diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index b5a4b9a..748e6b4 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -8,10 +8,18 @@ This simple Django utility allows you to utilize the
 `12factor <http://www.12factor.net/backing-services>`_ inspired
 ``DATABASE_URL`` environment variable to configure your Django application.
 
-Supported databases
+The `dj_database_url.config` method returns a Django database connection
+dictionary, populated with all the data specified in your URL. There is
+also a `conn_max_age` argument to easily enable Django's connection pool.
+
+If you'd rather not use an environment variable, you can pass a URL in directly
+instead to `dj_database_url.parse`.
+
+Supported Databases
 -------------------
 
-Support currently exists for PostgreSQL, PostGIS, MySQL, MySQL (GIS), Oracle, Oracle (GIS) and SQLite.
+Support currently exists for PostgreSQL, PostGIS, MySQL, MySQL (GIS),
+Oracle, Oracle (GIS) and SQLite.
 
 Installation
 ------------
@@ -23,19 +31,23 @@ Installation is simple::
 Usage
 -----
 
-Configure your database in ``settings.py`` from ``DATABASE_URL``
-(``default`` and ``conn_max_age`` are optional)::
+Configure your database in ``settings.py`` from ``DATABASE_URL``::
 
     import dj_database_url
-    DATABASES = {'default': dj_database_url.config(default='postgres://...', conn_max_age=600 )}
+
+    DATABASES['default'] = dj_database_url.config(conn_max_age=600)
+
+Provide a default::
+
+    DATABASES['default'] = dj_database_url.config(default='postgres://...'}
 
 Parse an arbitrary Database URL::
 
-    DATABASES = {'default': dj_database_url.parse('postgres://...', conn_max_age=600)}
+    DATABASES['default'] = dj_database_url.parse('postgres://...', conn_max_age=600)
 
-The ``conn_max_age`` attribute is the lifetime of a database connection in seconds 
-and is available in Django 1.6+. If you do not set a value, it will default to ``0`` 
-which is Django's historical behavior of using a new database connection on each 
+The ``conn_max_age`` attribute is the lifetime of a database connection in seconds
+and is available in Django 1.6+. If you do not set a value, it will default to ``0``
+which is Django's historical behavior of using a new database connection on each
 request. Use ``None`` for unlimited persistent connections.
 
 URL schema