diff --git a/docs/api-guide/parsers.md b/docs/api-guide/parsers.md
index 4f145ba31..a950c0e00 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/parsers.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/parsers.md
@@ -91,11 +91,11 @@ You will typically want to use both `FormParser` and `MultiPartParser` together
 
 # Custom parsers
 
-To implement a custom parser, you should override `BaseParser`, set the `.media_type` property, and implement the `.parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context)` method.
+To implement a custom parser, you should override `BaseParser`, set the `.media_type` property, and implement the `.parse(self, stream, parser_context)` method.
 
 The method should return the data that will be used to populate the `request.DATA` property.
 
-The arguments passed to `.parse_stream()` are:
+The arguments passed to `.parse()` are:
 
 ### stream
 
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ The following is an example plaintext parser that will populate the `request.DAT
 
     media_type = 'text/plain'
 
-    def parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context=None):
+    def parse(self, stream, parser_context=None):
         """
         Simply return a string representing the body of the request.
         """
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ The following is an example plaintext parser that will populate the `request.DAT
 
 ## Uploading file content
 
-If your custom parser needs to support file uploads, you may return a `DataAndFiles` object from the `.parse_stream()` method.  `DataAndFiles` should be instantiated with two arguments.  The first argument will be used to populate the `request.DATA` property, and the second argument will be used to populate the `request.FILES` property.
+If your custom parser needs to support file uploads, you may return a `DataAndFiles` object from the `.parse()` method.  `DataAndFiles` should be instantiated with two arguments.  The first argument will be used to populate the `request.DATA` property, and the second argument will be used to populate the `request.FILES` property.
 
 For example:
 
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ For example:
         A naive raw file upload parser.
         """
 
-        def parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context):
+        def parse(self, stream, parser_context):
             content = stream.read()
             name = 'example.dat'
             content_type = 'application/octet-stream'
diff --git a/docs/tutorial/1-serialization.md b/docs/tutorial/1-serialization.md
index e21433ba3..5b58f293e 100644
--- a/docs/tutorial/1-serialization.md
+++ b/docs/tutorial/1-serialization.md
@@ -134,12 +134,15 @@ We've now got a few comment instances to play with.  Let's take a look at serial
 
 At this point we've translated the model instance into python native datatypes.  To finalise the serialization process we render the data into `json`.
 
-    stream = JSONRenderer().render(serializer.data)
-    stream
+    content = JSONRenderer().render(serializer.data)
+    content
     # '{"id": 1, "email": "leila@example.com", "content": "nothing to say", "created": "2012-08-22T16:20:09.822"}'
 
 Deserialization is similar.  First we parse a stream into python native datatypes... 
 
+    import StringIO
+
+    stream = StringIO.StringIO(content)
     data = JSONParser().parse(stream)
 
 ...then we restore those native datatypes into to a fully populated object instance.
diff --git a/rest_framework/parsers.py b/rest_framework/parsers.py
index 048b71e1b..6287b842a 100644
--- a/rest_framework/parsers.py
+++ b/rest_framework/parsers.py
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET
 from xml.parsers.expat import ExpatError
 import datetime
 import decimal
-from io import BytesIO
 
 
 class DataAndFiles(object):
@@ -33,29 +32,18 @@ class DataAndFiles(object):
 class BaseParser(object):
     """
     All parsers should extend `BaseParser`, specifying a `media_type`
-    attribute, and overriding the `.parse_stream()` method.
+    attribute, and overriding the `.parse()` method.
     """
 
     media_type = None
 
-    def parse(self, string_or_stream, parser_context=None):
-        """
-        The main entry point to parsers.  This is a light wrapper around
-        `parse_stream`, that instead handles both string and stream objects.
-        """
-        if isinstance(string_or_stream, basestring):
-            stream = BytesIO(string_or_stream)
-        else:
-            stream = string_or_stream
-        return self.parse_stream(stream, parser_context)
-
-    def parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context=None):
+    def parse(self, stream, parser_context=None):
         """
         Given a stream to read from, return the deserialized output.
         Should return parsed data, or a DataAndFiles object consisting of the
         parsed data and files.
         """
-        raise NotImplementedError(".parse_stream() must be overridden.")
+        raise NotImplementedError(".parse() must be overridden.")
 
 
 class JSONParser(BaseParser):
@@ -65,7 +53,7 @@ class JSONParser(BaseParser):
 
     media_type = 'application/json'
 
-    def parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context=None):
+    def parse(self, stream, parser_context=None):
         """
         Returns a 2-tuple of `(data, files)`.
 
@@ -85,7 +73,7 @@ class YAMLParser(BaseParser):
 
     media_type = 'application/yaml'
 
-    def parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context=None):
+    def parse(self, stream, parser_context=None):
         """
         Returns a 2-tuple of `(data, files)`.
 
@@ -105,7 +93,7 @@ class FormParser(BaseParser):
 
     media_type = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
 
-    def parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context=None):
+    def parse(self, stream, parser_context=None):
         """
         Returns a 2-tuple of `(data, files)`.
 
@@ -123,7 +111,7 @@ class MultiPartParser(BaseParser):
 
     media_type = 'multipart/form-data'
 
-    def parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context=None):
+    def parse(self, stream, parser_context=None):
         """
         Returns a DataAndFiles object.
 
@@ -148,7 +136,7 @@ class XMLParser(BaseParser):
 
     media_type = 'application/xml'
 
-    def parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context=None):
+    def parse(self, stream, parser_context=None):
         try:
             tree = ET.parse(stream)
         except (ExpatError, ETParseError, ValueError), exc:
diff --git a/rest_framework/tests/request.py b/rest_framework/tests/request.py
index f90bebf40..f698e845a 100644
--- a/rest_framework/tests/request.py
+++ b/rest_framework/tests/request.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ factory = RequestFactory()
 class PlainTextParser(BaseParser):
     media_type = 'text/plain'
 
-    def parse_stream(self, stream, parser_context=None):
+    def parse(self, stream, parser_context=None):
         """
         Returns a 2-tuple of `(data, files)`.
 
diff --git a/rest_framework/views.py b/rest_framework/views.py
index 62fc92f96..1be2593ce 100644
--- a/rest_framework/views.py
+++ b/rest_framework/views.py
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ class APIView(View):
 
     def get_parser_context(self, http_request):
         """
-        Returns a dict that is passed through to Parser.parse_stream(),
+        Returns a dict that is passed through to Parser.parse(),
         as the `parser_context` keyword argument.
         """
         return {