diff --git a/common/models/templates/src/trie-model.ts b/common/models/templates/src/trie-model.ts
index cbbe9181623..2cac0429c09 100644
--- a/common/models/templates/src/trie-model.ts
+++ b/common/models/templates/src/trie-model.ts
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ class Traversal implements LexiconTraversal {
 
     // Split into individual code units.
     let steps = char.split('');
-    let traversal: ReturnType<Traversal["_child"]> = this;
+    let traversal: Traversal | undefined = this;
 
     while(steps.length > 0 && traversal) {
       const step: string = steps.shift()!;
@@ -148,6 +148,10 @@ class Traversal implements LexiconTraversal {
 
   *children(): Generator<{char: USVString, traversal: () => LexiconTraversal}> {
     let root = this.root;
+
+    // We refer to the field multiple times in this method, and it doesn't change.
+    // This also assists minification a bit, since we can't minify when re-accessing
+    // through `this.`.
     const totalWeight = this.totalWeight;
 
     if(root.type == 'internal') {
@@ -220,11 +224,10 @@ class Traversal implements LexiconTraversal {
   }
 
   get entries() {
-    const totalWeight = this.totalWeight;
-    const entryMapper = function(value: Entry) {
+    const entryMapper = (value: Entry) => {
       return {
         text: value.content,
-        p: value.weight / totalWeight
+        p: value.weight / this.totalWeight
       }
     }
 
@@ -425,7 +428,7 @@ interface Entry {
  * Wrapper class for the trie and its nodes.
  */
 class Trie {
-  private root: Node;
+  public readonly root: Node;
   /** The total weight of the entire trie. */
   readonly totalWeight: number;
   /**
diff --git a/common/models/templates/test/test-trie-traversal.js b/common/models/templates/test/test-trie-traversal.js
index aed35d654b9..09237ee9a0e 100644
--- a/common/models/templates/test/test-trie-traversal.js
+++ b/common/models/templates/test/test-trie-traversal.js
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ var smpForUnicode = function(code){
   return String.fromCharCode(H, L);
 }
 
+// Prob:  entry weight / total weight
+// "the" is the highest-weighted word in the fixture.
+const PROB_OF_THE     = 1000 / 500500;
+const PROB_OF_TRUE    =  607 / 500500;
+const PROB_OF_TROUBLE =  267 / 500500;
+
 describe('Trie traversal abstractions', function() {
   it('root-level iteration over child nodes', function() {
     var model = new TrieModel(jsonFixture('tries/english-1000'));
@@ -39,10 +45,6 @@ describe('Trie traversal abstractions', function() {
   it('traversal with simple internal nodes', function() {
     var model = new TrieModel(jsonFixture('tries/english-1000'));
 
-    // Prob:  entry weight / total weight
-    // "the" is the highest-weighted word in the fixture.
-    const PROB_OF_THE = 1000 / 500500;
-
     let rootTraversal = model.traverseFromRoot();
     assert.isDefined(rootTraversal);
 
@@ -139,7 +141,6 @@ describe('Trie traversal abstractions', function() {
 
   it('traversal over compact leaf node', function() {
     var model = new TrieModel(jsonFixture('tries/english-1000'));
-    const PROB_OF_TROUBLE = 267 / 500500;
 
     let rootTraversal = model.traverseFromRoot();
     assert.isDefined(rootTraversal);
@@ -153,7 +154,7 @@ describe('Trie traversal abstractions', function() {
         assert.isDefined(traversalInner1);
         assert.isArray(child.traversal().entries);
         assert.isEmpty(child.traversal().entries);
-        assert.equal(traversalInner1.p, 1000 / 500500 /* prob of 'the' */);
+        assert.equal(traversalInner1.p, PROB_OF_THE);
 
         for(let tChild of traversalInner1.children()) {
           if(tChild.char == 'r') {
@@ -161,7 +162,7 @@ describe('Trie traversal abstractions', function() {
             assert.isDefined(traversalInner2);
             assert.isArray(tChild.traversal().entries);
             assert.isEmpty(tChild.traversal().entries);
-            assert.equal(traversalInner2.p, 607 / 500500 /* prob of 'true', the best 'tr-' entry */);
+            assert.equal(traversalInner2.p, PROB_OF_TRUE);
 
             for(let rChild of traversalInner2.children()) {
               if(rChild.char == 'o') {
diff --git a/common/models/types/index.d.ts b/common/models/types/index.d.ts
index 2fc1c92cb33..a75e6a046f9 100644
--- a/common/models/types/index.d.ts
+++ b/common/models/types/index.d.ts
@@ -68,10 +68,9 @@ declare interface LexiconTraversal {
   children(): Generator<{char: USVString, traversal: () => LexiconTraversal}>;
 
   /**
-   * Allows direct access to the traversal state that results when appending a
-   * `char` representing one or more individual UTF-16 codepoints to the
-   * current traversal state's prefix.  This bypasses the need to iterate
-   * among all legal child Traversals.
+   * Allows direct access to the traversal state that results when appending one
+   * or more codepoints encoded in UTF-16 to the current traversal state's prefix.
+   * This allows bypassing iteration among all legal child Traversals.
    *
    * If such a traversal state is not supported, returns `undefined`.
    *