diff --git a/datascout/_datascout.py b/datascout/_datascout.py
index 5bf7a8d2d9a9452bfa743f43685e09633207a46f..58c83602acbcf7325a790259709aabd961718ffa 100644
--- a/datascout/_datascout.py
+++ b/datascout/_datascout.py
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ def pyarrow_to_dict(input_pa):
 def dict_to_pandas(input_dict):
     if not isinstance(input_dict, list):
         input_dict = [input_dict]
-    return = pd.DataFrame(input_dict)
+    return pd.DataFrame(input_dict)
 
 def dict_to_awkward(input_dict):
     return ak.from_arrow(dict_to_pyarrow(input_dict))
@@ -262,7 +262,8 @@ def dict_to_json(input_dict, filename):
     Function provided for convenience, but not of interest for typical use case...
     '''
     dict_to_pandas(input_dict).to_json(filename+'.json')
-def json_to_pandas(filename)
+
+def json_to_pandas(filename):
     '''
     Function provided for convenience, but not of interest for typical use case...
     '''
@@ -278,7 +279,7 @@ def awkward_to_dict(input_awkward, row_index=0):
     '''
     it converts the specified row of an awkward array into a pyjapcscout-like dict
     '''
-    return = convert_parrow_data(ak.to_arrow(input_awkward)[row_index])
+    return convert_parrow_data(ak.to_arrow(input_awkward)[row_index])
 
 def pickle_to_dict(filename):
     with open(filename, 'rb') as handle: