Plain English Champion — Best Individual or Team 2011
Judges' comments
Winner: Cancer Society of New Zealand
We admired this team’s simple, direct, yet sensitive approach.
The five-person Cancer Society team (all editors and nurses) presented an excellent view of how they use plain English principles to empower people, support them, and help them make informed decisions. The team consults with many people — health professionals, patients, consumers, etc — and has worked hard to develop excellent processes and policies to communicate effectively.
We were impressed with the team’s use of feedback and other data to make decisions about what is working and what needs to be revised.
Finalist: Statistics New Zealand
Statistics New Zealand submitted evidence of an impressive team — 10 people, transforming ‘thousands of pieces of economic data, from a wide variety of sources, into a comprehensive picture of the NZ economy’.
The Statistics team showed a strong common-sense approach and an appreciation of the need to hone their own skills and train new members of the team. They have created a team culture that includes peer review and feedback on activities and results.
The Statistics team also rose to the challenge of communicating the effect of the earthquakes while being personally affected by them.
Finalist: Telecom NZ
The Telecom team did an impressive job in championing and spreading a plain English writing style. Their entry shows very impressive results from creating new writing standards for online content. Customer satisfaction increased by 25%, and the whole company is adopting the writing standard. We were impressed by the team’s comment about treating internal and external customers the same.