diff --git a/subprojects/gst-docs/markdown/application-development/appendix/compiling.md b/subprojects/gst-docs/markdown/application-development/appendix/compiling.md
index dcef4c0313..c077e8188d 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-docs/markdown/application-development/appendix/compiling.md
+++ b/subprojects/gst-docs/markdown/application-development/appendix/compiling.md
@@ -15,19 +15,33 @@ framework. In this section, we will solely discuss how to embed such
 elements statically in your application. This can be useful for
 application-specific elements that have no use elsewhere in GStreamer.
 
+Elements do not need to be registered to be used in GStreamer, so one
+can simply instantiate the elements with `g_object_new ()` and use them
+in pipelines like any other.
+
+If the statically linked elements should also be available through a
+name for functions such as `gst_element_factory_make ()`, these elements
+can be registered direclty without a plugin. For that you can use
+`gst_element_register ()` with `NULL` as plugin parameter.
+
+While these two methods are usually sufficient, it is also possible
+to register a static plugin.
+
+### Static plugins
+
 Dynamically loaded plugins contain a structure that's defined using
 `GST_PLUGIN_DEFINE ()`. This structure is loaded when the plugin is
 loaded by the GStreamer core. The structure contains an initialization
 function (usually called `plugin_init`) that will be called right after
 that. It's purpose is to register the elements provided by the plugin
-with the GStreamer framework. If you want to embed elements directly in
-your application, the only thing you need to do is to replace
-`GST_PLUGIN_DEFINE ()` with a call to `gst_plugin_register_static ()`.
-As soon as you call `gst_plugin_register_static ()`, the elements will
-from then on be available like any other element, without them having to
-be dynamically loadable libraries. In the example below, you would be
-able to call `gst_element_factory_make
-("my-element-name", "some-name")` to create an instance of the element.
+with the GStreamer framework. To register a static plugin, the only
+thing you need to do is to replace `GST_PLUGIN_DEFINE ()` with a call
+to `gst_plugin_register_static ()`. As soon as you call
+`gst_plugin_register_static ()`, the elements will from then on be
+available like any other element, without them having to be dynamically
+loadable libraries. In the example below, you would be able to call
+`gst_element_factory_make("my-element-name", "some-name")` to create
+an instance of the element.
 
 ``` c