diff --git a/sys/shell/shell.c b/sys/shell/shell.c
index 435c9a9973..945053a053 100644
--- a/sys/shell/shell.c
+++ b/sys/shell/shell.c
@@ -13,11 +13,12 @@
  * @{
  *
  * @file
- * @brief       Implementation of a very simple command interpreter.
+ * @brief       Implementation of a simple command interpreter.
  *              For each command (i.e. "echo"), a handler can be specified.
  *              If the first word of a user-entered command line matches the
- *              name of a handler, the handler will be called with the whole
- *              command line as parameter.
+ *              name of a handler, the handler will be called with the remaining
+ *              arguments passed in a manner similar to `main()`'s argc/argv
+ *              parameters.
  *
  * @author      Kaspar Schleiser <kaspar@schleiser.de>
  * @author      René Kijewski <rene.kijewski@fu-berlin.de>