About

Here you will find much of what I have learned from 50 years of being a journalist and close to 20 years of tutoring in journalism.

This site will be a great reference if you are a student of journalism or if you just want to improve your writing skills.

There’s a lot of information on this site. Here are a few topics you read first:

Simon’s on-air team in the mid-1980s. Back row l-r: reporters Brett Clements, Edith Bliss (died 2012), Melinda Rutter, Phillip Tanner. Front row: Simon Townsend, Woodrow the Bloodhoound (died 1986).
Simon’s on-air team in the mid-1980s. Back row l-r: reporters Brett Clements, Edith Bliss, Melinda Rutter, Phillip Tanner. Front row: Simon Townsend, Woodrow the bloodhound (died 1986).

Some of you may remember me from my television show Simon Townsend’s Wonder World!  There are some topics on reporting for TV but the majority here is for print journalism.

Many of the topics are from factsheets that I would regularly send my students. Some topics are informal communications or responses to students using incorrect spelling or turn of phrase.  There were so many common mistakes and questions and many of the topics are these exact responses.

Feel free to add to the knowledge on this site by commenting.  Please keep to the topic you are commenting on.
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