diff --git a/sesame/preprocess.py b/sesame/preprocess.py
index a868626..bcbb549 100644
--- a/sesame/preprocess.py
+++ b/sesame/preprocess.py
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ def write_to_conll(outf, fsp, firstex, sentid):
             token, postag, nltkpostag, nltklemma, lu, frm, role = fsp.info_at_idx(i)
 
             outf.write(str(i + 1) + "\t")  # ID = 0
-            outf.write(str(token.encode('utf-8')) + "\t")  # FORM = 1
+            outf.write(str(token) + "\t")  # FORM = 1
             outf.write("_\t" + nltklemma + "\t")  # LEMMA PLEMMA = 2,3
             outf.write(postag + "\t" + nltkpostag + "\t")  # POS PPOS = 4,5
             outf.write(str(sentid - 1) + "\t_\t")  # FEAT PFEAT = 6,7 ~ replacing FEAT with sentence number