diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e10e375..8d5deca 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,32 +1,34 @@
 # Software Installation Tool (SIT)
 
 ## About
-SIT is a simple software installation tool inspired by gentoo's emerge script.
+SIT is a simple software installation tool inspired by Gentoo's emerge script.
 It eases the installation process and helps to prevent errors during the
-installation as well as helps with the documentation as it generates a lot of
-log files and installes them together with the softwre package.
+installation. Further sit helps with documenting software installations
+by generating log files from the installation process, which are installed
+along the software package itself.
 
 ## Getting started
 
 ### Basic usage
 
-In its current version it can only install a package using a package class file
-including the necessary information
+In its current version sit can only install a package using a package class file
+including the necessary information.
 
-The package tree resides per default in the directory $SIT_PATH/packages. For
-convenience it should look like following
+The package tree resides per default in the directory `$SIT_PATH/packages`. For
+convenience it should look like follows:
+```shell
   $SIT_PATH/packages/CATEGORY/PACKAGE/PACKAGE-VERSION
+```
 
-
-The global configuration file of SIT is $SIT_PATH/etc/sit.conf
-It includes a variety of default values:
+The global configuration file of SIT is `$SIT_PATH/etc/sit.conf`.  It includes
+a variety of default values:
 * PREFIX_BASE
 * SRC_POOL
 * SCLASS_DIR
 * DEFAULT_PLATFORM
 * DEFAULT_COMPILER
 
-A user specific configuration file $HOME/.sit" can be used to overwrite the
+A user specific configuration file `$HOME/.sit`" can be used to overwrite the
 settings in the global configuration file.
 
 The installation process is currently controled with the following environment
@@ -38,9 +40,9 @@ variables:
 * PLATFORM
 * HOSTNAME
 
-Sit detects currently the build platform using the SITE_PLATFORM_NAME variable.
+Sit detects currently the build platform using the `SITE_PLATFORM_NAME` variable.
 If sit cannot determine the PLATFORM it uses the default platform specified
-in sit.conf.
+in `sit.conf`.
 For each platform configuration files are stored unter
 ```shell
 $SIT_PATH/etc/platform-configs/$PLATFORM/*
@@ -48,18 +50,19 @@ $SIT_PATH/etc/platform-configs/$PLATFORM/*
 
 At the moment only compiler configurations are supported.
 
-
 To install a package simply call sit with the necessary information provided by
 these variables:
-> [VARIABLE_DECLARATIONS] sit PACKAGE
-
+```shell
+[VARIABLE_DECLARATIONS] sit PACKAGE
+```
 e.g.
-
-> PREFIX_BASE=/opt COMPILER=gnu COMPILER_VERSION=4.5 sit mpi/openmpi-1.5.1
-
+```shell
+PREFIX_BASE=/opt COMPILER=gnu COMPILER_VERSION=4.5 sit mpi/openmpi-1.5.1
+```
 or for a package to be installed with a specific compiler and mpi version
-
-> PREFIX_BASE=/opt COMPILER=gnu COMPILER_VERSION=8.3.0 MPI=openmpi MPI_VERSION=4.0.1 ./sit performance/extrae/extrae-3.6.1
+```shell
+PREFIX_BASE=/opt COMPILER=gnu COMPILER_VERSION=8.3.0 MPI=openmpi MPI_VERSION=4.0.1 ./sit performance/extrae/extrae-3.6.1
+```
 
 ### Package files
 
@@ -68,30 +71,31 @@ proces. The syntax of the package class files is inspired by gentoo's ebuild fil
 
 
 A sit package file must contain at least the following variables
-
+```
 A   archive (source tarball)
 P   package (name of extracted source folder)
 URL
 INSTALLER
-
+```
 
 Optional varialbes to control the build process are
-
+```
 CONFIGURE_OPTS  options which will be passed to configure
 CMAKE_OPTS      options which will be passed to cmake
 MAKEOPTS        options which will be passed to make (see sit.conf)
-
+```
 
 During the installation the following directory paths are used
+```
 WORKDIR         working directory to which e.g. sources will be unpacked
 SRCDIR          source directory
 BUILDDIR        directory in which the package will be build ($WORKDIR/build)
 LOGDIR          directory storing the temporary logfiles ($WORKDIR)
-
+```
 
 For fine tuning of the installation process the user can overwrite the following
 functions. If not other mentioned they are executed in $BUILDDIR
-
+```
 src_unpack      extract $SRC_POOL/${A} into $WORKDIR
 src_prepare     prepare extracted sources
 src_configure   configure
@@ -99,11 +103,10 @@ src_build       make
 src_pretest     tests to be performed before installation
 src_install     make install
 src_posttest    tests to be done after installation
-
+```
 
 The following helper functions can be used
-
+```
 unpack      recognize and extract a compressed tar file
-
-
+```