diff --git a/hlink/linking/core/classifier.py b/hlink/linking/core/classifier.py
index d9543ed..2acd2c4 100644
--- a/hlink/linking/core/classifier.py
+++ b/hlink/linking/core/classifier.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 # in this project's top-level directory, and also on-line at:
 #   https://github.com/ipums/hlink
 
+from typing import Any
+
 from pyspark.ml.feature import SQLTransformer
 from pyspark.ml.regression import GeneralizedLinearRegression
 from pyspark.ml.classification import (
@@ -28,22 +30,32 @@
     _xgboost_available = True
 
 
-def choose_classifier(model_type, params, dep_var):
-    """Returns a classifier and a post_classification transformer given model type and params.
+def choose_classifier(model_type: str, params: dict[str, Any], dep_var: str):
+    """Given a model type and hyper-parameters for the model, return a
+    classifier of that type with those hyper-parameters, along with a
+    post-classification transformer to run after classification.
+
+    The post-classification transformer standardizes the output of the
+    classifier for further processing. For example, some classifiers create
+    models that output a probability array of [P(dep_var=0), P(dep_var=1)], and
+    the post-classification transformer extracts the single float P(dep_var=1)
+    as the probability for these models.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
-    model_type: string
-        name of model
-    params: dictionary
-        dictionary of parameters for model
-    dep_var: string
-        the dependent variable for the model
+    model_type
+        the type of model, which may be random_forest, probit,
+        logistic_regression, decision_tree, gradient_boosted_trees, lightgbm
+        (requires the 'lightgbm' extra), or xgboost (requires the 'xgboost'
+        extra)
+    params
+        a dictionary of hyper-parameters for the model
+    dep_var
+        the dependent variable for the model, sometimes also called the "label"
 
     Returns
     -------
-    The classifer and a transformer to be used after classification.
-
+    The classifier and a transformer to be used after classification, as a tuple.
     """
     post_transformer = SQLTransformer(statement="SELECT * FROM __THIS__")
     features_vector = "features_vector"