diff --git a/spacy/tests/serialize/test_serialization.py b/spacy/tests/serialize/test_serialization.py
index 36f916a1d..92e27a881 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/serialize/test_serialization.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/serialize/test_serialization.py
@@ -1,127 +1,40 @@
+# coding: utf-8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+from ...serialize.packer import Packer
+from ..util import get_doc, assert_docs_equal
+
 import pytest
 
-from spacy.tokens import Doc
-import spacy.en
-from spacy.serialize.packer import Packer
+
+TEXT = ["This", "is", "a", "test", "sentence", "."]
+TAGS = ['DT', 'VBZ', 'DT', 'NN', 'NN', '.']
+DEPS = ['nsubj', 'ROOT', 'det', 'compound', 'attr', 'punct']
+ENTS = [('hi', 'PERSON', 0, 1)]
 
 
-def equal(doc1, doc2):
-    # tokens
-    assert [ t.orth for t in doc1 ] == [ t.orth for t in doc2 ]
-
-    # tags
-    assert [ t.pos for t in doc1 ] == [ t.pos for t in doc2 ]
-    assert [ t.tag for t in doc1 ] == [ t.tag for t in doc2 ]
-
-    # parse
-    assert [ t.head.i for t in doc1 ] == [ t.head.i for t in doc2 ]
-    assert [ t.dep for t in doc1 ] == [ t.dep for t in doc2 ]
-    if doc1.is_parsed and doc2.is_parsed:
-        assert [ s for s in doc1.sents ] == [ s for s in doc2.sents ]
-
-    # entities
-    assert [ t.ent_type for t in doc1 ] == [ t.ent_type for t in doc2 ]
-    assert [ t.ent_iob for t in doc1 ] == [ t.ent_iob for t in doc2 ]
-    assert [ ent for ent in doc1.ents ] == [ ent for ent in doc2.ents ]
-
-
-@pytest.mark.models
-def test_serialize_tokens(EN):
-    doc1 = EN(u'This is a test sentence.',tag=False, parse=False, entity=False)
-
-    doc2 = Doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
-    equal(doc1, doc2)
-
-
-@pytest.mark.models
-def test_serialize_tokens_tags(EN):
-    doc1 = EN(u'This is a test sentence.',tag=True, parse=False, entity=False)
-    doc2 = Doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
-    equal(doc1, doc2)
-
-
-@pytest.mark.models
-def test_serialize_tokens_parse(EN):
-    doc1 = EN(u'This is a test sentence.',tag=False, parse=True, entity=False)
-
-    doc2 = Doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
-    equal(doc1, doc2)
-
-
-@pytest.mark.models
-def test_serialize_tokens_ner(EN):
-    doc1 = EN(u'This is a test sentence.', tag=False, parse=False, entity=True)
-
-    doc2 = Doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
-    equal(doc1, doc2)
-
-
-@pytest.mark.models
-def test_serialize_tokens_tags_parse(EN):
-    doc1 = EN(u'This is a test sentence.', tag=True, parse=True, entity=False)
-
-    doc2 = Doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
-    equal(doc1, doc2)
-
-
-@pytest.mark.models
-def test_serialize_tokens_tags_ner(EN):
-    doc1 = EN(u'This is a test sentence.', tag=True, parse=False, entity=True)
-
-    doc2 = Doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
-    equal(doc1, doc2)
-
-
-@pytest.mark.models
-def test_serialize_tokens_ner_parse(EN):
-    doc1 = EN(u'This is a test sentence.', tag=False, parse=True, entity=True)
-
-    doc2 = Doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
-    equal(doc1, doc2)
-
-
-@pytest.mark.models
-def test_serialize_tokens_tags_parse_ner(EN):
-    doc1 = EN(u'This is a test sentence.', tag=True, parse=True, entity=True)
-
-    doc2 = Doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
-    equal(doc1, doc2)
-
-
-def test_serialize_empty_doc():
-    vocab = spacy.en.English.Defaults.create_vocab()
-    doc = Doc(vocab)
-    packer = Packer(vocab, {})
+def test_serialize_empty_doc(en_vocab):
+    doc = get_doc(en_vocab)
+    packer = Packer(en_vocab, {})
     b = packer.pack(doc)
     assert b == b''
-    loaded = Doc(vocab).from_bytes(b)
+    loaded = get_doc(en_vocab).from_bytes(b)
     assert len(loaded) == 0
 
 
-def test_serialize_after_adding_entity():
-    # Re issue #514
-    vocab = spacy.en.English.Defaults.create_vocab()
-    entity_recognizer = spacy.en.English.Defaults.create_entity()
-
-    doc = Doc(vocab, words=u'This is a sentence about pasta .'.split())
-    entity_recognizer.add_label('Food')
-    entity_recognizer(doc)
-
-    label_id = vocab.strings[u'Food']
-    doc.ents = [(label_id, 5,6)]
-
-    assert [(ent.label_, ent.text) for ent in doc.ents] == [(u'Food', u'pasta')]
-
-    byte_string = doc.to_bytes()
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('text', [TEXT])
+def test_serialize_tokens(en_vocab, text):
+    doc1 = get_doc(en_vocab, [t for t in text])
+    doc2 = get_doc(en_vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
+    assert_docs_equal(doc1, doc2)
 
 
 @pytest.mark.models
-def test_serialize_after_adding_entity(EN):
-    EN.entity.add_label(u'Food')
-    doc = EN(u'This is a sentence about pasta.')
-    label_id = EN.vocab.strings[u'Food']
-    doc.ents = [(label_id, 5,6)]
-    byte_string = doc.to_bytes()
-    doc2 = Doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(byte_string)
-    assert [(ent.label_, ent.text) for ent in doc2.ents] == [(u'Food', u'pasta')]
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('text', [TEXT])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('tags', [TAGS, []])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('deps', [DEPS, []])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('ents', [ENTS, []])
+def test_serialize_tokens_ner(EN, text, tags, deps, ents):
+    doc1 = get_doc(EN.vocab, [t for t in text], tags=tags, deps=deps, ents=ents)
+    doc2 = get_doc(EN.vocab).from_bytes(doc1.to_bytes())
+    assert_docs_equal(doc1, doc2)