diff --git a/README b/README
index 6dc0363..76afc00 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,4 +1,64 @@
-Highlight
-=========
+highlight
+============================
+
+Highlight is a generic syntax highlighter. highlight currently
+supports outputting to HTML. highlight is written in CHICKEN Scheme
+and supports all the languages the 'colorize' egg supports.
+
+Installation
+============================
+
+> wget  http://code.thintz.com/highlight/snapshot/highlight-master.tar.gz
+> tar xf highlight-master.tar.gz
+> cd highlight-master
+> sudo chicken-install
+
+Example
+============================
+
+> cat pigs-fly.scm
+(display "Do pigs fly? ")
+
+(if (equal? (read-line) "yes")
+    (display "Pigs fly!")
+    (display "Sorry, pigs aren't flying today."))
+
+> highlight pigs-fly.scm < pigs-fly.scm
+<style>
+ ...
+</style>
+<span class="code-highlight">
+  <span class="paren1">
+    (
+    <span class="default">display
+      <span class="string">&quot;Do pigs fly? &quot;</span>
+    </span>
+    )
+  </span>
+  ...
+</span>
+
+Usage
+============================
+
+highlight takes one argument, the filename. highlight then reads from
+standard input until end-of-file and writes to standard output.
+highlight attempts to guess at the language to use for the
+highlighting but if it fails writes plain HTML without any
+highlighting.
+
+Guessing the Language
+============================
+
+highlight attempts to guess what language to use for the syntax
+highlighting based on a number of criteria. highlight first checks for
+an emacs file local variable that specifies the major mode to use and
+if it finds one maps that to the language to use for highlighting.
+Note that it currently only checks the first line of the input. It
+supports both the single variable form and extended form. So both '-*-
+scheme -*-' and '-*- mode: scheme -*-' work. If it can't find an emacs
+file local variable for the major mode it instead guesses based on the
+file extension of the filename provided as its first argument. If it
+still can't figure out what language it uses it will not syntax
+highlight and instead output plain HTML.
 
-Highlight is a generic syntax highlighter outputting HTML.