Ruby Grape: json output is escaped

I am working on a sample Ruby / Grape example, and everything works except the json is served escaped. I am brand new too ruby and its frameworks (just 3 days), so sorry if this question is remedial and thhank you in advance I am fairly certain there shouldn't be escaping of the quotes, anyhow here is the escaped output: ``` "{\"word\":\"test\",\"sentiment\":\"unkown\"}" ``` my code ``` require 'rubygems' require 'grape' require 'json' class SentimentApiV1 < Grape::API version 'v1', :using => :path, :vendor => '3scale' format :json resource :words do get ':word' do {:word => params[:word], :sentiment => "unkown"}.to_json end post ':word' do {:word => params[:word], :result => "thinking"}.to_json end end resource :sentences do get ':sentence' do {:sentence => params[:sentence], :result => "unkown"}.to_json end end end ``` config.ru $:.unshift "./app" require 'sentimentapi_v1.rb' run SentimentApiV1 Packages and versions ``` C:\Ruby-Projects\GrapeTest>bundle install Using i18n (0.6.4) Using minitest (4.7.5) Using multi_json (1.7.7) Using atomic (1.1.10) Using thread_safe (0.1.0) Using tzinfo (0.3.37) Using activesupport (4.0.0) Using backports (3.3.3) Using builder (3.2.2) Using daemons (1.1.9) Using descendants_tracker (0.0.1) Using hashie (2.0.5) Using multi_xml (0.5.4) Using rack (1.5.2) Using rack-accept (0.4.5) Using rack-mount (0.8.3) Using virtus (0.5.5) Using grape (0.5.0) Using json (1.8.0) Using thin (1.5.1) Using bundler (1.3.5) ``` I am running ruby 2.0, grape .5, windows 8 64bit