diff --git a/tasks/compile-docs.js b/tasks/compile-docs.js
index 078aa4e56b..2c3d043645 100644
--- a/tasks/compile-docs.js
+++ b/tasks/compile-docs.js
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ _.extend(Compiler.prototype, {
     // Attempts to replace extension of content links to other documents
     compiledContents = compiledContents.replace(/.md/g, '.html');
 
-    return compiledContents.stripBrTags();
+    return compiledContents;
   },
 
   getPageTitle: function(compiledContents) {
@@ -109,7 +109,8 @@ _.extend(Compiler.prototype, {
         var description = compiledContents.match(/<p>([\s\S]*?)<\/p>/)[1];
 
         return description
-            .stripBrTags()
+            // force translation of breaks to a space
+            .replace(/<br>/g, ' ')
             // remove remaining tags
             .replace(/\<[^\>]*\>/g, '');
 //        }
@@ -325,6 +326,3 @@ module.exports = function(grunt) {
     .then(this.async());
   });
 };
-
-String.prototype.stripBrTags = function() { return this.replace(/<br>/g, ' '); }
-