diff --git a/lib/puppet/parser/functions/split.rb b/lib/puppet/parser/functions/split.rb
index 52394095a..ad027865b 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/parser/functions/split.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/parser/functions/split.rb
@@ -1,29 +1,29 @@
 module Puppet::Parser::Functions
 
   newfunction(
   :split, :type => :rvalue,
 
     :doc => "\
 Split a string variable into an array using the specified split regexp.
 
-  Usage:
+*Example:*
 
     $string     = 'v1.v2:v3.v4'
     $array_var1 = split($string, ':')
     $array_var2 = split($string, '[.]')
     $array_var3 = split($string, '[.:]')
 
-$array_var1 now holds the result ['v1.v2', 'v3.v4'],
-while $array_var2 holds ['v1', 'v2:v3', 'v4'], and
-$array_var3 holds ['v1', 'v2', 'v3', 'v4'].
+`$array_var1` now holds the result `['v1.v2', 'v3.v4']`,
+while `$array_var2` holds `['v1', 'v2:v3', 'v4']`, and
+`$array_var3` holds `['v1', 'v2', 'v3', 'v4']`.
 
-Note that in the second example, we split on a string that contains
-a regexp meta-character (.), and that needs protection.  A simple
+Note that in the second example, we split on a literal string that contains
+a regexp meta-character (.), which must be escaped.  A simple
 way to do that for a single character is to enclose it in square
-brackets.") do |args|
+brackets; a backslash will also escape a single character.") do |args|
 
   raise Puppet::ParseError, ("split(): wrong number of arguments (#{args.length}; must be 2)") if args.length != 2
 
   return args[0].split(Regexp.compile(args[1]))
   end
 end