diff --git a/railties/CHANGELOG b/railties/CHANGELOG
index 880849d2ec..f2b0cf15cd 100644
--- a/railties/CHANGELOG
+++ b/railties/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *Rails 3.2.0 (unreleased)*
 
+* Attributes on scaffold and model generators default to string. This allows the following: "rails g scaffold Post title body:text author" [José Valim]
+
 * Removed old plugin generator (`rails generate plugin`) in favor of `rails plugin new` command. [Guillermo Iguaran]
 
 * Removed old 'config.paths.app.controller' API in favor of 'config.paths["app/controller"]' API. [Guillermo Iguaran]
diff --git a/railties/lib/rails/generators/generated_attribute.rb b/railties/lib/rails/generators/generated_attribute.rb
index 9450894b05..f9f89c9f1d 100644
--- a/railties/lib/rails/generators/generated_attribute.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/rails/generators/generated_attribute.rb
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ module Rails
       attr_accessor :name, :type
 
       def initialize(name, type)
-        raise Thor::Error, "Missing type for attribute '#{name}'.\nExample: '#{name}:string' where string is the type." if type.blank?
+        type = :string if type.blank?
         @name, @type = name, type.to_sym
       end
 
diff --git a/railties/test/generators/generated_attribute_test.rb b/railties/test/generators/generated_attribute_test.rb
index 0d2e624f44..c9f8ab0a7b 100644
--- a/railties/test/generators/generated_attribute_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/generators/generated_attribute_test.rb
@@ -113,15 +113,8 @@ class GeneratedAttributeTest < Rails::Generators::TestCase
     end
   end
 
-  def test_nil_type_raises_exception
-    assert_raise Thor::Error do
-      create_generated_attribute(nil, 'title')
-    end
-  end
-
-  def test_missing_type_raises_exception
-    assert_raise Thor::Error do
-      create_generated_attribute('', 'title')
-    end
+  def test_blank_type_defaults_to_string_raises_exception
+    assert_equal :string, create_generated_attribute(nil, 'title').type
+    assert_equal :string, create_generated_attribute("", 'title').type
   end
 end
diff --git a/railties/test/generators/model_generator_test.rb b/railties/test/generators/model_generator_test.rb
index 8c5ba9926b..1b0cb425c6 100644
--- a/railties/test/generators/model_generator_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/generators/model_generator_test.rb
@@ -12,9 +12,15 @@ class ModelGeneratorTest < Rails::Generators::TestCase
   end
 
   def test_model_with_missing_attribute_type
-    content = capture(:stderr) { run_generator ["post", "title:string", "body"] }
-    assert_match(/Missing type for attribute 'body'/, content)
-    assert_match(/Example: 'body:string' where string is the type/, content)
+    run_generator ["post", "title", "body:text", "author"]
+
+    assert_migration "db/migrate/create_posts.rb" do |m|
+      assert_method :change, m do |up|
+        assert_match(/t\.string :title/, up)
+        assert_match(/t\.text :body/, up)
+        assert_match(/t\.string :author/, up)
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   def test_invokes_default_orm
diff --git a/railties/test/generators/scaffold_generator_test.rb b/railties/test/generators/scaffold_generator_test.rb
index 2135ffac81..c3c6015291 100644
--- a/railties/test/generators/scaffold_generator_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/generators/scaffold_generator_test.rb
@@ -272,8 +272,14 @@ class ScaffoldGeneratorTest < Rails::Generators::TestCase
   end
 
   def test_scaffold_generator_outputs_error_message_on_missing_attribute_type
-    content = capture(:stderr) { run_generator ["post", "title:string", "body"]}
-    assert_match(/Missing type for attribute 'body'/, content)
-    assert_match(/Example: 'body:string' where string is the type/, content)
+    run_generator ["post", "title", "body:text", "author"]
+
+    assert_migration "db/migrate/create_posts.rb" do |m|
+      assert_method :change, m do |up|
+        assert_match(/t\.string :title/, up)
+        assert_match(/t\.text :body/, up)
+        assert_match(/t\.string :author/, up)
+      end
+    end
   end
 end