Government agencies and commercial firms are again vying for honours in the annual Plain English Awards. Organisations are turning their back on corporate jargon, bureaucratic writing, and legalese.
Now in their 12th year, the Awards have an impressive track record. They encourage New Zealand organisations to favour clarity over complexity and celebrate those who choose to be clear.
The Awards are the premier benchmark for high standards and achievement in plain English. Success in the Awards shows we’re not only doing it [plain English], but doing it well and our expertise is being recognised.
Entries are open until August
Entries are open across nine categories. Awards are available for everything from superb sentence rewrites and document transformations, to recognition for people who campaign for clarity and their projects.
Entries are open now and will close on 31 August 2017.
Choose your category and enter the Awards
Anne-Marie Chisnall June 26th, 2017
Posted In: Communications
Tags: benchmark, clarity, legalese, Plain English Awards
Plain English Awards
Have you heard about the People’s Choice — Worst ‘Brainstrain’ Communication award? It’s the sibling of the People’s Choice — Best Communication award. Here are three things you need to know.
1. The Brainstrain award is the one award that organisations don’t really want to win. It reveals, in good humour, the document or website most notable for confusing and dumbfounding its target audience with obscurity and gobbledygook.
2. The ideal entry is a publicly available or widely used document or website that causes problems for many people.
3. By putting these confusing documents and web pages under the spotlight, we hope that the organisations responsible will rewrite them in beautifully plain English. And we’ve had some great turnaround stories prompted by this publicity.
So why not nominate a great or not-so-great document or website for one of the People’s Choice Awards.
Get involved with the People’s Choice Awards
Plain English Awards
Nicola Welby June 16th, 2017
Posted In: Communications
Tags: Brainstrain, consumers, gobbledygook, plain language, transformation
The fabulous trophy awaiting our winner
Did you miss us? Last year, the Awards took a partial break as major sponsor Write Limited was busy with the international Clarity2016 conference. We celebrated the People’s Choice Best and Brainstrain winners at a gala dinner with conference delegates.
This year we’re back in full force, with all the categories. We’re looking forward to New Zealand organisations getting in behind the Awards as you’ve done since 2006.
We couldn’t do it without our fabulous sponsors. Thanks to your generosity, we’re pretty sure the Awards will be bigger and better than ever in 2017.
The fabulous trophy awaiting our winner
Nicola Welby June 12th, 2017
Posted In: Communications
Tags: clear communication, Plain English Awards, sponsors
