diff --git a/.gitmessage b/.gitmessage
index f0b7ea10e16..75664741dee 100644
--- a/.gitmessage
+++ b/.gitmessage
@@ -1,20 +1,22 @@
+
+# Commit message example
+# ----------------------
 # [MODULE] A short but descriptive summary (#pr-num)
-
-# A comprehensible description of WHY you did this work.
-
+#
+# A comprehensible description of WHY you did this work. Do not limit
+# yourself here. 
+# The width of the description is arbitary, but it is a good idea to 
+# wrap the text by 72 chars. 
+#
 # CORE-XXXX CIDXXXXX
-
+# ----------------------
 # * [MODULE] should usually be the name of the CMake module, written
 #   in all caps.
-#
-# * Summary should be imperative (not past tense), and not end with
-#   a period.
-#
-# * Description of commit should explain WHY a change was made.
-#
-# * JIRA, Coverity ID references should be placed at the bottom and
-#   preceded by the newline.
-#
-# * Pull request should always be referenced in the summary in parens
-#   unless it doesn't fit. In this case it should be placed after bug
-#   IDs if any.
+# * Summary should be imperative (not past tense) and not end with a
+#   period.
+# * Description of a commit should explain WHY a change was made.
+# * JIRA, Coverity ID references should be placed at the bottom row.
+# * There must be a newline between summary, description and bug IDs.
+# * GitHub Pull Request ID should be referenced in the summary in 
+#   parens. If the resulting summary is longer than 70 chars it may 
+#   be placed last in the ID row to prevent hard wrapping on GitHub.