diff --git a/dot-atom/styles.less b/dot-atom/styles.less
index db22ae538..50c5066e6 100644
--- a/dot-atom/styles.less
+++ b/dot-atom/styles.less
@@ -12,10 +12,14 @@
 
 }
 
+// style the background and foreground colors on the atom-text-editor-element
+// itself
 atom-text-editor {
 
 }
 
-atom-text-editor .cursor {
+// To style other content in the text editor's shadow DOM, use the ::shadow
+// expression
+atom-text-editor::shadow .cursor {
 
 }