diff --git a/src/axolotl/convert.py b/src/axolotl/convert.py
index a953252e9..357e0ec50 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/convert.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/convert.py
@@ -1,47 +1,76 @@
+"""Module containing File Reader, File Writer, Json Parser, and Jsonl Serializer classes"""
+
+
 import json
 import sys
 
 
 class FileReader:
+    """
+    Reads a file and returns its contents as a string
+    """
+
     def read(self, file_path):
-        with open(file_path, "r") as file:
+        with open(file_path, encoding="utf-8") as file:
             return file.read()
 
 
 class FileWriter:
+    """
+    Writes a string to a file
+    """
+
     def __init__(self, file_path):
         self.file_path = file_path
 
     def write(self, content):
-        with open(self.file_path, "w") as file:
+        with open(self.file_path, "w", encoding="utf-8") as file:
             file.write(content)
 
 
 class StdoutWriter:
+    """
+    Writes a string to stdout
+    """
+
     def write(self, content):
         sys.stdout.write(content)
         sys.stdout.write("\n")
 
 
 class JsonParser:
+    """
+    Parses a string as JSON and returns the result
+    """
+
     def parse(self, content):
         return json.loads(content)
 
 
 class JsonlSerializer:
+    """
+    Serializes a list of JSON objects into a JSONL string
+    """
+
     def serialize(self, data):
         lines = [json.dumps(item) for item in data]
         return "\n".join(lines)
 
 
 class JsonToJsonlConverter:
+    """
+    Converts a JSON file to JSONL
+    """
+
     def __init__(self, file_reader, file_writer, json_parser, jsonl_serializer):
         self.file_reader = file_reader
         self.file_writer = file_writer
         self.json_parser = json_parser
         self.jsonl_serializer = jsonl_serializer
 
-    def convert(self, input_file_path, output_file_path):
+    def convert(
+        self, input_file_path, output_file_path
+    ):  # pylint: disable=unused-argument
         content = self.file_reader.read(input_file_path)
         data = self.json_parser.parse(content)
         # data = [r for r in data if r["conversations"]]  # vicuna cleaned has rows with empty conversations