diff --git a/django/db/models/__init__.py b/django/db/models/__init__.py
index 6c3abb6b59b..2203cbb6fd9 100644
--- a/django/db/models/__init__.py
+++ b/django/db/models/__init__.py
@@ -15,14 +15,18 @@ from django.utils.text import capfirst
 # Admin stages.
 ADD, CHANGE, BOTH = 1, 2, 3
 
-# Decorator. Takes a function that returns a tuple in this format:
-#     (viewname, viewargs, viewkwargs)
-# Returns a function that calls urlresolvers.reverse() on that data, to return
-# the URL for those parameters.
 def permalink(func):
+    """
+    Decorator that calls urlresolvers.reverse() to return a URL using
+    parameters returned by the decorated function "func".
+
+    "func" should be a function that returns a tuple in one of the
+    following formats:
+        (viewname, viewargs)
+        (viewname, viewargs, viewkwargs)
+    """
     from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
     def inner(*args, **kwargs):
         bits = func(*args, **kwargs)
-        viewname = bits[0]
         return reverse(bits[0], None, *bits[1:3])
     return inner