diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index d5019bfc..c594a491 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -57,23 +57,28 @@ Some defined roles in our community: [Community Member](https://github.com/exer
+- Maintainers are happy to review your work and help you out. ๐ ๐ But they may be in a different timezone, or tied up ๐งถ with other tasks. **Please wait at least 72 hours before pinging them.** They will review your request as soon as they are able to.
+- If you'd like in-progress feedback or discussion, please mark your PR as a `[draft]`
- Pull requests should be focused on a single exercise, issue, or change.
-- PR titles and descriptions should make clear **what** has changed and **why**. Please link ๐ to any related issues the PR addresses.
-- ๐ [An issue should be opened](https://github.com/exercism/python/issues/new/choose) ๐ _**before**_ creating a PR that makes significant or breaking change to an existing exercise. The same holds true for changes across multiple exercises. It is best to discuss these changes with ๐งฐ maintainers before doing the work.
-- Follow coding standards found in [PEP8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/) ( ["For Humans" version here](https://pep8.org/).) We do have some more specific requirements. More on that later.
+
+- Pull Request titles and descriptions should make clear **what** has changed and **why**. Please link ๐ to any related issues the PR addresses.
+- ๐ [An issue should be opened](https://github.com/exercism/python/issues/new/choose) ๐ _**before**_ creating a Pull Request that makes significant or breaking changes to an existing exercise.
+ - The same holds true for changes across multiple exercises.
+ - It is best to discuss changes with ๐งฐ maintainers before doing a lot of work.
+- Follow coding standards found in [PEP8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/) ( ["For Humans" version here](https://pep8.org/).) We do have some more specific requirements. More on that a little later.
- All files should have a proper [EOL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline) at the end. This means one carriage return at the end of the final line of text in files.
-- Watch out otherwise for trailing spaces, extra blank lines, and spaces in blank lines. โ ๏ธ
-- The CI is going to run **a lot** of check on your PR. Pay attention to the failures, try to understand and fix them. If you need help, comment in the PR or issue. ๐๐ฝโโ๏ธ
+- Otherwise, watch out โ ๏ธ for trailing spaces, extra blank lines, extra spaces, and spaces in blank lines.
+- The CI is going to run **a lot** of checks on your PR. Pay attention to the failures, try to understand and fix them. If you need help, comment in the PR or issue. ๐๐ฝโโ๏ธ The maintainers are happy to help troubleshoot.
-## A Little More on Writing Style and Standards
+## A Little More on Prose Writing Style and Standards
Non-code content (_exercise introductions & instructions, hints, concept write-ups, documentation etc._) should be written in [American English](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/main/building/markdown/style-guide.md) . We strive to watch [the words we use](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/main/community/good-member/words.md).
-When a usage is contested or ambiguous, we default to what is best understood by our international community of learners, even if it "sounds a little weird" to a "native" American English speaker.
+When a word or phrase usage is contested or ambiguous, we default to what is best understood by our international community of learners, even if it "sounds a little weird" to a "native" American English speaker.
Our documents use [Markdown](https://guides.github.com/pdfs/markdown-cheatsheet-online.pdf) , with certain [alterations](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/main/building/markdown/widgets.md) & [additions](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/main/building/markdown/internal-linking.md). Here is our full [Markdown Specification](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/main/building/markdown/markdown.md). We format/lint our Markdown with [Prettier](https://prettier.io/).
@@ -84,15 +89,20 @@ Our documents use [Markdown](https://guides.github.com/pdfs/markdown-cheatsheet-
-- Each exercise must stand on its own. Please do not use or reference files outside the exercise directory. "Outside" files will not be included if a student fetches the exercise via the CLI.
+- Each exercise must be self-contained. Please do not use or reference files that reside outside the given exercise directory. "Outside" files will not be included if a student fetches the exercise via the CLI.
-- Each exercise/problem should have a complete test suite, an example/exemplar solution, and a stub file ready for student implementation.
+- Each exercise/problem should include a complete test suite, an example/exemplar solution, and a stub file ready for student implementation.
- - See [Concept Exercise Anatomy](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/main/building/tracks/concept-exercises.md), or [Practice Exercise Anatomy](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/main/building/tracks/practice-exercises.md) depending on to which type of exercise you are contributing.
+ - See [Concept Exercise Anatomy](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/main/building/tracks/concept-exercises.md), or [Practice Exercise Anatomy](https://github.com/exercism/docs/blob/main/building/tracks/practice-exercises.md) depending on which type of exercise you are contributing to.
-- For **practice exercises**, descriptions and instructions come from a centralized cross-track [problem specifications](https://github.com/exercism/problem-specifications) repository. Any updates or changes need to be proposed/approved in that repository first. If Python-specific changes become necessary, they need to be appended to the canonical instructions by creating a `instructions.append.md` file in this repository.
+- For **practice exercise**, descriptions and instructions come from a centralized, cross-track [problem specifications](https://github.com/exercism/problem-specifications) repository.
-- **Practice Exericse Test Suits** for many exercises are similarly [auto-generated]() from data in [problem specifications](https://github.com/exercism/problem-specifications). **Any changes to them need to be proposed/discussed in that repository, and approved by 3 track maintainers.** If Python-specific changes become necessary, they can be appended to this tracks `tests.toml` file. ๐ [**Please file an issue**](https://github.com/exercism/python/issues/new/choose) ๐ย and check with maintainers before adding any Python-specific tests.
+ - Any updates or changes need to be proposed/approved in `problem-specifications` first.
+ - If Python-specific changes become necessary, they need to be appended to the canonical instructions by creating a `instructions.append.md` file in this (`exercism/Python`) repository.
+
+- **Practice Exericse Test Suits** for many practice exercises are similarly [auto-generated](##Auto-Generated Test Files and Test Templates) from data in [problem specifications](https://github.com/exercism/problem-specifications).
+ - Any changes to them need to be proposed/discussed in the `problem-specifications` repository and approved by **3 track maintainers**, since changes could potentially affect many (or all) exercism language tracks.
+ - If Python-specific test changes become necessary, they can be appended to the exercise `tests.toml` file. ๐ [**Please file an issue**](https://github.com/exercism/python/issues/new/choose) ๐ and check with maintainers before adding any Python-specific tests.