diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 131256b..a657ee8 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -64,8 +64,8 @@ check_type_size(_Float16 FLOAT16 BUILTIN_TYPES_ONLY LANGUAGE CXX)
 set (SIMSYCL_FEATURE_HALF_TYPE ${HAVE_FLOAT16})
 
 option(SIMSYCL_ANNOTATE_SYCL_DEPRECATIONS "Wether to annotate deprecated SYCL APIs with [[deprecated]]" ON)
-set(SIMSYCL_ENABLE_ASAN OFF CACHE BOOL "Whether to enable address sanitizer")
-set(SIMSYCL_CHECK_MODE "SIMSYCL_CHECK_ABORT" CACHE STRING "Check mode to use")
+option(SIMSYCL_ENABLE_ASAN "Whether to enable address sanitizer" OFF)
+set(SIMSYCL_CHECK_MODE "ABORT" CACHE STRING "Runtime assertion handling NONE|LOG|THROW|ABORT")
 
 set(CONFIG_PATH "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/include/simsycl/config.hh")
 configure_file(
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4e66b2a..96c60c7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ These can be set on the CMake command line via `-DOPTION=VALUE`.
 |---|---|---|
 | `SIMSYCL_ANNOTATE_SYCL_DEPRECATIONS` | `OFF`,`ON` | Mark deprecated SYCL APIs with `[[deprecated]]` (default `ON`) |
 | `SIMSYCL_ENABLE_ASAN`| `OFF`,`ON` | Build SimSYCL and the user code with AddressSanitizer (default `OFF`) |
-| `SIMSYCL_CHECK_MODE` | `SIMSYCL_CHECK_{NONE,LOG,THROW,ABORT}` | How to report verification errors (default `ABORT`) |
+| `SIMSYCL_CHECK_MODE` | `NONE`,`LOG`,`THROW`,`ABORT` | How to report verification errors (default `ABORT`) |
 
 ## Using SimSYCL
 
diff --git a/include/simsycl/config.hh.in b/include/simsycl/config.hh.in
index f537243..e05e75e 100644
--- a/include/simsycl/config.hh.in
+++ b/include/simsycl/config.hh.in
@@ -9,5 +9,5 @@
 #cmakedefine01 SIMSYCL_FEATURE_HALF_TYPE
 
 #ifndef SIMSYCL_CHECK_MODE
-#define SIMSYCL_CHECK_MODE @SIMSYCL_CHECK_MODE@
+#define SIMSYCL_CHECK_MODE SIMSYCL_CHECK_@SIMSYCL_CHECK_MODE@
 #endif