diff --git a/Data/Yaml.hs b/Data/Yaml.hs
--- a/Data/Yaml.hs
+++ b/Data/Yaml.hs
@@ -114,15 +114,15 @@
 objToEvents' (Object pairs) rest =
     EventMappingStart Nothing
   : foldr ($) (EventMappingEnd : rest) (map pairToEvents $ M.toList pairs)
-objToEvents' (String s) rest = EventScalar (encodeUtf8 s) NoTag Any Nothing : rest
-objToEvents' Null rest = EventScalar "null" NoTag Literal Nothing : rest
-objToEvents' (Bool True) rest = EventScalar "true" NoTag Literal Nothing : rest
-objToEvents' (Bool False) rest = EventScalar "false" NoTag Literal Nothing : rest
-objToEvents' (Number n) rest = EventScalar (S8.pack $ show n) NoTag Literal Nothing : rest
+objToEvents' (String s) rest = EventScalar (encodeUtf8 s) StrTag PlainNoTag Nothing : rest
+objToEvents' Null rest = EventScalar "null" NullTag PlainNoTag Nothing : rest
+objToEvents' (Bool True) rest = EventScalar "true" BoolTag PlainNoTag Nothing : rest
+objToEvents' (Bool False) rest = EventScalar "false" BoolTag PlainNoTag Nothing : rest
+objToEvents' (Number n) rest = EventScalar (S8.pack $ show n) IntTag PlainNoTag Nothing : rest
 
 pairToEvents :: Pair -> [Y.Event] -> [Y.Event]
 pairToEvents (k, v) rest =
-    EventScalar (encodeUtf8 k) NoTag Any Nothing
+    EventScalar (encodeUtf8 k) StrTag PlainNoTag Nothing
   : objToEvents' v rest
 
 -- Parsing
diff --git a/Text/Libyaml.hs b/Text/Libyaml.hs
--- a/Text/Libyaml.hs
+++ b/Text/Libyaml.hs
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@
            | DoubleQuoted
            | Literal
            | Folded
+           | PlainNoTag
     deriving (Show, Read, Eq, Enum, Bounded, Ord, Data, Typeable)
 
 data Tag = StrTag
@@ -378,13 +379,17 @@
             c_simple_document_start er
         EventDocumentEnd ->
             c_yaml_document_end_event_initialize er 1
-        EventScalar bs thetag style anchor -> do
+        EventScalar bs thetag style0 anchor -> do
             BU.unsafeUseAsCStringLen bs $ \(value, len) -> do
                 let value' = castPtr value :: Ptr CUChar
                     len' = fromIntegral len :: CInt
                 let thetag' = tagToString thetag
                 withCString thetag' $ \tag' -> do
-                    let style' = toEnum $ fromEnum style
+                    let (pi, style) =
+                            case style0 of
+                                PlainNoTag -> (1, Plain)
+                                x -> (0, x)
+                        style' = toEnum $ fromEnum style
                         tagP = castPtr tag'
                         qi = if null thetag' then 1 else 0
                     case anchor of
@@ -395,7 +400,7 @@
                                 tagP    -- tag
                                 value'  -- value
                                 len'    -- length
-                                0       -- plain_implicit
+                                pi      -- plain_implicit
                                 qi      -- quoted_implicit
                                 style'  -- style
                         Just anchor' ->
diff --git a/test/main.hs b/test/main.hs
--- a/test/main.hs
+++ b/test/main.hs
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 import Test.Hspec
 
 import qualified Data.Yaml as D
-import Data.Yaml (object, array)
+import Data.Yaml (object, array, (.=))
 import Data.Maybe
 import qualified Data.HashMap.Strict as M
 import qualified Data.Text as T
@@ -68,6 +68,31 @@
         checkNull "NULL"
         checkNull "~"
         checkNull ""
+    describe "pretty output" $ do
+        it "simple nulls" $ D.encode (object ["foo" .= D.Null]) `shouldBe` "foo: null\n"
+        it "simple numbers" $ D.encode (object ["foo" .= (4 :: Int)]) `shouldBe` "foo: 4\n"
+        it "True" $ D.encode (object ["foo" .= True]) `shouldBe` "foo: true\n"
+        it "False" $ D.encode (object ["foo" .= False]) `shouldBe` "foo: false\n"
+        it "simple string" $ D.encode (object ["foo" .= ("bar" :: T.Text)]) `shouldBe` "foo: bar\n"
+    describe "special keys" $ do
+        let tester key = it (T.unpack key) $
+                let value = object [key .= True]
+                 in D.decode (D.encode value) `shouldBe` Just value
+        mapM_ tester specialStrings
+    describe "special values" $ do
+        let tester value = it (T.unpack value) $
+                let value' = object ["foo" .= value]
+                 in D.decode (D.encode value') `shouldBe` Just value'
+        mapM_ tester specialStrings
+
+specialStrings :: [T.Text]
+specialStrings =
+    [ "fo\"o"
+    , "fo\'o"
+    , "fo\\'o"
+    , "fo: o"
+    , "foo\nbar\nbaz\n"
+    ]
 
 counter :: Monad m => (Y.Event -> Bool) -> C.Sink Y.Event m Int
 counter pred' =
diff --git a/yaml.cabal b/yaml.cabal
--- a/yaml.cabal
+++ b/yaml.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:            yaml
-version:         0.8.1.2
+version:         0.8.2
 license:         BSD3
 license-file:    LICENSE
 author:          Michael Snoyman <michael@snoyman.com>, Anton Ageev <antage@gmail.com>,Kirill Simonov