The current platform is here:
http://users.resist.ca/~moak47/writex/

I am trying to implement a XOOPS portion of our site, and I'd like to change a few of the key terms used in the platform.

Before going ahead and find/replace all the terms, I thought I'd write to see if there was an easier and less destructive possibility.

"Submission" should be "Contribution"
"News" should be "Poetry" (as this is a platform for the construction of poetry, not news)
"article" should be "poem"
"Comment" should be "Generation" (since people will be editing the original piece and adding it below, not commenting on it)

If I changed all the terms in the language/english/ folder, would that do it?

Thanks for the help.

Some terms may be doubled somewhere, but if all the terms are in one module and you change that module's language files, you should be safe.