diff --git a/docs/ref/request-response.txt b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
index 295fba176f..effc0e5117 100644
--- a/docs/ref/request-response.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
@@ -125,10 +125,10 @@ All attributes except ``session`` should be considered read-only.
     Available headers depend on the client and server, but here are some
     examples:
 
-        * ``CONTENT_LENGTH``
-        * ``CONTENT_TYPE``
-        * ``HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING``
-        * ``HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE``
+        * ``CONTENT_LENGTH`` -- the length of the request body (as a string).
+        * ``CONTENT_TYPE`` -- the MIME type of the request body.
+        * ``HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING`` -- Acceptable encodings for the response.
+        * ``HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE`` -- Acceptable languages for the response.
         * ``HTTP_HOST`` -- The HTTP Host header sent by the client.
         * ``HTTP_REFERER`` -- The referring page, if any.
         * ``HTTP_USER_AGENT`` -- The client's user-agent string.
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ All attributes except ``session`` should be considered read-only.
         * ``REMOTE_USER`` -- The user authenticated by the Web server, if any.
         * ``REQUEST_METHOD`` -- A string such as ``"GET"`` or ``"POST"``.
         * ``SERVER_NAME`` -- The hostname of the server.
-        * ``SERVER_PORT`` -- The port of the server.
+        * ``SERVER_PORT`` -- The port of the server (as a string).
 
     With the exception of ``CONTENT_LENGTH`` and ``CONTENT_TYPE``, as given
     above, any HTTP headers in the request are converted to ``META`` keys by