diff --git a/.github/workflows/VerifyPR.yml b/.github/workflows/VerifyPR.yml
index be8ba6b3..935ef0f7 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/VerifyPR.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/VerifyPR.yml
@@ -71,4 +71,5 @@ jobs:
       with:
         file-path: README.md
         commit-msg: Update score in README
+        branch: ${{ env.GITHUB_REF_NAME }}
         github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
diff --git a/score.sh b/score.sh
index ef5dbc63..4853b7c4 100755
--- a/score.sh
+++ b/score.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 if [[ $1 == '--update-readme' ]]; then
   export NEW_SCORE=$(python3 ./tools/python/score.py)
-  echo $NEW_SCORE
+  echo "$NEW_SCORE"
   python3 - <<'EOF' > README.md.tmp
 import sys
 import os
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ print(
   )
 )
 EOF
-mv README.md.tmp README.md
+sed '$ { /^$/ d}' README.md.tmp > README.md # removes extra newlines at end of file
 else
   python3 ./tools/python/score.py "$@"
 fi