A pleading nuisance.

Dear reader,

Hopefully you are enjoying the blog so far and finding it useful...or at least entertaining.

Hilariously it has had quite a few compliments from friends, former colleagues and industry professionals — who all know far more than me about journalism and really should be getting on with their work rather than reading silly blogs aimed at students and trainees.

No doubt there are some of you who are simply thinking: "Who is this prat who thinks he can tell us all about journalism?"

(Indeed it wouldn't be the first time - all I can say is that it may make uncomfortable reading but it is largely the result of first hand experience. A sort of Machiavelli's The Prints if you will. *insert collective groan here*)

Anyway let's ignore all that. I wonder if any of you can help with examples of poor copy you've seen in papers? I've seen hundreds over the years...hey I've written a whole lot more myself!

Thinking of cliches, banalities, leaden stories, missed angles... (no, this really is my copy).

Or particularly good examples - esp of things I've already blogged about. Anyway it would all be very useful and make the blog a bit more interesting.

Also if you can think of any clips from films that might illustrate the points being made. I've seen a lot of films about newspapers but every now and then you get something like this...

You can email me at journalismtips@hotmail.co.uk

Any RTs, mentions, comments, recommendations etc would also be useful...(I've given up on the ads).

Thanking you.