improved wording

mikeblome · mikeblome · commit b947343af197 · 2019-11-13T10:50:10.000-08:00
diff --git a/docs/cpp/pointers-cpp.md b/docs/cpp/pointers-cpp.md
@@ -1,21 +1,20 @@
 ---
 title: "Pointers (C++)"
-ms.date: "11/08/2019"
+ms.date: "11/13/2019"
 description: "About raw pointers and smart pointers in Microsoft C++."
 helpviewer_keywords: ["pointers (C++)"]
 ms.assetid: 595387c5-8e58-4670-848f-344c7caf985e
 ---
 
 # Pointers (C++)
 
-A pointer is a variable that stores the memory address of an object. Pointers are used extensively in both C and C++ for three purposes:
+A pointer is a variable that stores the memory address of an object. Pointers are used extensively in both C and C++ for three main purposes:
 
 1. to allocate new objects on the heap,
-2. to pass larger objects to functions,
-3. to pass functions to other functions
-4. to iterate over elements in arrays or other data structures.
+1. to pass functions to other functions
+1. to iterate over elements in arrays or other data structures.
 
-In C-style programming, *raw pointers* are used for all these scenarios. However, pointer errors are by far the greatest cause of crashes, hangs, data corruption, security holes, and general programmer misery. In modern C++, the use of *raw pointers* is strongly discouraged except in scenarios where they provide a significant performance benefit. Modern C++ provides *smart pointers* for allocating objects, *iterators* for traversing data structures, and *lambda expressions* for passing functions. By using these language and library facilities instead of raw pointers, you will make your program safer, easier to debug, and simpler to understand and maintain. See [Smart pointers](smart-pointers-modern-cpp.md), [Iterators](../standard-library/iterators.md), and [Lambda expressions](lambda-expressions-in-cpp.md) for more information.
+In C-style programming, *raw pointers* are used for all these scenarios. However, raw pointers are the source of many serious programming errors. Therefore, their use is strongly discouraged except where they provide a significant performance benefit and there is no ambiguity as to which pointer is the *owning pointer* that is responsible for deleting the object. Modern C++ provides *smart pointers* for allocating objects, *iterators* for traversing data structures, and *lambda expressions* for passing functions. By using these language and library facilities instead of raw pointers, you will make your program safer, easier to debug, and simpler to understand and maintain. See [Smart pointers](smart-pointers-modern-cpp.md), [Iterators](../standard-library/iterators.md), and [Lambda expressions](lambda-expressions-in-cpp.md) for more information.
 
 ## In this section
 
@@ -32,4 +31,3 @@ In C-style programming, *raw pointers* are used for all these scenarios. However
 
 [Iterators](../standard-library/iterators.md)
 [Lambda expressions](lambda-expressions-in-cpp.md)
-
