The post A partnership worth a thousand words appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>Working alone has its benefits. But joining forces with someone else can be even better.
We’re excited to announce that we have an official media partner for this year’s People’s Choice Awards — the independent news and current affairs website Newsroom. Many of you will know Newsroom, a New Zealand site with a team of award-winning journalists. This team produces quality written and video stories that set the national news agenda and inform intelligent conversations at every level of New Zealand life.
Focusing on people, progress, and democracy
One of the many traits we love about Newsroom is their focus on delivering ‘in-depth storytelling for thinking audiences with an interest in the people, progress, and democracy of Aotearoa’.
‘Newsroom and the Awards share some important values,’ says Gregory Fortuin, Chair of the WriteMark Plain English Awards Trust.
‘We’re both interested in the progress of Aotearoa and in how New Zealanders exercise their democratic rights. At the Awards we believe that clear communication is the democratic right of every New Zealander.’
What this partnership means for the Awards
As our media partner, Newsroom will be helping to spread the word about our Awards. They’ll also officially announce our winners on Thursday, 28 November. We’ll direct you to their site for these announcements, if you don’t get there earlier. And all other announcements, including shortlists and finalists, will continue to be published on our Awards site.
When to look out for results
Our judges’ decisions will be announced on the following dates.
- Shortlist announced: Thursday, 19 September
- Finalists announced: Thursday, 17 October
- Winners announced: Thursday, 28 November
The post A partnership worth a thousand words appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The post Behind the scenes — introducing our 2019 People’s Choice judges appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>Every year we’re honoured to enlist the support of plain language specialists from around New Zealand and the world to judge entries and nominations in our Awards. This year’s People’s Choice Awards are no different.
The exciting task of deciding who’s best
For our Best Communication category, we’re delighted to announce Deanna Lorianni, communications strategist from Virginia, USA, as panel chair. She’ll be joined by plain language specialists Emma Fossey in Scotland and Paula Shelton in Auckland. Together Deanna, Emma, and Paula will make the tough decision on which of your nominations is this year’s plain language superstar.
The difficult job of sorting bad from worse
For our Brainstrain category, we’re lucky enough to have the expert eye of two judges who’ve been part of this panel for several years: Simon Hertnon from Nakedize, who’ll be chairing the panel, and Sue Chetwin from Consumer — we’re excited to have them back! Simon and Sue will be joined by the equally valuable Paula van Gemen, plain language specialist from the Netherlands.
Read more about who’s on this year’s judging panels
The post Behind the scenes — introducing our 2019 People’s Choice judges appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The post Gobbledygook — it’s really not okay appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>It shouldn’t take more than one reading to decipher a passage of text.
How often do you ponder a passage of text that you just can’t untangle on one reading? Every day, I expect. Today’s special for me was an email from a software firm that included terms like ‘personalisation’, ‘confidentiality provision’, ‘ecosystem partners’, ‘beta participants’, ‘busywork’ — and more!
One or two of these terms I could manage and, to be fair, the writer was trying to summarise a larger document that was even more complex. But the two very long paragraphs in the email were jam-packed with similar terms. So the overall result was that the email missed its mark. The text was dense and difficult to decipher, so I didn’t really bother to try.
Tell us about giving up on gobbledygook
Gobbledygook hides the main messages. The reader has to struggle to understand. And that makes our busy lives even busier. If they give up, they’ve wasted their time. It’s not okay.
The People’s Choice Awards give you the chance to find examples of gobbledygook in everyday communications and dob them in. Nominate the worst communications you’ve found for the Brainstrain Award. You can nominate documents or webpages from government or business organisations.
We’d love to hear from you so we can help to stamp out gobbledygook. This is your chance to change the way New Zealand communicates!
Find out about the 2018 Brainstrain winner here
The post Gobbledygook — it’s really not okay appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The post Welcome to our new patron for the Plain English Awards appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>We’re thrilled to welcome Chloe Wright of the Wright Family Foundation as our new patron.
Chloe’s background and interests make her the perfect fit for the role of patron. The Trust and the working group that organises the Awards are thrilled to have her on board.
Chloe herself is equally thrilled!
‘I’m honoured that you’ve invited me to be patron of the Plain English Awards. I can see the huge potential in the Plain English Awards, and commend you for what you’ve achieved in the past 14 years. The Awards’ goals of making plain English a natural part of everyday business and government communication is something I strongly support.
‘So often people don’t want to say that they can’t understand an official document or form. They think it’s because they lack some knowledge or skill — when mostly the problem lies in the writing they’re trying to untangle.
‘I’m going to embrace being patron of the Plain English Awards, because I’m passionate about championing people’s right to understand.’
Read more about Chloe Wright
Find out more about the WriteMark Plain English Awards Trust
The post Welcome to our new patron for the Plain English Awards appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The post Joining forces for clear communications appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>A big driver of the Plain English Awards is to improve the quality of communications created for everyday New Zealanders.
We want you, as a member of the New Zealand public, to be able to understand everything that’s communicated to you. Because it’s your right to understand!
Another organisation pushing for clear communications is WriteMark. The WriteMark is a quality mark awarded to documents or websites that achieve a high standard of plain language.
When your document holds the WriteMark, your readers can be sure that your writing meets a very high standard of clarity. The WriteMark is an internationally recognised quality mark developed in New Zealand.
We’re very proud to have WriteMark as one of our principal sponsors
The post Joining forces for clear communications appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The post The Write kind of helping hand appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>Like all great things, the Plain English Awards only exist because of the combined vision and ongoing commitment of a group of valuable supporters.
Many hands make light work
At the beginning of our 14-year history, it took a group of passionate professionals, led by Write Limited founder and CEO Lynda Harris, to develop the idea of the Awards and get them started.
Over the course of our history, we’ve relied on various supporters to help us maintain our momentum and keep us working towards our goals. Some have joined us for short periods of time; others have been with us from the start. Check out this year’s sponsors.
Write Limited is one of those long-standing supporters. New Zealand’s premier plain language consultancy, Write is also our founding sponsor. Write believes in using the power of words for good, so sponsoring the Awards fits perfectly with that purpose.
Find out more about why Write chooses to support the Plain English Awards every year
Discover the benefits of sponsorship
Curious about the benefits that sponsoring the Plain English Awards brings to your organisation? Please get in touch — we’d love to discuss sponsorship options with you.
Contact Awards project manager Melissa Mebus on [email protected], or call 04 384 6447 if you’d like to sponsor the Awards.
The post The Write kind of helping hand appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The post Tall poppy or shrinking violet — the People’s Choice Awards are for you appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The People’s Choice Awards are the perfect opportunity for all organisations to get recognition for their clear communications.
Are you comfortable shouting from the rooftops about your fabulously clear documents? Or do you keep your clear communications a best-kept secret — just for your customers?
Whether you’re a tall poppy or a shrinking violet, the Plain English Awards are a great way to get recognition for all the great work you’re doing to make New Zealand a country of clarity.
How does your document or webpage get nominated for an Award?
You can’t enter it yourself — it’s up to members of the public to do that. That’s why they’re called the People’s Choice Awards, of course! But you’re more than welcome to point them in the right direction.
Shout from the rooftops
Have you got a great document that you think is worthy of the Best Communication Award? Why not use social media to let the world know. If people think your document is a great example of clear communication, they can nominate it in the Awards.
Encourage your customers
Let your customers know through your newsletters and website that you’d love them to show how much they admire your document by nominating it in the People’s Choice.
It’s free to nominate
Nominations are free of charge for the People’s Choice Awards. Here’s how people can nominate for the Best Communication Award
http://www.plainenglishawards.org.nz/2019-peoples-choice-best-award/
The post Tall poppy or shrinking violet — the People’s Choice Awards are for you appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The post Fly my pretties! What happens to your entries after you press ‘submit’ appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>Submitting your entry in this year’s People’s Choice Awards is one thing. What happens to your entry after that is another.
Your nomination joins the list so experts can decide who’s best and worst
After you submit a nomination, it joins a catalogue of other entries in our professional submission platform Submittable, where it’ll sit until entries officially close. Soon after that, the Awards administrators open up entries for the Best and Worst categories to their respective judging panels.
Our judges then sort through entries to come up with a shortlist, followed by a more in-depth assessment to create a list of finalists.
Finally, the judges decide which entries are our ultimate winners. This year’s winners will be announced on Thursday, 28 November.
The judges assess the entries using plain English criteria
Because our Awards are all about plain English, our judges use specific criteria to decide which entries are best and which are worst. These criteria are based on the following aspects of clear communication:
- Purpose
- Structure
- Usability (for websites)
- Headings and main messages
- Paragraphs
- Sentences
- Words
- Layout and presentation
Read more about our judging criteria
Find out how to nominate communications
Thanks to the Wellington band Fly My Pretties for being the inspiration for our blog title! Visit their website flymypretties.com
The post Fly my pretties! What happens to your entries after you press ‘submit’ appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The post We all want what’s best for New Zealanders appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The Plain English Awards and Consumer NZ have something very important in common — we both want what’s best for New Zealanders.
The Plain English Awards is a not-for-profit charity that aims to raise the bar for clear communication. We want everyday New Zealanders to understand what’s written for them.
Consumer NZ is a non-profit organisation dedicated to getting New Zealanders a fairer deal. So it’ll be no surprise that Consumer NZ is a long-term supporter of the Plain English Awards. In particular, Consumer NZ has supported our People’s Choice categories for many years.
Consumer’s Chief Executive, Sue Chetwin, has been a member of our judging panel for several years, focusing specifically on our People’s Choice categories. She’s returning again this year as one of the panel judging our Worst Brainstrain category.
We’re sure you’ll join us too by nominating the best and the worst communications you find in your daily life. All of us want New Zealanders to be able to make legal, financial, health, and all sorts of other decisions with ease.
Take a look at what Consumer NZ has to say about this year’s People’s Choice Awards
Find out how to nominate documents here
The post We all want what’s best for New Zealanders appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>The post Help can come from unexpected places appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>In times of trouble, who might you expect to get help from? Friends, family, colleagues, or your close community all might offer to lend a hand. It’s not often that a complete stranger jumps in to help. Particularly one that’s disguised as an industry award with the title ‘Brainstrain’.
Meet your new friend — the Brainstrain Award
The People’s Choice Awards offer members of the public an opportunity to celebrate excellent communications and to draw attention to bad ones — through the Brainstrain Award.
Winning the Brainstrain Award is like being offered a helping hand from a stranger. We say ‘stranger’ because all nominations are anonymous (and free).
The ‘helping hand’ is an opportunity for the winner to turn their communication around and make it better than ever. (And maybe even enter the Turnaround Award in the next round of full Plain English Awards in 2020.)
The Brainstrain winner gets some plain English love
The winning nomination gets the unenviable title of ‘People’s Choice — Worst Brainstrain Communication’. Sure, the word ‘Brainstrain’ doesn’t sound that great. But when you read what else winners receive, the title becomes a little less ominous.
Our beloved Brainstrain winner receives not only the famous Brainstrain rubbish bin filled with sour worms, but also some very constructive feedback and training in the form of:
- feedback on their communication (and how it could be improved) from our expert panel of international judges
- the latest StyleWriter plain English editing software — single-user licence (from Editor Software)
- 2 hours free consultancy from Write Limited to start transforming the document or webpage into plain English
- a place on any of Write Limited’s 1-day open workshops to use before 31 March 2020.
Do your bit for improving New Zealand’s communication. Submit your nominations for this year’s Brainstrain Award
The post Help can come from unexpected places appeared first on Plain English Awards.
]]>