diff --git a/Lib/compileall.py b/Lib/compileall.py
--- a/Lib/compileall.py
+++ b/Lib/compileall.py
@@ -29,9 +29,9 @@ def compile_dir(dir, maxlevels=10, ddir=
     maxlevels: maximum recursion level (default 10)
     ddir:      the directory that will be prepended to the path to the
                file as it is compiled into each byte-code file.
-    force:     if True, force compilation, even if timestamps are up-to-date
-    quiet:     if True, be quiet during compilation
-    legacy:    if True, produce legacy pyc paths instead of PEP 3147 paths
+    force:     if true, force compilation, even if timestamps are up-to-date
+    quiet:     if true, be quiet during compilation
+    legacy:    if true, produce legacy pyc paths instead of PEP 3147 paths
     optimize:  optimization level or -1 for level of the interpreter
     """
     if not quiet:
@@ -71,9 +71,9 @@ def compile_file(fullname, ddir=None, fo
     fullname:  the file to byte-compile
     ddir:      if given, the directory name compiled in to the
                byte-code file.
-    force:     if True, force compilation, even if timestamps are up-to-date
-    quiet:     if True, be quiet during compilation
-    legacy:    if True, produce legacy pyc paths instead of PEP 3147 paths
+    force:     if true, force compilation, even if timestamps are up-to-date
+    quiet:     if true, be quiet during compilation
+    legacy:    if true, produce legacy pyc paths instead of PEP 3147 paths
     optimize:  optimization level or -1 for level of the interpreter
     """
     success = 1
@@ -144,9 +144,9 @@ def compile_path(skip_curdir=1, maxlevel
 
     skip_curdir: if true, skip current directory (default true)
     maxlevels:   max recursion level (default 0)
-    force: as for compile_dir() (default False)
-    quiet: as for compile_dir() (default False)
-    legacy: as for compile_dir() (default False)
+    force: as for compile_dir() (default false)
+    quiet: as for compile_dir() (default false)
+    legacy: as for compile_dir() (default false)
     optimize: as for compile_dir() (default -1)
     """
     success = 1
@@ -170,24 +170,24 @@ def main():
                         default=10, dest='maxlevels',
                         help="don't recurse into subdirectories")
     parser.add_argument('-f', action='store_true', dest='force',
-                        help='force rebuild even if timestamps are up to date')
+                        help='force rebuild even if timestamps are up-to-date')
     parser.add_argument('-q', action='store_true', dest='quiet',
                         help='output only error messages')
     parser.add_argument('-b', action='store_true', dest='legacy',
                         help='use legacy (pre-PEP3147) compiled file locations')
     parser.add_argument('-d', metavar='DESTDIR',  dest='ddir', default=None,
                         help=('directory to prepend to file paths for use in '
-                              'compile time tracebacks and in runtime '
+                              'compile-time tracebacks and in runtime '
                               'tracebacks in cases where the source file is '
                               'unavailable'))
     parser.add_argument('-x', metavar='REGEXP', dest='rx', default=None,
-                        help=('skip files matching the regular expression. '
-                              'The regexp is searched for in the full path '
-                              'to each file considered for compilation.'))
+                        help=('skip files matching the regular expression; '
+                              'the regexp is searched for in the full path '
+                              'of each file considered for compilation'))
     parser.add_argument('-i', metavar='FILE', dest='flist',
                         help=('add all the files and directories listed in '
-                              'FILE to the list considered for compilation. '
-                              'If "-", names are read from stdin.'))
+                              'FILE to the list considered for compilation; '
+                              'if "-", names are read from stdin'))
     parser.add_argument('compile_dest', metavar='FILE|DIR', nargs='*',
                         help=('zero or more file and directory names '
                               'to compile; if no arguments given, defaults '