Shell confusion

[Dave Bolt IT Solutions]

>You should not run GUI apps under a root shell.  Do:
>sudo gedit
>or better yet:
>sudoedit /etc/the_config.ext
>Matt Flaschen
Only,
dave is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
So, I found the sudoers file, but not at all clear about exaclty what I need 
to put in there.
Once again, I have to learn one thing in order to do another.
Any help here?
Thanks
Dave