diff --git a/src/pkg/compress/zlib/example_test.go b/src/pkg/compress/zlib/example_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b934ffa6182
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/pkg/compress/zlib/example_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+// Copyright 2012 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package zlib_test
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"compress/zlib"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"os"
+)
+
+func ExampleNewWriter() {
+	var b bytes.Buffer
+
+	w := zlib.NewWriter(&b)
+	w.Write([]byte("hello, world\n"))
+	w.Close()
+	fmt.Println(b.Bytes())
+	// Output: [120 156 202 72 205 201 201 215 81 40 207 47 202 73 225 2 4 0 0 255 255 33 231 4 147]
+}
+
+func ExampleNewReader() {
+	buff := []byte{120, 156, 202, 72, 205, 201, 201, 215, 81, 40, 207,
+		47, 202, 73, 225, 2, 4, 0, 0, 255, 255, 33, 231, 4, 147}
+	b := bytes.NewBuffer(buff)
+
+	r, err := zlib.NewReader(b)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+	io.Copy(os.Stdout, r)
+	// Output: hello, world
+	r.Close()
+}
diff --git a/src/pkg/compress/zlib/reader.go b/src/pkg/compress/zlib/reader.go
index f38ef5a885e..d54746f4c02 100644
--- a/src/pkg/compress/zlib/reader.go
+++ b/src/pkg/compress/zlib/reader.go
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ and compress during writing.  For example, to write compressed data
 to a buffer:
 
 	var b bytes.Buffer
-	w, err := zlib.NewWriter(&b)
+	w := zlib.NewWriter(&b)
 	w.Write([]byte("hello, world\n"))
 	w.Close()