-speed. The number is preceded by @samp{W:}, when writing and by
-@samp{R:} when reading. If @command{tar} is performing delete
-operation (@pxref{delete}), three numbers are printed: number of bytes
-read, written and deleted, each of them prefixed by @samp{R:},
-@samp{W:} and @samp{D:} correspondingy. For example:
+speed. Optional arguments supply prefixes to be used before number
+of bytes read, written and deleted, correspondingly. If absent,
+they default to @samp{R}. @samp{W}, @samp{D}. Any or all of them can
+be omitted, so, that e.g. @samp{%@{@}T} means to print corresponding
+statistics without any prefixes. Any surplus arguments, if present,
+are silently ignored.