A number of small improvements/clarifications from @abachma2

Co-authored-by: Amanda Bachmann <abachmann@anl.gov>
Signed-off-by: Paul Wilson <paul.wilson@wisc.edu>

Author: gonuke

CONTRIBUTING.rst

@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ your fork of this repository referred to as ``origin``.
 First, let's make our ``work`` branch.  Assuming that you are in the ``cyclus`` directory:
 ::
     $ git branch work
+    $ git checkout work
     $ git push origin work
 
 We now have the following situation: there exists the mainline copy of the ``main``
@@ -143,15 +144,15 @@ doing this regularly, you'll want to do it before you initiate a pull request.
   $ git rebase main
   $ git push origin work
 
-Note: you may need to force the push of the rebased ``work`` branch to your fork.
+Note: you may need to force the push of the rebased ``work`` branch to your fork (i.e., `git push -f origin work`).
 
 In any case, you've performed the final commit to your ``work`` branch, so it's
 time to make a pull request online and wait for our main friends to review and
 accept it.  
 
 Sometimes, your pull request will be held by the reviewer until
 further changes are made to appease the reviewer's concerns. This may be
-frustrating, but please act rationally, discuss the issues on the GitHub space
+frustrating, but please act rationally; discuss the issues on the GitHub space
 made for your pull request, consult the `style guide
 <http://cyclus.github.com/devdoc/style_guide.html>`_, reach out on `slack
 <https://cyclus-nuclear.slack.com>`_ for further advice, and make changes to