simplify

[methane]

No description provided.

[aeros]

Thanks again @methane for the detailed suggestions! I really appreciate how much you've been able to help with this PR, I think it will definitely pay off since this section applies universally to any contributor since most will end up writing a Misc/NEWS entry at some point.

Overall, I agree with the major changes you made, but I had a few minor recommendations. I don't mind adding them in myself to the orginal PR, but I wanted to make sure that you agreed with them first.