Outputs the DataAttribute [Display(Description="long desc")] Has the option to override the tag (defaults to span) and option to add a cssClassName Usage inline in comments

DescriptionFor.cs

public static class HtmlHelpers
{
  /// Code started from SO: 
  /// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6578495/how-do-i-display-the-displayattribute-description-attribute-value
  /// <summary>
  /// Usage:
  /// @Html.DisplayFor(m => m.PropertyName)
  /// 
  /// supply cssclass name, and override span with div tag
  /// @Html.DisplayFor(m => m.PropertyName, "desc", "div")
  /// 
  /// using the named param
  /// @Html.DisplayFor(m => m.PropertyName, tagName: "div")
  /// </summary>
    public static MvcHtmlString DescriptionFor<TModel, TValue>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> self,
                                                                Expression<Func<TModel, TValue>> expression,
                                                                string cssClassName = "", string tagName = "span")
    {
        var metadata = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, self.ViewData);
        var description = metadata.Description;

        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(description))
        {
            var tag = new TagBuilder(tagName) {InnerHtml = description};
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(cssClassName))
                tag.AddCssClass(cssClassName);

            return new MvcHtmlString(tag.ToString());
        }

        return MvcHtmlString.Empty;
    }
}