diff --git a/docs/topics/auth.txt b/docs/topics/auth.txt
index 6c144d9d4f..332d61419a 100644
--- a/docs/topics/auth.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/auth.txt
@@ -693,7 +693,7 @@ login page::
 The login_required decorator
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-.. function:: decorators.login_required()
+.. function:: decorators.login_required([redirect_field_name=REDIRECT_FIELD_NAME])
 
     As a shortcut, you can use the convenient
     :func:`~django.contrib.auth.decorators.login_required` decorator::
@@ -703,35 +703,38 @@ The login_required decorator
         @login_required
         def my_view(request):
             ...
+    
+    :func:`~django.contrib.auth.decorators.login_required` does the following:
 
-    :func:`~django.contrib.auth.decorators.login_required` also takes an
-    optional ``redirect_field_name`` parameter. Example::
+    * If the user isn't logged in, redirect to
+      :setting:`settings.LOGIN_URL <LOGIN_URL>`, passing the current absolute
+      path in the query string. Example: ``/accounts/login/?next=/polls/3/``.
 
+    * If the user is logged in, execute the view normally. The view code is
+      free to assume the user is logged in.
+
+    By default, the path that the user should be redirected to upon
+    successful authentication is stored in a query string parameter called
+    ``"next"``. If you would prefer to use a different name for this parameter,
+    :func:`~django.contrib.auth.decorators.login_required` takes an
+    optional ``redirect_field_name`` parameter::
 
         from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required
 
-        @login_required(redirect_field_name='redirect_to')
+        @login_required(redirect_field_name='my_redirect_field')
         def my_view(request):
             ...
 
-    :func:`~django.contrib.auth.decorators.login_required` does the following:
+    If you provide a value to ``redirect_field_name``, you will most
+    likely need to customize your login template as well, since the template
+    context variable which stores the redirect path will use the value of
+    ``redirect_field_name`` as it's key rather than ``"next"`` (the default).
 
-        * If the user isn't logged in, redirect to
-          :setting:`settings.LOGIN_URL <LOGIN_URL>` (``/accounts/login/`` by
-          default), passing the current absolute URL in the query string. The
-          name of the GET argument is determined by the ``redirect_field_name``
-          argument provided to the decorator. The default argument name is
-          ``next``. For example:
-          ``/accounts/login/?next=/polls/3/``.
+    Note that you'll need to map the appropriate Django view to
+    :setting:`settings.LOGIN_URL <LOGIN_URL>`. For example, using the defaults,
+    add the following line to your URLconf::
 
-        * If the user is logged in, execute the view normally. The view code is
-          free to assume the user is logged in.
-
-Note that you'll need to map the appropriate Django view to
-:setting:`settings.LOGIN_URL <LOGIN_URL>`. For example, using the defaults, add
-the following line to your URLconf::
-
-    (r'^accounts/login/$', 'django.contrib.auth.views.login'),
+        (r'^accounts/login/$', 'django.contrib.auth.views.login'),
 
 .. function:: views.login(request, [template_name, redirect_field_name, authentication_form])