diff --git a/tools/roslaunch/src/roslaunch/xmlloader.py b/tools/roslaunch/src/roslaunch/xmlloader.py
index ff07ff4463..6bb752b6fc 100644
--- a/tools/roslaunch/src/roslaunch/xmlloader.py
+++ b/tools/roslaunch/src/roslaunch/xmlloader.py
@@ -409,7 +409,7 @@ def _node_tag(self, tag, context, ros_config, default_machine, is_test=False, ve
                 elif tag_name == 'env':
                     self._env_tag(t, env_context, ros_config)
                 else:
-                    ros_config.add_config_error("WARN: unrecognized '%s' tag in <node> tag. Node xml is %s"%(t.tagName, tag.toxml()))
+                    ros_config.add_config_error("WARN: unrecognized '%s' child tag in the parent tag element: %s"%(t.tagName, tag.toxml()))
 
             # #1036 evaluate all ~params in context
             # TODO: can we get rid of force_local (above), remove this for loop, and just rely on param_tag logic instead?
diff --git a/tools/rostest/nodes/hztest b/tools/rostest/nodes/hztest
index d8e5f9d48a..f8c3c28317 100755
--- a/tools/rostest/nodes/hztest
+++ b/tools/rostest/nodes/hztest
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ Test Duration: %s"""%(hz, hzerror, topic, test_duration))
         self.assert_(hz >= 0.0, "bad parameter (hz)")
         self.assert_(hzerror >= 0.0, "bad parameter (hzerror)")
         self.assert_(test_duration > 0.0, "bad parameter (test_duration)")
-        self.assert_(len(topic), "bad parameter (topic")
+        self.assert_(len(topic), "bad parameter (topic)")
 
         if hz == 0:
             self.min_rate = 0.0