diff --git a/docs/faq.rst b/docs/faq.rst
index db1a00e59..e36b589bb 100644
--- a/docs/faq.rst
+++ b/docs/faq.rst
@@ -225,61 +225,6 @@ If you've already moved your music *outside* of beets, you have a few options:
 - Resort to manually modifying the SQLite database (not recommended).
 
 
-.. _modify-selected:
-
-…modify a couple of songs without difficult query?
---------------------------------------------------
-
-If you want to modify some items in your library but do not want to spend much time
-on a query matching all but not more than those songs, you can create a simple query
-and select the items afterwards.
-
-Let's say you want to tag all your songs of the album "Conspiracy of One" with some
-self-defined field but you do not like the intro. With
-``beet modify -w mysongs=true Conspiracy of one`` will print::
-
-        Modifying 14 items.
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Intro
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Come Out Swinging
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Original Prankster
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Want You Bad
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Million Miles Away
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Dammit, I Changed Again
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Living \in Chaos
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Special Delivery
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - One Fine Day
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - All Along
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Denial, Revisited
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Vultures
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Conspiracy of One
-          mysongs: true
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Huck It
-          mysongs: true
-        Really modify, move and write tags? (Yes/no/select) 
-
-If you hit ``s`` beet will ask you for each item in the list whether
-you want to apply changes::
-
-        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - All Along
-          mysongs: true
-        Really modify, move and write tags? (yes/no)
-
-If you now say ``y`` to all items but for Intro you will modify all
-songs in the list but Intro.
-
-
 Why does beets…
 ===============
 
diff --git a/docs/reference/cli.rst b/docs/reference/cli.rst
index c49f82bd3..92ddc14d0 100644
--- a/docs/reference/cli.rst
+++ b/docs/reference/cli.rst
@@ -242,11 +242,16 @@ individual tracks. Items will automatically be moved around when necessary if
 they're in your library directory, but you can disable that with ``-M``. Tags
 will be written to the files according to the settings you have for imports,
 but these can be overridden with ``-w`` (write tags, the default) and ``-W``
-(don't write tags).  Finally, this command politely prints a list of all
+(don't write tags).
+
+When you run the ``modify`` command, it prints a list of all
 affected items in the library and asks for your permission before making any
-changes. You can then select if you want to abort the change with n, confirm
-with y or you can select items to apply the changes with s (see 
-:ref:`modify-selected`). But you can skip that prompt with the ``-y`` switch.
+changes. You can then choose to abort the change (type `n`), confirm
+(`y`), or interactively choose some of the items (`s`). In the latter case,
+the command will prompt you for every matching item or album and invite you to
+type `y` or `n`. This option lets you choose precisely which data to change
+without spending too much time to carefully craft a query. To skip the prompts
+entirely, use the ``-y`` option.
 
 .. _move-cmd: