Winners announced in 2013 Plain English Awards
Media release, 3 December 2013
The Ministry of Social Development was the big winner at the 2013 Plain English Awards. The Ministry won the supreme award for Plain English Champion — Best Organisation at the ceremony tonight in Wellington.
Awards newcomer, ANZ, scooped a win in four categories, showing that plain language can triumph over financial speak in even the most complex of documents. ANZ was also a finalist in three other categories, plainly showing a commitment to clear communication.
The Best Plain English Turnaround award was won by Inland Revenue, who achieved their goal of making the new tax guides ‘relevant and readable’.
The State Services Commission had the dubious honour of winning the Worst ‘Brainstrain’ communication.
Winners received a stunning trophy made by Wellington sculptor Campbell Maud. MC for the evening, comedian and lawyer James Elliott, added his own brand of off-beat humour to the serious business of fighting officialise and obfuscation.
‘Good understanding of clients’ needs’
The panel of international judges praised the Ministry of Social Development’s commitment to plain English, saying the organisation showed a ‘good understanding of their clients’ needs’.
In response to their success, the Ministry of Social Development said they were delighted with their win.
‘Over the past two years, the Ministry has been implementing the Government’s welfare reform programme, representing the biggest changes to the welfare system in 50 years. Most of Work and Income’s forms, brochures, and web pages were revised to reflect these changes and we took the opportunity to make sure information was easy for clients to understand and use. Clients, stakeholders and staff were extensively consulted in the development and testing of communications,’ says Emily Fulford, Advisor — Planning, Performance and Governance.
The Ministry’s win follows their win of the 2012 Best Turnaround award, in which they received high praise for redrafting the student loan contract that had previously won a Brainstrain award.
This year’s win gave the Ministry a prize package worth $10,000 from New Zealand’s plain English specialists and major sponsor, Write Limited.
‘Management speak at its best’
Winners of the dreaded People’s Choice — Worst ‘Brainstrain’ award, the State Services Commission, were applauded for fronting up to receive their prize — a shiny stainless-steel bin filled with sour worm lollies. Judges said their advertisement for a Director of Continuous Improvement was ‘outstanding’ and ‘management speak at its best’. ‘We had no idea of what sort of person was being sought or what qualifications would best suit the position.’
The State Services Commission says the win was a timely reminder to take their own medicine and make improvements. Plain English Awards Trust chair, Gregory Fortuin, commented that the Brainstrain award usually gave organisations a big incentive to change the way they communicate.
People, organisations, and specialist documents all honoured
Other awards were picked up by well-known names in both the public and private sectors.
- Environmental Protection Authority (Best Public Sector Document)
- Accident Compensation Corporation (Best Public Sector Website)
- Equinox IT (Best Private Sector Website)
- Xero (Best Sentence Transformation)
- Statistics New Zealand (a tie with ANZ Wealth for Plain English Champion — Best Individual or Team)
- Kylie Mason, Ministry of Health (Best Technical Communicator)
Awards sponsors
Sponsors for this year’s Awards included Write Limited, NZ Superannuation Fund, Consumer NZ, BusinessNZ, UDC Finance, Sysdoc, Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand, Chris Mitchell Design, Printing.com, NZ Post, and Editor Software.
Contact details
Gregory Fortuin, Chair of the WriteMark Plain English Awards Trust, 021 465 254.
Lynda Harris, Awards founder and CEO of Write Limited, 021 404 990.