Edited aliases

docs/documentation_style_guide.md

@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ Guidelines to go by when writing or editing any Yii documentation.
 
 ## Formatting
 
+* Use *italics* for emphasis, never capitalization, bold, or underlines.
+
 ## Blocks
 
 Blocks use the Markdown `> Type: `. There are four block types:

docs/guide/concept-aliases.md

 Aliases
 =======
 
-Aliases are used to represent file paths or URLs to avoid hard-coding absolute paths or URLs in your code.
-An alias must start with a `@` character so that it can be differentiated from file paths and URLs.
-For example, the alias `@yii` represents the installation path of the Yii framework, while `@web` represents
+Aliases are used to represent file paths or URLs so that you don't have to hard-code absolute paths or URLs in your project. An alias must start with the `@` character to be differentiated from normal file paths and URLs. Yii has many pre-defined aliases already available. 
+For example, the alias `@yii` represents the installation path of the Yii framework; `@web` represents
 the base URL for the currently running Web application.
 
 
 Defining Aliases <a name="defining-aliases"></a>
 ----------------
 
-You can call [[Yii::setAlias()]] to define an alias for a given file path or URL. For example,
+You can define an alias for a file path or URL by calling [[Yii::setAlias()]]:
 
 ```php
-// an alias of file path
+// an alias of a file path
 Yii::setAlias('@foo', '/path/to/foo');
 
-// an alias of URL
+// an alias of a URL
 Yii::setAlias('@bar', 'http://www.example.com');
 ```
 
-> Note: A file path or URL being aliased may NOT necessarily refer to an existing file or resource.
+> Note: The file path or URL being aliased may *not* necessarily refer to an existing file or resource.
 
-Given an alias, you may derive a new alias (without the need of calling [[Yii::setAlias()]]) by appending
-a slash `/` followed with one or several path segments. We call the aliases defined via [[Yii::setAlias()]]
-*root aliases*, while the aliases derived from them *derived aliases*. For example, `@foo` is a root alias,
+Given a defined alias, you may derive a new alias (without the need of calling [[Yii::setAlias()]]) by appending
+a slash `/` followed with one or more path segments. The aliases defined via [[Yii::setAlias()]] becomes the 
+*root alias*, while aliases derived from it are *derived aliases*. For example, `@foo` is a root alias,
 while `@foo/bar/file.php` is a derived alias.
 
-You can define an alias using another alias (either root alias or derived alias is fine):
+You can define an alias using another alias (either root or derived):
 
 ```php
 Yii::setAlias('@foobar', '@foo/bar');
@@ -36,7 +35,7 @@ Yii::setAlias('@foobar', '@foo/bar');
 Root aliases are usually defined during the [bootstrapping](runtime-bootstrapping.md) stage.
 For example, you may call [[Yii::setAlias()]] in the [entry script](structure-entry-scripts.md).
 For convenience, [Application](structure-applications.md) provides a writable property named `aliases`
-that you can configure in the application [configuration](concept-configurations.md), like the following,
+that you can configure in the application [configuration](concept-configurations.md):
 
 ```php
 return [
@@ -52,8 +51,8 @@ return [
 Resolving Aliases <a name="resolving-aliases"></a>
 -----------------
 
-You can call [[Yii::getAlias()]] to resolve a root alias into the file path or URL it is representing.
-The same method can also resolve a derived alias into the corresponding file path or URL. For example,
+You can call [[Yii::getAlias()]] to resolve a root alias into the file path or URL it represents.
+The same method can also resolve a derived alias into the corresponding file path or URL:
 
 ```php
 echo Yii::getAlias('@foo');               // displays: /path/to/foo
@@ -69,7 +68,7 @@ path/URL in the derived alias.
 
 A root alias may also contain slash `/` characters. The [[Yii::getAlias()]] method
 is intelligent enough to tell which part of an alias is a root alias and thus correctly determines
-the corresponding file path or URL. For example,
+the corresponding file path or URL:
 
 ```php
 Yii::setAlias('@foo', '/path/to/foo');
@@ -84,8 +83,8 @@ If `@foo/bar` is not defined as a root alias, the last statement would display `
 Using Aliases <a name="using-aliases"></a>
 -------------
 
-Aliases are recognized in many places in Yii without the need of calling [[Yii::getAlias()]] to convert
-them into paths/URLs. For example, [[yii\caching\FileCache::cachePath]] can accept both a file path
+Aliases are recognized in many places in Yii without needing to call [[Yii::getAlias()]] to convert
+them into paths or URLs. For example, [[yii\caching\FileCache::cachePath]] can accept both a file path
 and an alias representing a file path, thanks to the `@` prefix which allows it to differentiate a file path
 from an alias.
 
@@ -103,18 +102,16 @@ Please pay attention to the API documentation to see if a property or method par
 Predefined Aliases <a name="predefined-aliases"></a>
 ------------------
 
-Yii predefines a set of aliases to ease the need of referencing commonly used file paths and URLs.
-The following is the list of the predefined aliases:
+Yii predefines a set of aliases to easily reference commonly used file paths and URLs:
 
-- `@yii`: the directory where the `BaseYii.php` file is located (also called the framework directory).
-- `@app`: the [[yii\base\Application::basePath|base path]] of the currently running application.
-- `@runtime`: the [[yii\base\Application::runtimePath|runtime path]] of the currently running application.
-- `@vendor`: the [[yii\base\Application::vendorPath|Composer vendor directory]].
-- `@webroot`: the Web root directory of the currently running Web application.
-- `@web`: the base URL of the currently running Web application.
+- `@yii`, the directory where the `BaseYii.php` file is located (also called the framework directory)
+- `@app`, the [[yii\base\Application::basePath|base path]] of the currently running application
+- `@runtime`, the [[yii\base\Application::runtimePath|runtime path]] of the currently running application
+- `@vendor`, the [[yii\base\Application::vendorPath|Composer vendor directory]]
+- `@webroot`, the Web root directory of the currently running Web application
+- `@web`, the base URL of the currently running Web application
 
-The `@yii` alias is defined when you include the `Yii.php` file in your [entry script](structure-entry-scripts.md),
-while the rest of the aliases are defined in the application constructor when applying the application
+The `@yii` alias is defined when you include the `Yii.php` file in your [entry script](structure-entry-scripts.md). The rest of the aliases are defined in the application constructor when applying the application
 [configuration](concept-configurations.md).
 
 
@@ -122,9 +119,9 @@ Extension Aliases <a name="extension-aliases"></a>
 -----------------
 
 An alias is automatically defined for each [extension](structure-extensions.md) that is installed via Composer.
-The alias is named after the root namespace of the extension as declared in its `composer.json` file, and it
+Each alias is named after the root namespace of the extension as declared in its `composer.json` file, and each alias
 represents the root directory of the package. For example, if you install the `yiisoft/yii2-jui` extension,
-you will automatically have the alias `@yii/jui` defined during the [bootstrapping](runtime-bootstrapping.md) stage:
+you will automatically have the alias `@yii/jui` defined during the [bootstrapping](runtime-bootstrapping.md) stage, equivalent to:
 
 ```php
 Yii::setAlias('@yii/jui', 'VendorPath/yiisoft/yii2-jui');