diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 21025d4..7bd5462 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -714,7 +714,7 @@ $
 The following is documented within the **Advanced** option of the DNS page within the Cloudflare portal.
 
 ```
-$ python -m cli4 /zones/:example.com/dns_records/export | jq -r . | egrep -v '^;;|^$'
+$ python -m cli4 /zones/:example.com/dns_records/export | egrep -v '^;;|^$'
 $ORIGIN .
 @	3600	IN	SOA	example.com.	root.example.com.	(
 		2025552311	; serial
@@ -730,7 +730,7 @@ record2.example.com.	300	IN	AAAA	2001:d8b::2
 $
 ```
 
-The **jq -r** option is used to convert newlines and tabs within the JSON response data. The egrep is used for documentation brevity.
+The egrep is used for documentation brevity.
 
 This can also be done via Python code with the following example.
 ```
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 5520739..ba411eb 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -789,7 +789,7 @@ page within the Cloudflare portal.
 
 ::
 
-    $ python -m cli4 /zones/:example.com/dns_records/export | jq -r . | egrep -v '^;;|^$'
+    $ python -m cli4 /zones/:example.com/dns_records/export | egrep -v '^;;|^$'
     $ORIGIN .
     @   3600    IN  SOA example.com.    root.example.com.   (
             2025552311  ; serial
@@ -804,8 +804,7 @@ page within the Cloudflare portal.
     record2.example.com.    300 IN  AAAA    2001:d8b::2
     $
 
-The **jq -r** option is used to convert newlines and tabs within the
-JSON response data. The egrep is used for documentation brevity.
+The egrep is used for documentation brevity.
 
 This can also be done via Python code with the following example.
 
@@ -1035,7 +1034,7 @@ and/or
 Python 2.x vs 3.x support
 -------------------------
 
-As of May/June 2016 the code is now tested againt pylint. This was
+As of May/June 2016 the code is now tested against pylint. This was
 required in order to move the codebase into Python 3.x. The motivation
 for this came from `Danielle Madeley
 (danni) <https://github.com/danni>`__.
diff --git a/cli4/cli4.py b/cli4/cli4.py
index 0e0481b..1f27651 100644
--- a/cli4/cli4.py
+++ b/cli4/cli4.py
@@ -281,10 +281,16 @@ def cli4(args):
     if len(results) == 1:
         results = results[0]
 
-    if output == 'json':
-        sys.stdout.write(json.dumps(results, indent=4, sort_keys=True) + '\n')
-        # json.dumps(results, sys.stdout, indent=4, sort_keys=True)
-        # sys.stdout.write('\n')
-    if output == 'yaml':
-        sys.stdout.write(yaml.safe_dump(results))
+    if isinstance(results, str):
+        # if the results are a simple string, then it should be dumped directly
+        # this is only used for /zones/:id/dns_records/export presently
+        sys.stdout.write(results)
+    else:
+        # anything more complex (dict, list, etc) should be dumped as JSON/YAML
+        if output == 'json':
+            sys.stdout.write(json.dumps(results, indent=4, sort_keys=True) + '\n')
+            # json.dumps(results, sys.stdout, indent=4, sort_keys=True)
+            # sys.stdout.write('\n')
+        if output == 'yaml':
+            sys.stdout.write(yaml.safe_dump(results))