diff --git a/HOWTOHELP b/HOWTOHELP
index e841c8fad..dd7ce8bb9 100644
--- a/HOWTOHELP
+++ b/HOWTOHELP
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ Ritchie, with a few concessions:
 -- 4-space indents are preferred, in unusual cases, 2-space indents 
    may be okay.
 
--- In the interests of keeping a program should, compressing 
+-- In the interests of keeping a program short, compressing 
    error-handling code as follows is acceptable:
 
         if (func(...) == -1)