diff --git a/docs/shortcuts.txt b/docs/shortcuts.txt
index 19eac4be6d..2030ea72fe 100644
--- a/docs/shortcuts.txt
+++ b/docs/shortcuts.txt
@@ -22,16 +22,29 @@ Required arguments
 Optional arguments
 ------------------
 
-``context``
+``dictionary``
     A dictionary of values to add to the template context. By default, this
     is an empty dictionary. If a value in the dictionary is callable, the
     view will call it just before rendering  the template.
 
+``context_instance``
+    The context instance to render the template with. By default, the template
+    will be rendered with a ``Context`` instance (filled with values from
+    ``dictionary``). If you need to use `context processors`_, you will want to
+    render the template with a ``RequestContext`` instance instead. Your code
+    might look something like this::
+
+        return render_to_response('my_template.html',
+                                  my_data_dictionary,
+                                  context_instance=RequestContext(request))
+
 ``mimetype``
     **New in Django development version:** The MIME type to use for the
     resulting document. Defaults to the value of the ``DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE``
     setting.
 
+.. _`context processors`: ../templates_python/#subclassing-context-requestcontext
+
 Example
 -------