diff --git a/docs/api-guide/generic-views.md b/docs/api-guide/generic-views.md
index fbafec93a..3dec17c1a 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/generic-views.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/generic-views.md
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ For example, if you need to lookup objects based on multiple fields in the URL c
             queryset = self.filter_queryset(queryset)  # Apply any filter backends
             filter = {}
             for field in self.lookup_fields:
-                if self.kwargs[field]: # Ignore empty fields.
+                if self.kwargs.get(field): # Ignore empty fields.
                     filter[field] = self.kwargs[field]
             obj = get_object_or_404(queryset, **filter)  # Lookup the object
             self.check_object_permissions(self.request, obj)
@@ -395,4 +395,4 @@ The following third party packages provide additional generic view implementatio
 [UpdateModelMixin]: #updatemodelmixin
 [DestroyModelMixin]: #destroymodelmixin
 [django-rest-multiple-models]: https://github.com/MattBroach/DjangoRestMultipleModels
-[django-docs-select-related]: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/models/querysets/#django.db.models.query.QuerySet.select_related
\ No newline at end of file
+[django-docs-select-related]: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/models/querysets/#django.db.models.query.QuerySet.select_related