diff --git a/snippets/rmarkdown.json b/snippets/rmarkdown.json
index 451b88845..7924e0d08 100644
--- a/snippets/rmarkdown.json
+++ b/snippets/rmarkdown.json
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
 		"prefix": "code chunk",
 		"body": [
 			"```{${1:language}}",
-			"$0",
+			"${TM_SELECTED_TEXT}$0",
 			"```"
 		],
 		"description": "Insert code chunk"
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@
 		"prefix": "r code chunk",
 		"body": [
 			"```{r}",
-			"$0",
+			"${TM_SELECTED_TEXT}$0",
 			"```"
 		],
 		"description": "Insert R code chunk"