms 'first' and 'last' and saves it in 'comdist';
 5. print the content of 'e2edist' and 'comdist' in the file COLVAR
 
-In the above input we have used to different ways of writing the atoms used in \ref CENTER calculation:
+In the above input we have used two different ways of writing the atoms used in \ref CENTER calculation:
 
 1. ATOMS=1,2,3,4,5,6 is the explicit list of the atoms we need
 2. ATOMS=251-256 is the range of atoms needed
diff --git a/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-2.txt b/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-2.txt
index 2278f026a838b60d1b689710e2acef040f425ddf..40e6aff5f5acc3e1c4b789f9462294e2805e2391 100644
--- a/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-2.txt
+++ b/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-2.txt
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 In this section we want to introduce the concept of adaptive collective variables. 
 These are special variables that are knowledge-based in that are built from a pre-existing
-notion of the mechanism of the transition under study
+notion of the mechanism of the transition under study.
 
 \section belfast-2-resources Resources
 
@@ -40,14 +40,14 @@ and sizeable geometric distortions of the neighboring groups.
 
 \section belfast-2-pcvs-general Path collective variables
 
-One possibility to describe many different thing that happen in a single reaction is to use a dimensional reduction technique and in plumed the simplest example  that may show its usefulness can be considered that of the path collective variables. 
+One possibility to describe many different things that happen in a single reaction is to use a dimensional reduction technique and in plumed the simplest example  that may show its usefulness can be considered that of the path collective variables. 
 
 In a nutshell, your reaction might be very complex and happening in many degree of freedom but intuitively is a sort of  track along which the reaction proceeds. So what we need is a coordinate that, given a conformation, just tells which point along the "reactive track" is closest.
 
 \anchor belfast-2-ab-fig
 \image html belfast-2-ab.png "Given the reactant and the product, tell if another state is closer to any of the two with a continuous parameter" 
 
-For example, in Fig. \ref belfast-2-ab-fig, you see a typical chemical reaction (hydrolisys of methylphosphate) with the two end-points denoted by A and B. 
+For example, in Fig. \ref belfast-2-ab-fig, you see a typical chemical reaction (hydrolysis of methylphosphate) with the two end-points denoted by A and B. 
 If you are given a third point, just by looking at it, you might find that this is more resemblant to the reactant than the product, so, hypothetically, if you would intuitively 
 give a parameter that would be 1 for a configuration in the A state and 2 for a configuration in the B state, you probably would give it something like 1.3, right? 
 
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ S(X)=\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{N} i\ \exp^{-\lambda \vert X-X_i \vert }}{ \sum_{i=1}^{N}
 \f]
 
 where in \ref belfast-2-s-eq the \f$ \vert X-X_i \vert \f$ represents a distance between one configuration \f$ X \f$ which is analyzed and another from the set that compose the path 
-\f$ X_i \f$. The parameter \f$ \lambda \f$ is a positive value that is tuned in a way explaned later.
+\f$ X_i \f$. The parameter \f$ \lambda \f$ is a positive value that is tuned in a way explained later.
 here are a number of things to note to make you think that this is exactely what you want.
 - The negative exponential function is something that is 1 whenever the value at the exponent is zero, and is progressively smaller when the value is larger than zero (trivially, the case with the value at the exponent larger than zero never occurs since lambda is a positive quantity and the distance is by definition positive).
 - Whenever you sit exactly on a specific images \f$ X_j \f$ then all the other terms in the sum disappear (if \f$ \lambda \f$ is large enough) and only the value \f$ j \f$ survives returning exactely \f$ S(X)=j \f$. 
@@ -76,11 +76,11 @@ As a rule of thumb I use the following formula
 which imply that one should calculate the average distance between consecutive frames composing the path.
 Note also that this distance should be more or less similar between the frames. Generally I tolerate fluctuation of the order of 10/15 percent tops. If you have larger, then it is better to have a smaller value of \f$ \lambda \f$.
 
-It is important to note that in principle one could even have a specific \f$ \lambda \f$ value associated to each frame of the path but this would provide some distortion in the diffucion coefficient which could potentially harm a straightforward interpretation of the free energy landscape. 
+It is important to note that in principle one could even have a specific \f$ \lambda \f$ value associated to each frame of the path but this would provide some distortion in the diffusion coefficient which could potentially harm a straightforward interpretation of the free energy landscape. 
 
-So, at this point is better to understand what is meant with "distance" since a distance between two conformations can be calculated in very many ways.
+So, at this point it is better to understand what is meant with "distance" since a distance between two conformations can be calculated in very many ways.
 The way we refer here is by using mean square deviation after optimal alignment.
-This means that at each step in which the analisys is performed, a number N of optimal alignments is performed. Namely what is calculated is \f$ \vert X-X_i \vert = d(X,X_i)^2 \f$ where \f$  d(X,X_i) \f$ is the RMSD as defined in what you see here \ref RMSD.
+This means that at each step in which the analysis is performed, a number N of optimal alignments is performed. Namely what is calculated is \f$ \vert X-X_i \vert = d(X,X_i)^2 \f$ where \f$  d(X,X_i) \f$ is the RMSD as defined in what you see here \ref RMSD.
 
 Using the MSD instead of RMSD is sometimes more convenient and more stable (you do not have a denominator that gies to zero in the derivatives when biasing.
 
diff --git a/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-3.txt b/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-3.txt
index 1106853b844d08d2b51dfc2346bdb3fe8e6b7d29..5c1de1f652ef302a6ce66f9911b19820ed44872a 100644
--- a/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-3.txt
+++ b/user-doc/tutorials/belfast-3.txt
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ at it.  Type the following command into the command line:
 vmd trajectory-short.pdb
 \endverbatim
 
-Look at it with the various representations that vmd offers.  If you at are at the plumed tutorial try typing the letter m 
+Look at it with the various representations that vmd offers.  If you are at the plumed tutorial try typing the letter m 
 on the keyboard - we have made the new cartoon representation will update automatically for each frame of the trajectory - cool huh!  
 What are your impressions about this trajectory based on looking at it with VMD?  How many basins in the free energy landscape
 is this trajectory sampling from?  What can we tell from looking at this trajectory that we could perhaps put in a paper?