diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 383307d78b9ef4cedec92c68950544eae12fed32..605de5553876bccf90679ffb349811ab69adc66c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -112,12 +112,12 @@ log abstraction in `replica.go`
 ## Use of the `transactionalClient` 
 Your `transactionalClient.go` takes several arguments (see code), but the two important ones
 are:
-- `-p` - tells your code to do two things:
+- `-p`: tells your code to do two things:
   - at end-of-text write out commit/abort notifications for each transaction
     whose fate has been decided, in the order that they were decided.
   - write out the contents of your KV store, ordered lexicographically by key value. Only
     written values need be printed.
-- `-s` use snapshot isolation instead serializable isolation
+- `-s`: use snapshot isolation instead serializable isolation
 
 `transactionalClient.go` differs from `client.go` in that it reads commands
 interactively. Once started, it reads commands (arbitrary strings) from STDIN