diff --git a/nemo_curator/utils/file_utils.py b/nemo_curator/utils/file_utils.py
index af3c2513..67a70e2f 100644
--- a/nemo_curator/utils/file_utils.py
+++ b/nemo_curator/utils/file_utils.py
@@ -182,8 +182,7 @@ def _save_jsonl(documents, output_path, start_index=0, max_index=10000, prefix=N
     """Worker function to write out the data to jsonl files"""
 
     def _output_json(document):
-        myjson = json.dumps(document, ensure_ascii=False)
-        return myjson.encode("utf-8")
+        return document.strip().encode('utf-8')
 
     def _name(start_index, npad, prefix, i):
         tag = str(start_index + i).rjust(npad, "0")
@@ -195,11 +194,19 @@ def _name(start_index, npad, prefix, i):
 
     output_glob_string = os.path.join(output_path, "*.jsonl")
 
-    documents.map(_output_json).to_textfiles(
+    output_files = documents.map(_output_json).to_textfiles(
         output_glob_string,
         name_function=name,
     )
 
+    # Delete empty files generated due to empty partitions in the bag
+    for output_file in output_files:
+        try:
+            if os.path.getsize(output_file) == 0:
+                os.remove(output_file)
+        except Exception as exception:
+            print(f"An exception occurred when trying to delete {output_file}.\n{exception}", flush=True)
+
 
 def reshard_jsonl(
     input_dir, output_dir, output_file_size="100M", start_index=0, file_prefix=""
@@ -222,7 +229,7 @@ def reshard_jsonl(
     input_files = list(get_all_files_paths_under(input_dir))
 
     # Read in the dask bag
-    b = db.read_text(input_files, blocksize=blocksize).map(json.loads)
+    b = db.read_text(input_files, blocksize=blocksize)
 
     # Prepare the output
     output_dir = expand_outdir_and_mkdir(output_dir)