There are longstanding conventions for how to write those, same as with other languages or automatic document generation tools.  Search for &quot;lisp docstring style&quot; or something to that effect.  Here&#x27;s a possibly non-authoritative example from the Emacs Lisp community:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;bbatsov&#x2F;emacs-lisp-style-guide#docstrings" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;bbatsov&#x2F;emacs-lisp-style-guide#docstrings</a><p>Edited to add: Documentation strings actually predate Common Lisp.  They were available at least as early as Zetalisp (mid-1970s).