Hi, I’ve been tryimg to write a function with signature asString :: IO String -> String Does someone please have the patience to explain to me what the compiler error messages really mean for these two attempts and exactly what I’m doing (!!!) If I *do not* give this function any type signature then it works i.e.. asString ioStr = do str <- ioStr return $ str and the compiler tells me its signature is asString :: forall (m :: * -> *) b. Monad m => m b -> m b which, at this stage of my Haskell progress, is just pure Voodoo. Why isn’t it’s signature asString :: IO String -> String ? Another naive attempt is asString ioStr = str where str <- ioStr and then compiler says parse error on input ‘<-’ Many Thanks Mike