I have a module file containing the following functions:

def replace(filename):
    match = re.sub(r'[^\s^\w]risk', 'risk', filename)
    return match

def count_words(newstring):
    from collections import defaultdict
    word_dict=defaultdict(int)
    for line in newstring:
        words=line.lower().split()
        for word in words:
            word_dict[word]+=1

    for word in word_dict:
        if'risk'==word:
           return word, word_dict[word] 

when I do this in IDLE:

>>> mylist = open('C:\\Users\\ahn_133\\Desktop\\Python Project\\test10.txt').read()
>>> newstrings=replace(mylist)    ### This works fine.
>>> newone=count_words(newstrings)  ### This leads to the following error.

I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#134>", line 1, in <module>
    newPH = replace(newPassage)
  File "C:\Users\ahn_133\Desktop\Python Project\text_modules.py", line 56, in replace
    match = re.sub(r'[^\s^\w]risk', 'risk', filename)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\re.py", line 151, in sub
    return _compile(pattern, flags).sub(repl, string, count)
TypeError: expected string or buffer

Is there anyway to run both functions without saving newstrings into a file, opening it using readlines(), and then running count_words function?