diff --git a/pmd/xdocs/howitworks.xml b/pmd/xdocs/howitworks.xml
index b722b60203..96f2e3c034 100644
--- a/pmd/xdocs/howitworks.xml
+++ b/pmd/xdocs/howitworks.xml
@@ -14,9 +14,9 @@ PMD checks source code against rules and produces a report.  Like this:
 <li>Something passes a file name and a RuleSet into PMD</li>
 <li>PMD hands an InputStream to the file off to a JavaCC-generated parser</li>
 <li>PMD gets a reference to an Abstract Syntax Tree back from the parser</li>
-<li>PMD hands the AST off to the symbol table layer if any of the rules need it.  The SymbolFacade then builds a bunch of Scope nodes and attaches them to the appropriate places in the AST.</li>
-<li>Ditto for the data flow analysis layer, except this time it's DFA nodes that get built and attached.</li>
-<li>Each Rule in the RuleSet gets to traverse the AST and check for problems.  The Rules can also poke around the symbol table and DFA nodes.</li>
+<li>PMD hands the AST off to the symbol table layer which builds scopes, finds declarations, and find usages.</li>
+<li>If any rules need data flow analysis, PMD hands the AST over to the DFA layer for building control flow graphs and data flow nodes.</li>
+<li>Each Rule in the RuleSet gets to traverse the AST and check for problems.  The rules can also poke around the symbol table and DFA nodes.</li>
 <li>The Report is now filled with RuleViolations, and those get printed out in XML or HTML or whatever</li>
 </ul>
 </p>