diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/issue-1542 b/changelog/unreleased/issue-1542
index 4db090d37..963e8ccb0 100644
--- a/changelog/unreleased/issue-1542
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/issue-1542
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
-Enhancement: Add --dry-run/-n option to backup command.
+Enhancement: Add --dry-run/-n option to backup command
 
-We added a new --dry-run/-n option to backup, which performs all the normal
-steps of a backup without actually writing data. Passing -vv will log
-information about files that would be added, allowing fast verification of
-backup options without any unnecessary write activity.
+We added a new --dry-run/-n option to the backup command, which performs
+all the normal steps of a backup without actually writing any changes to
+the repository. Passing -vv will log information about files that would
+be added, allowing verification of source and exclusion backup options
+without committing changes to the repository.
 
 https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/1542
 https://github.com/restic/restic/pull/2308
diff --git a/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go b/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go
index eac6c1dc0..ef229ee8a 100644
--- a/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go
+++ b/cmd/restic/cmd_backup.go
@@ -133,10 +133,10 @@ func init() {
 	f.BoolVar(&backupOptions.WithAtime, "with-atime", false, "store the atime for all files and directories")
 	f.BoolVar(&backupOptions.IgnoreInode, "ignore-inode", false, "ignore inode number changes when checking for modified files")
 	f.BoolVar(&backupOptions.IgnoreCtime, "ignore-ctime", false, "ignore ctime changes when checking for modified files")
+	f.BoolVarP(&backupOptions.DryRun, "dry-run", "n", false, "do not upload or write any data, just show what would be done")
 	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
 		f.BoolVar(&backupOptions.UseFsSnapshot, "use-fs-snapshot", false, "use filesystem snapshot where possible (currently only Windows VSS)")
 	}
-	f.BoolVarP(&backupOptions.DryRun, "dry-run", "n", false, "do not write anything, just print what would be done")
 }
 
 // filterExisting returns a slice of all existing items, or an error if no
diff --git a/doc/040_backup.rst b/doc/040_backup.rst
index 95194a742..086bb4e91 100644
--- a/doc/040_backup.rst
+++ b/doc/040_backup.rst
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ Combined with ``--verbose``, you can see a list of changes:
 
 .. code-block:: console
 
-    $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo backup ~/work --dry-run -vv | grep added
+    $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo backup ~/work --dry-run -vv | grep "added)$"
     modified  /plan.txt, saved in 0.000s (9.110 KiB added)
     modified  /archive.tar.gz, saved in 0.140s (25.542 MiB added)
     Would be added to the repo: 25.551 MiB