diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4a21bf88bda335071ee21458ae40d0838c23be81..56f71395b9c3f00f7ef35b99c2278973c8f83816 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ tagged images:
     docker images
 
 A common problem is that we'll end up reusing an old tag, leaving
-an image with no repository:tag name. These show up as "<none>:<none>".
+an image with no repository:tag name. These show up as `<none>:<none>`.
 We can get rid of all of these with the following bash one-liner:
 
     docker images -a | grep none | awk '{print $3}' | xargs docker rmi
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ Let's parse this out:
     synonyms for the container ID
 
 By default, names are assigned randomly according to the pattern
-<adjective>_<scientist>
+`<adjective>_<scientist>`
 
 We can assign a name to the container, which is often useful:
 
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ We've passed two new options to docker run. The "-t" option allocates a
 pseudo-TTY, and the "-i" option makes the container interactive. You should
 now have a shell on the container running as root! If you run "docker ps" in
 another terminal, you will see that the container status is
-"Up <length of time>"
+`Up <length of time>`
 
 When you're done playing around in this shell, exit to stop the container.
 
@@ -278,14 +278,14 @@ Other Options for Running Containers
 
 Here are some useful options you might want to use:
 
-| Option |    Argument     |                  Effect                   |
-| ------ | --------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
-| --rm   |                 | removes container after exit              |
-| -ti    |                 | run interactively with a pTTY             |
-| -e     |     <vars>      | set environment variables                 |
-| -h     |   <hostname>    | set the container's hostname              |
-| -p     | <hport>:<cport> | map host's <hport> to container's <cport> |
-| -v     |  <hdir>:<cdir>  | mount host's <hdir> on <cdir>             |
+| Option |    Argument     |                  Effect                       |
+| ------ | --------------- | --------------------------------------------- |
+| --rm   |                 | removes container after exit                  |
+| -ti    |                 | run interactively with a pTTY                 |
+| -e     |    `<vars>`     | set environment variables                     |
+| -h     |  `<hostname>`   | set the container's hostname                  |
+| -p     |`<hport>:<cport>`| map host's `<hport>` to container's `<cport>` |
+| -v     | `<hdir>:<cdir>` | mount host's `<hdir>` on `<cdir>`             |
 
 
 Executing Commands in a Running Container