diff --git a/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-common-tasks.xml b/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-common-tasks.xml
index 36f67f10c3..c5ff3b29b5 100644
--- a/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-common-tasks.xml
+++ b/documentation/dev-manual/dev-manual-common-tasks.xml
@@ -1602,18 +1602,21 @@
 
             <para>
                 If you are fetching your source files from an upstream source
-                archived tarball then you normally do not need to set
-                <filename>S</filename>.
+                archived tarball and the tarball's internal structure matches
+                the common convention of a top-level subdirectory named
+                <filename>${</filename><ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_REF_URL;#var-BPN'><filename>BPN</filename></ulink><filename>}-${</filename><ulink url='&YOCTO_DOCS_REF_URL;#var-PV'><filename>PV</filename></ulink><filename>}</filename>,
+                then you do not need to set <filename>S</filename>.
                 However, if <filename>SRC_URI</filename> specifies to fetch
-                source from an SCM like Git or Subversion, your recipe needs
-                to define <filename>S</filename>.
+                source from an archive that does not use this convention,
+                or from an SCM like Git or Subversion, your recipe needs to
+                define <filename>S</filename>.
             </para>
 
             <para>
                 If processing your recipe using BitBake successfully unpacks
-                the source files, you need to be sure that the structure
-                created in <filename>${S}</filename> matches the structure
-                from the source.
+                the source files, you need to be sure that the directory
+                pointed to by <filename>${S}</filename> matches the structure
+                of the source.
             </para>
         </section>