diff --git a/doc/contributing.rst b/doc/contributing.rst
index ca5751c938ec8175239b11320f0140043e0e17bf..e2b1194869df1aa1db5feb76c4a7be26527681d2 100644
--- a/doc/contributing.rst
+++ b/doc/contributing.rst
@@ -51,19 +51,20 @@ Releases
 
 A separate branch is created for each **minor** release. The name of the
 branch is ``v[major.minor]``, where ``[major.minor]`` is the first two
-components of the release version number (see below). For example, the branch
+components of the release version number (see above). For example, the branch
 name for minor release ``1.0`` would be ``v1.0``.
 
 
-Patches and hotfixes may be added to these release branches. These should be
-merged into the master branch, and then cherry-picked onto the release
-branch(es).
+Patches and bugfixes may be added to these release branches as ``point``
+releases.  These changes should be made on the master branch like any other
+change (i.e. via merge requests), and then cherry-picked onto the relevant
+release branch(es).
 
 
-Every release is also tagged with its full version number.  For example, the
-first release off the ``v1.0`` branch would be tagged with ``1.0.0``.
-Maintenance release to the ``v1.0`` branch would be tagged with ``1.0.1``,
-``1.0.2``, etc.
+Every release commit is also tagged with its full version number.  For
+example, the first release off the ``v1.0`` branch would be tagged with
+``1.0.0``.  Point releases to the ``v1.0`` branch would be tagged with
+``1.0.1``, ``1.0.2``, etc.
 
 
 Testing