diff --git a/IPython/utils/text.py b/IPython/utils/text.py
index 2646745..5d18b6c 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/text.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/text.py
@@ -560,6 +560,35 @@ def long_substr(data):
 
 def strip_email_quotes(text):
     """Strip leading email quotation characters ('>').
+
+    Removes any combination of leading '>' interspersed with whitespace that
+    appears *identically* in all lines of the input text.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    text : str
+
+    Examples
+    --------
+
+    Simple uses::
+
+        In [2]: strip_email_quotes('> > text')
+        Out[2]: 'text'
+
+        In [3]: strip_email_quotes('> > text\n> > more')
+        Out[3]: 'text\nmore'
+
+    Note how only the common prefix that appears in all lines is stripped::
+
+        In [4]: strip_email_quotes('> > text\n> > more\n> more...')
+        Out[4]: '> text\n> more\nmore...'
+
+    So if any line has no quote marks ('>') , then none are stripped from any
+    of them ::
+    
+        In [5]: strip_email_quotes('> > text\n> > more\nlast different')
+        Out[5]: '> > text\n> > more\nlast different'
     """
     lines = text.splitlines()
     matches = set()
@@ -601,6 +630,7 @@ class EvalFormatter(Formatter):
         v = eval(name, kwargs)
         return v, name
 
+
 @skip_doctest_py3
 class FullEvalFormatter(Formatter):
     """A String Formatter that allows evaluation of simple expressions.
@@ -658,6 +688,7 @@ class FullEvalFormatter(Formatter):
 
         return u''.join(py3compat.cast_unicode(s) for s in result)
 
+
 @skip_doctest_py3
 class DollarFormatter(FullEvalFormatter):
     """Formatter allowing Itpl style $foo replacement, for names and attribute
@@ -700,11 +731,13 @@ class DollarFormatter(FullEvalFormatter):
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Utils to columnize a list of string
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
 def _chunks(l, n):
     """Yield successive n-sized chunks from l."""
     for i in xrange(0, len(l), n):
         yield l[i:i+n]
 
+
 def _find_optimal(rlist , separator_size=2 , displaywidth=80):
     """Calculate optimal info to columnize a list of string"""
     for nrow in range(1, len(rlist)+1) :
@@ -719,6 +752,7 @@ def _find_optimal(rlist , separator_size=2 , displaywidth=80):
             'columns_width' : chk
            }
 
+
 def _get_or_default(mylist, i, default=None):
     """return list item number, or default if don't exist"""
     if i >= len(mylist):
@@ -726,6 +760,7 @@ def _get_or_default(mylist, i, default=None):
     else :
         return mylist[i]
 
+
 @skip_doctest
 def compute_item_matrix(items, empty=None, *args, **kwargs) :
     """Returns a nested list, and info to columnize items
@@ -783,6 +818,7 @@ def compute_item_matrix(items, empty=None, *args, **kwargs) :
     nrow, ncol = info['rows_numbers'], info['columns_numbers']
     return ([[ _get_or_default(items, c*nrow+i, default=empty) for c in range(ncol) ] for i in range(nrow) ], info)
 
+
 def columnize(items, separator='  ', displaywidth=80):
     """ Transform a list of strings into a single string with columns.