diff --git a/docs/docs/event-handling.md b/docs/docs/event-handling.md
index fc554855feebf..3de935c682cfb 100644
--- a/docs/docs/event-handling.md
+++ b/docs/docs/event-handling.md
@@ -122,3 +122,103 @@ var handleToggle = function(enabled) {
 };
 var myToggleLink = <ToggleLink onToggle={handleToggle} />;
 ```
+
+### Common Patterns
+
+With React your event handlers should be quite small. Large event handlers may
+be symptomatic of code that should be moved into helpers or into `render()`.
+Here are some common usage patterns for event handlers.
+
+#### Updating State
+
+The most common thing to do in response to a user action is to call
+`this.setState()` to update the component's state, which will in turn trigger
+an update to the rendered component.
+
+#### Server Requests
+
+Many event handlers will issue a server request to read or write some data in
+response to an event. The response handler for the request will often call
+`this.setState()`.
+
+#### Invoke a Callback
+
+Your component will often be a small, reusable building block that does not know
+how to respond to a user action. In these situations, we delegate the
+responsibility to the owner by exposing a handler on `this.props`. This is what
+the `ToggleLink` example above is doing.
+
+#### Inter-component Communication
+
+A common scenario involves communicating to **Component A** that a user action
+has occurred on **Component B**. To solve this problem, a common parent to
+both components should listen for the event on **Component B**, update its
+internal state, and pass that data into **Component A**.
+
+For example, say we have two components: **Clicker**, a component that fires an
+`onCountChange` custom event, and **ClickCountLabel**, a component that displays
+the number of clicks that have happened:
+
+```javascript
+var Clicker = React.createClass({
+  getInitialState: function() {
+    return {count: 0};
+  },
+  render: function() {
+    return <span onClick={this.handleClick}>Click me!</span>;
+  },
+  handleClick: React.autoBind(function() {
+    this.setState({count: this.state.count + 1});
+    if (this.props.onCountChange) {
+      this.props.onCountChange(this.state.count);
+    }
+  })
+});
+
+var ClickCountLabel = React.createClass({
+  render: function() {
+    return <p>You have clicked <strong>{this.props.count}</strong> times.</p>;
+  }
+});
+
+var ClickApp = React.createClass({
+  render: function() {
+    var count = 0;
+    return (
+      <div>
+        <Clicker onCountChange={this.handleCountChange} />
+        <ClickCountLabel count={count} />
+      </div>
+    );
+  },
+  handleCountChange: React.autoBind(function(count) {
+    // Somehow update `count`.
+  })
+});
+```
+
+In order to communicate the click count from `Clicker` to `ClickCountLabel`, we
+modify `ClickApp` to maintain state that will be passed into `ClickCountLabel`:
+
+```javascript{2-4,6,15}
+var ClickApp = React.createClass({
+  getInitialState: function() {
+    return {count: 0};
+  },
+  render: function() {
+    var count = this.state.count;
+    return (
+      <div>
+        <Clicker onCountChange={this.handleCountChange} />
+        <ClickCountLabel count={count} />
+      </div>
+    );
+  },
+  handleCountChange: React.autoBind(function(count) {
+    this.setState({count: count});
+  })
+});
+```
+
+Now when `Clicker` fires the `onCountChange` event, the `ClickCountLabel` will
+get updated!