diff --git a/docs/bin/plugin_formatter.py b/docs/bin/plugin_formatter.py
index 3f627bcf83..ef92ed7280 100755
--- a/docs/bin/plugin_formatter.py
+++ b/docs/bin/plugin_formatter.py
@@ -689,7 +689,7 @@ def main():
             display.vv(key)
             display.vvvvv(pp.pformat(('record', record)))
             if record.get('doc', None):
-                short_desc = record['doc']['short_description']
+                short_desc = record['doc']['short_description'].rstrip('.')
                 if short_desc is None:
                     display.warning('short_description for %s is None' % key)
                     short_desc = ''
diff --git a/lib/ansible/parsing/plugin_docs.py b/lib/ansible/parsing/plugin_docs.py
index f75577d531..11f3f5c987 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/parsing/plugin_docs.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/parsing/plugin_docs.py
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ def read_docstub(filename):
             capturing = True
             doc_stub.append(line)
 
-    data = AnsibleLoader(r"".join(doc_stub), file_name=filename).get_single_data()
+    short_description = r''.join(doc_stub).strip().rstrip('.')
+    data = AnsibleLoader(short_description, file_name=filename).get_single_data()
 
     return data