diff --git a/src/common.h b/src/common.h
index 500f209ee..09edff927 100644
--- a/src/common.h
+++ b/src/common.h
@@ -199,15 +199,15 @@ void write_ignore(int fd, const void *buff, size_t count);
 /// the tty.
 extern bool has_working_tty_timestamps;
 
-/// This macro is used to check that an input argument is not null. It is a bit lika a non-fatal
-/// form of assert. Instead of exit-ing on failure, the current function is ended at once. The
-/// second parameter is the return value of the current function on failure.
-#define CHECK(arg, retval)                                                                \
-    if (!(arg)) {                                                                         \
-        debug(0, "function %s called with null value for argument %s. ", __func__, #arg); \
-        bugreport();                                                                      \
-        show_stackframe(L'E');                                                            \
-        return retval;                                                                    \
+/// This macro is used to check that an argument is true. It is a bit like a non-fatal form of
+/// assert. Instead of exiting on failure, the current function is ended at once. The second
+/// parameter is the return value of the current function on failure.
+#define CHECK(arg, retval)                                                               \
+    if (!(arg)) {                                                                        \
+        debug(0, "function %s called with false value for argument %s", __func__, #arg); \
+        bugreport();                                                                     \
+        show_stackframe(L'E');                                                           \
+        return retval;                                                                   \
     }
 
 // Pause for input, then exit the program. If supported, print a backtrace first.
diff --git a/src/output.cpp b/src/output.cpp
index 707a922aa..ef87c5ea7 100644
--- a/src/output.cpp
+++ b/src/output.cpp
@@ -301,7 +301,11 @@ int writeb(tputs_arg_t b) {
     return 0;
 }
 
-/// Write a wide character using the output method specified using output_set_writer().
+/// Write a wide character using the output method specified using output_set_writer(). This should
+/// only be used when writing characters from user supplied strings. This is needed due to our use
+/// of the ENCODE_DIRECT_BASE mechanism to allow the user to specify arbitrary byte values to be
+/// output. Such as in a `printf` invocation that includes literal byte values such as `\x1B`.
+/// This should not be used for writing non-user supplied characters.
 int writech(wint_t ch) {
     char buff[MB_LEN_MAX + 1];
     size_t len;
@@ -328,15 +332,16 @@ int writech(wint_t ch) {
     return 0;
 }
 
-/// Write a wide character string to FD 1.
+/// Write a wide character string to stdout. This should not be used to output things like warning
+/// messages; just use debug() or fwprintf() for that. It should only be used to output user
+/// supplied strings that might contain literal bytes; e.g., "\342\224\214" from issue #1894. This
+/// is needed because those strings may contain chars specially encoded using ENCODE_DIRECT_BASE.
 void writestr(const wchar_t *str) {
     CHECK(str, );
 
-    if (MB_CUR_MAX == 1)  // single-byte locale (C/POSIX/ISO-8859)
-    {
-        while (*str) {
-            writech(*str++);
-        }
+    if (MB_CUR_MAX == 1) {
+        // Single-byte locale (C/POSIX/ISO-8859).
+        while (*str) writech(*str++);
         return;
     }
 
@@ -349,11 +354,11 @@ void writestr(const wchar_t *str) {
     // Convert the string.
     len++;
     char *buffer, static_buffer[256];
-    if (len <= sizeof static_buffer)
+    if (len <= sizeof static_buffer) {
         buffer = static_buffer;
-    else
+    } else {
         buffer = new char[len];
-
+    }
     wcstombs(buffer, str, len);
 
     // Write the string.
diff --git a/src/reader.cpp b/src/reader.cpp
index 679adef1c..6c867c2c3 100644
--- a/src/reader.cpp
+++ b/src/reader.cpp
@@ -698,17 +698,17 @@ void reader_write_title(const wcstring &cmd, bool reset_cursor_position) {
     proc_push_interactive(0);
     if (exec_subshell(fish_title_command, lst, false /* ignore exit status */) != -1 &&
         !lst.empty()) {
-        writestr(L"\x1b]0;");
+        fputs("\e]0;", stdout);
         for (size_t i = 0; i < lst.size(); i++) {
-            writestr(lst.at(i).c_str());
+            fputws(lst.at(i).c_str(), stdout);
         }
-        writestr(L"\7");
+        fputc('\a', stdout);
     }
     proc_pop_interactive();
     set_color(rgb_color_t::reset(), rgb_color_t::reset());
     if (reset_cursor_position && !lst.empty()) {
         // Put the cursor back at the beginning of the line (issue #2453).
-        writestr(L"\r");
+        fputc('\r', stdout);
     }
 }
 
@@ -1300,7 +1300,7 @@ static void reader_flash() {
     }
 
     reader_repaint();
-    writestr(L"\a");
+    fputwc(L'\a', stdout);
 
     pollint.tv_sec = 0;
     pollint.tv_nsec = 100 * 1000000;
@@ -2244,8 +2244,8 @@ static void handle_end_loop() {
     }
 
     if (!data->prev_end_loop && bg_jobs) {
-        writestr(_(L"There are stopped or running jobs.\n"));
-	writestr(_(L"A second attempt to exit will force their termination.\n"));
+        fputws(_(L"There are stopped or running jobs.\n"), stdout);
+	fputws(_(L"A second attempt to exit will force their termination.\n"), stdout);
         reader_exit(0, 0);
         data->prev_end_loop = 1;
         return;
@@ -3260,7 +3260,7 @@ const wchar_t *reader_readline(int nchars) {
         reader_repaint_if_needed();
     }
 
-    writestr(L"\n");
+    fputc('\n', stdout);
 
     // Ensure we have no pager contents when we exit.
     if (!data->pager.empty()) {