- @kbd{C-s} starts an incremental search. @kbd{C-s} reads characters from
-the keyboard and positions the cursor at the first occurrence of the
-characters that you have typed. If you type @kbd{C-s} and then @kbd{F},
-the cursor moves right after the first @samp{F}. Type an @kbd{O}, and see
-the cursor move to after the first @samp{FO}. After another @kbd{O}, the
-cursor is after the first @samp{FOO} after the place where you started the
-search. At each step, the buffer text that matches the search string is
-highlighted, if the terminal can do that; at each step, the current search
-string is updated in the echo area.
+ @kbd{C-s} starts a forward incremental search. It reads characters
+from the keyboard, and moves point past the next occurrence of those
+characters. If you type @kbd{C-s} and then @kbd{F}, that puts the
+cursor after the first @samp{F} (the first following the starting point, since
+this is a forward search). Then if you type an @kbd{O}, you will see
+the cursor move just after the first @samp{FO} (the @samp{F} in that
+@samp{FO} may or may not be the first @samp{F}). After another
+@kbd{O}, the cursor moves after the first @samp{FOO} after the place
+where you started the search. At each step, the buffer text that
+matches the search string is highlighted, if the terminal can do that;
+the current search string is always displayed in the echo area.