diff --git a/doc/contributing.rst b/doc/contributing.rst
index b8195d12e3b..3cc43314d9a 100644
--- a/doc/contributing.rst
+++ b/doc/contributing.rst
@@ -1069,7 +1069,7 @@ PR checklist
 
   - Write new tests if needed. See `"Test-driven development/code writing" <https://docs.xarray.dev/en/stable/contributing.html#test-driven-development-code-writing>`_.
   - Test the code using `Pytest <http://doc.pytest.org/en/latest/>`_. Running all tests (type ``pytest`` in the root directory) takes a while, so feel free to only run the tests you think are needed based on your PR (example: ``pytest xarray/tests/test_dataarray.py``). CI will catch any failing tests.
-  - By default, the upstream dev CI is disabled on pull request and push events. You can override this behavior per commit by adding a <tt>[test-upstream]</tt> tag to the first line of the commit message. For documentation-only commits, you can skip the CI per commit by adding a "[skip-ci]" tag to the first line of the commit message.
+  - By default, the upstream dev CI is disabled on pull request and push events. You can override this behavior per commit by adding a ``[test-upstream]`` tag to the first line of the commit message. For documentation-only commits, you can skip the CI per commit by adding a ``[skip-ci]`` tag to the first line of the commit message.
 
 - **Properly format your code** and verify that it passes the formatting guidelines set by `Black <https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/>`_ and `Flake8 <http://flake8.pycqa.org/en/latest/>`_. See `"Code formatting" <https://docs.xarray.dev/en/stablcontributing.html#code-formatting>`_. You can use `pre-commit <https://pre-commit.com/>`_ to run these automatically on each commit.