SPARQL parsing error: unexpected terminal

I used gruff to create and execute some simple SPARQL queries but ran into some problems. The following query is executed (prefixes have been omitted):

SELECT ?k
WHERE
{ ?k  rdf:type  uw:pcservice . }

      

        
        
        
      

    

However, when I present the COUNT function as shown below, I get the following error in sadness:

Error: Parse error: unexpected terminal ((value :: | (|). Expected terminals: (* varname decreases distinctly). [Condition type: sparql-parse-error-unexpected-terminal]

SELECT (COUNT(?k) AS ?count)
WHERE
{ ?k  rdf:type  uw:pcservice . }

      

        
        
        
      

    

Not sure what is causing this. Any hints would be appreciated. Thank.