diff --git a/docs/api-guide/authentication.md b/docs/api-guide/authentication.md
index c69953607..ae21c66eb 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/authentication.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/authentication.md
@@ -50,9 +50,9 @@ You can also set the authentication policy on a per-view basis, using the `APIVi
 
 Or, if you're using the `@api_view` decorator with function based views.
 
-    @api_view('GET'),
-    @authentication_classes(SessionAuthentication, UserBasicAuthentication)
-    @permissions_classes(IsAuthenticated)
+    @api_view(('GET',)),
+    @authentication_classes((SessionAuthentication, UserBasicAuthentication))
+    @permissions_classes((IsAuthenticated,))
     def example_view(request, format=None):
         content = {
             'user': unicode(request.user),  # `django.contrib.auth.User` instance.
diff --git a/docs/api-guide/renderers.md b/docs/api-guide/renderers.md
index f27eb3601..2b1f423dd 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/renderers.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/renderers.md
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ For example if your API serves JSON responses and the HTML browseable API, you m
 
 If your API includes views that can serve both regular webpages and API responses depending on the request, then you might consider making `TemplateHTMLRenderer` your default renderer, in order to play nicely with older browsers that send [broken accept headers][browser-accept-headers].
 
+---
+
 # API Reference
 
 ## JSONRenderer
@@ -119,6 +121,8 @@ If you're building websites that use `HTMLTemplateRenderer` along with other ren
 
 To implement a custom renderer, you should override `BaseRenderer`, set the `.media_type` and `.format` properties, and implement the `.render(self, data, media_type)` method.
 
+---
+
 # Advanced renderer usage
 
 You can do some pretty flexible things using REST framework's renderers.  Some examples...
@@ -128,6 +132,8 @@ You can do some pretty flexible things using REST framework's renderers.  Some e
 * Specify multiple types of HTML representation for API clients to use.
 * Underspecify a renderer's media type, such as using `media_type = 'image/*'`, and use the `Accept` header to vary the encoding of the response. 
 
+## Varying behaviour by media type
+
 In some cases you might want your view to use different serialization styles depending on the accepted media type.  If you need to do this you can access `request.accepted_renderer` to determine the negotiated renderer that will be used for the response.
 
 For example:
diff --git a/rest_framework/generics.py b/rest_framework/generics.py
index 901d23d12..44f677cc2 100644
--- a/rest_framework/generics.py
+++ b/rest_framework/generics.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ class BaseView(views.APIView):
         """
         return {
             'request': self.request,
-            'format': self.format,
+            'format': self.format_kwarg,
             'view': self
         }
 
diff --git a/rest_framework/views.py b/rest_framework/views.py
index 0359c2259..166bf0b16 100644
--- a/rest_framework/views.py
+++ b/rest_framework/views.py
@@ -162,13 +162,19 @@ class APIView(View):
         """
         return [throttle(self) for throttle in self.throttle_classes]
 
+    def get_content_negotiator(self):
+        """
+        Instantiate and return the content negotiation class to use.
+        """
+        return self.content_negotiation_class()
+
     def perform_content_negotiation(self, request, force=False):
         """
         Determine which renderer and media type to use render the response.
         """
         renderers = self.get_renderers()
-        conneg = self.content_negotiation_class()
-        return conneg.negotiate(request, renderers, self.format, force)
+        conneg = self.get_content_negotiator()
+        return conneg.negotiate(request, renderers, self.format_kwarg, force)
 
     def has_permission(self, request, obj=None):
         """
@@ -198,7 +204,7 @@ class APIView(View):
         """
         Runs anything that needs to occur prior to calling the method handlers.
         """
-        self.format = self.get_format_suffix(**kwargs)
+        self.format_kwarg = self.get_format_suffix(**kwargs)
 
         if not self.has_permission(request):
             self.permission_denied(request)