diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7c86075c..ac1e7b13 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -147,6 +147,10 @@ pip install autograder-py
 ## Running the Server
 
 The main server is available via the `cmd/server` executable.
+```
+./bin/server
+```
+
 The `web.port` config option can be used to set the port the server listens on:
 ```
 ./bin/server -c web.port=80
@@ -159,6 +163,20 @@ The `setcap.sh` script will do this for you:
 ./setcap.sh
 ```
 
+### Running the Server for Testing
+
+You may want to run the server for testing/debugging,
+e.g., if you are developing an interface to the server.
+We recommend two additional changes to how you would normally run the server:
+```
+go run cmd/server/main.go --unit-testing
+```
+
+First, we ran the server using `go run`,
+This will ensure that the server executable is up-to-date before running it.
+Second we used the `--unit-testing` flag,
+which will set some testing options, create a clean new database, and load the test courses (inside the `_tests directory).
+
 ## Running Tests
 
 This repository comes with several types of tests.
diff --git a/cmd/backup/main.go b/cmd/backup/main.go
index 07972a8f..c0008dc8 100644
--- a/cmd/backup/main.go
+++ b/cmd/backup/main.go
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ func main() {
     var courses map[string]*model.Course;
 
     if (args.Course != "") {
+        courses = make(map[string]*model.Course);
         course := db.MustGetCourse(args.Course);
         courses[course.GetID()] = course;
     } else {
diff --git a/common/http.go b/common/http.go
index b2a7c222..c26b92c2 100644
--- a/common/http.go
+++ b/common/http.go
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ func doRequest(uri string, request *http.Request, verb string, checkResult bool)
         log.Error("Got a non-OK status.",
                 log.NewAttr("code", response.StatusCode), log.NewAttr("body", body),
                 log.NewAttr("headers", response.Header), log.NewAttr("url", uri));
-        return "", nil, fmt.Errorf("Got a non-OK status code '%d' from %s on URL '%s': '%w'.", response.StatusCode, verb, uri, err);
+        return "", nil, fmt.Errorf("Got a non-OK status code '%d' from %s on URL '%s'.", response.StatusCode, verb, uri);
     }
 
     return body, response.Header, nil;
diff --git a/scoring/course.go b/scoring/course.go
index 08cf8fdd..3c385c16 100644
--- a/scoring/course.go
+++ b/scoring/course.go
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ func FullCourseScoringAndUpload(course *model.Course, dryRun bool) error {
 
         err := FullAssignmentScoringAndUpload(assignment, dryRun);
         if (err != nil) {
-            return fmt.Errorf("Failed to grade assignment '%s' for course '%s': '%w'.", course.GetID(), assignment.GetID(), err);
+            return fmt.Errorf("Failed to grade assignment '%s' for course '%s': '%w'.", assignment.GetID(), course.GetID(), err);
         }
     }