diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/rdfservice/impl/RDFServiceImpl.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/rdfservice/impl/RDFServiceImpl.java
index 58b17bc6b..0dab71131 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/rdfservice/impl/RDFServiceImpl.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/rdfservice/impl/RDFServiceImpl.java
@@ -268,7 +268,7 @@ public abstract class RDFServiceImpl implements RDFService {
         return result;
     }
     
-    protected Query createQuery(String queryString) {
+    protected Query createQuery(String queryString) throws RDFServiceException {
         List<Syntax> syntaxes = Arrays.asList(
                 Syntax.defaultQuerySyntax, Syntax.syntaxSPARQL_11, 
                 Syntax.syntaxSPARQL_10, Syntax.syntaxSPARQL, Syntax.syntaxARQ);
@@ -280,7 +280,8 @@ public abstract class RDFServiceImpl implements RDFService {
                q = QueryFactory.create(queryString, syntax);  
             } catch (QueryParseException e) {
                if (!syntaxIt.hasNext()) {
-                   throw(e);
+					throw new RDFServiceException("Failed to parse query \""
+							+ queryString + "\"", e);
                }
             }
         }
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/rdfservice/impl/jena/RDFServiceJena.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/rdfservice/impl/jena/RDFServiceJena.java
index 57ad6dd46..9b13d6a8c 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/rdfservice/impl/jena/RDFServiceJena.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/rdfservice/impl/jena/RDFServiceJena.java
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.jena.SparqlGraph;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.rdfservice.ChangeSet;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.rdfservice.ModelChange;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.rdfservice.RDFService;
-import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.rdfservice.RDFService.ModelSerializationFormat;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.rdfservice.RDFServiceException;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.rdfservice.impl.RDFServiceImpl;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.rdfservice.impl.RDFServiceUtils;
@@ -400,7 +399,7 @@ public abstract class RDFServiceJena extends RDFServiceImpl implements RDFServic
     }
     
     private InputStream getRDFResultStream(String query, boolean construct, 
-            ModelSerializationFormat resultFormat) {
+            ModelSerializationFormat resultFormat) throws RDFServiceException {
         DatasetWrapper dw = getDatasetWrapper();
         try {
             Dataset d = dw.getDataset();
@@ -529,7 +528,7 @@ public abstract class RDFServiceJena extends RDFServiceImpl implements RDFServic
 		serialize(outputStream, query);
 	}
 
-	private void serialize(OutputStream outputStream, String query) {
+	private void serialize(OutputStream outputStream, String query) throws RDFServiceException {
 		DatasetWrapper dw = getDatasetWrapper();
 		try {
 			Dataset d = dw.getDataset();