diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 1140f8e1b..0fb7a66ca 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -800,7 +800,7 @@ to install using pip and a virtualenv::
 
     virtualenv env
     source env/bin/activate
-    python synapse/python_dependencies.py | xargs -n1 pip install
+    python synapse/python_dependencies.py | xargs pip install
     pip install setuptools_trial mock
 
 This will run a process of downloading and installing all the needed