diff --git a/github/data_source_github_release.go b/github/data_source_github_release.go
index 02f6019daa..8a0232498e 100644
--- a/github/data_source_github_release.go
+++ b/github/data_source_github_release.go
@@ -14,20 +14,23 @@ import (
 
 func dataSourceGithubRelease() *schema.Resource {
 	return &schema.Resource{
-		Read: dataSourceGithubReleaseRead,
-
+		Read:        dataSourceGithubReleaseRead,
+		Description: "Use this data source to retrieve information about a GitHub release in a specific repository.",
 		Schema: map[string]*schema.Schema{
 			"repository": {
-				Type:     schema.TypeString,
-				Required: true,
+				Type:        schema.TypeString,
+				Required:    true,
+				Description: "Name of the repository to retrieve the release from.",
 			},
 			"owner": {
-				Type:     schema.TypeString,
-				Required: true,
+				Type:        schema.TypeString,
+				Required:    true,
+				Description: "Owner of the repository.",
 			},
 			"retrieve_by": {
-				Type:     schema.TypeString,
-				Required: true,
+				Type:        schema.TypeString,
+				Required:    true,
+				Description: "Describes how to fetch the release. Valid values are `id`, `tag`, `latest`.",
 				ValidateDiagFunc: toDiagFunc(validation.StringInSlice([]string{
 					"latest",
 					"id",
@@ -35,12 +38,14 @@ func dataSourceGithubRelease() *schema.Resource {
 				}, false), "retrieve_by"),
 			},
 			"release_tag": {
-				Type:     schema.TypeString,
-				Optional: true,
+				Type:        schema.TypeString,
+				Optional:    true,
+				Description: "ID of the release to retrieve. Must be specified when `retrieve_by` = `tag`.",
 			},
 			"release_id": {
-				Type:     schema.TypeInt,
-				Optional: true,
+				Type:        schema.TypeInt,
+				Optional:    true,
+				Description: "ID of the release to retrieve. Must be specified when `retrieve_by` = `id`.",
 			},
 			"target_commitish": {
 				Type:     schema.TypeString,
diff --git a/website/docs/d/release.html.markdown b/website/docs/d/release.html.markdown
index d3e41dc313..63a49d6504 100644
--- a/website/docs/d/release.html.markdown
+++ b/website/docs/d/release.html.markdown
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ data "github_release" "example" {
 }
 ```
 
-To retrieve a specific release from a repository based on it's ID:
+To retrieve a specific release from a repository based on its ID:
 
 ```hcl
 data "github_release" "example" {
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ data "github_release" "example" {
 }
 ```
 
-Finally, to retrieve a release based on it's tag:
+Finally, to retrieve a release based on its tag:
 
 ```hcl
 data "github_release" "example" {