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

Find out more about WriteMark

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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.

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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.

Read on for part 1 of the inspiring speech given by Lynda Harris, Awards founder and CE of main sponsor Write Limited, at the 2018 Plain English Awards

Good evening! Let me start with a question: Why are you here? What prompted you to enter the annual Plain English Awards? What brought you along tonight?

I’m pretty sure that you’re here because you care. You care about the cause. You care about the ideal of plain language because you understand the cost, in both financial and human terms, of poorly conceived and written communications. You care about wasted effort, wasted time, and wasted money.

And you care about the enormous disadvantage that poor writing can bring, especially when the communications are about access to justice, or help of some kind, or are connected with legal, financial, or health services.

It was the very same notion of care that prompted us, 13 years ago, to set up these Awards.

It was because they cared that our foundation sponsors, Consumer, TechCommNZ, and Graphic Solutions came on board, as did our other wonderful sponsors who followed.

And it was also that notion of care that led us to establish the WriteMark Plain Language Standard, now cleverly rebranded by Craig Christensen to reflect that central idea of — you got it — care.

The thought I’d like to leave you with tonight is that, rather than thinking of care as simply an emotion connected with plain language, let’s recognise that care has tremendous value in its own right. Care can be a powerful catalyst for action if we follow through on what we feel prompted to do.

I came to this conclusion after preparing for a presentation at Clarity2018 in Montreal recently. The conference was attended by over 500 delegates from around the world, most of them lawyers. In my presentation I explored the idea that having a set of strong, people-based values baked into the firm’s mission might lead naturally to clearer, more accessible law.

I interviewed several B Corp law firms in Australia and Canada. B Corps are accredited organisations that believe business can be a force for good in the world.

What struck me was that in each conversation the people I interviewed used the word care — a lot. They also used another word: ‘believe’. As they spoke about what they believed in, their values, and precisely what they care about, became clear.

Here’s what three of those firms said.

Alexandra Doig from Atticus values care in communication

I loved my interview with Alexandra Doig, Managing Partner of Atticus Lawyers in Melbourne, Australia. With strong convictions about human rights, Alexandra chose to get B Corp accreditation several years ago. Her core philosophy, ‘We believe in treating people as they would want to be treated’, shone through our entire conversation.

It’s not often you hear a lawyer say, ‘We want everyone to feel comfortable all of the time. We know clients are already stressed with the issue. We aim to reduce that stress and make them feel happier … create a safe space … feel that we are their cheerleaders.’

I asked Alexandra the all-important question: Does your chief value of ‘care’ influence the way you write to your clients? The answer: ‘Yes. Telling people what they need to know, and doing all we can to help, means we need to write like a human. We need to communicate clearly and personally in ways that don’t alienate. We can’t give a client a convoluted document. We have to walk the talk and act on what we believe in.

‘We could write a ten-page document. We try to write a one-pager that clearly captures the most important info, and that the client can easily understand and be comfortable with. It’s a calculated risk — with benefits.

‘We want to write in a way that gives clients that lightbulb moment. If a client doesn’t walk away with a greater understanding of their position than they had when they arrived, we haven’t done our job properly.’

Bravo, Alexandra!

Joel Cranshaw from Clearpoint. believes in simple legal services

Joel’s strapline on his website says it all: ‘Legal services — reimagined simply.’ With a background as an experienced corporate lawyer, Joel said he’d always loved solving client problems. But as time went on, he felt less and less comfortable in a system based on chargeable units. ‘I felt there was no incentive to be efficient, and this often led to friction between client and lawyer.’

Prompted by strong values that focused on serving the client in the best way possible, Joel conceived Clearpoint’s unusual model, where they work on retainer for small to medium-sized firms in Melbourne and beyond. Achieving B Corp status was a natural fit.

Joel is a straight talker: ‘We want to work with compassionate people who value what we do and whose approach aligns with the concept of conscious capitalism. We don’t work with clients who don’t have our values.’

When asked if his values-based approach created clearer law, Joel’s answer was unequivocal: ‘Yes! I say that for two reasons. Our retainer-based fee model means that we must work efficiently — so we must be clear, concise, and to the point. And what we believe in, our philosophical approach to compassionately meeting clients’ needs, also means that we must communicate in ways they can readily understand.’

Applause once more from me!

Sophie Tremblay from Novalex runs a purpose-driven business

Sophie’s was a bold start-up story — similar to the Suspended Coffee movement (buy a coffee, pay for two — those who can’t afford to pay get coffee for free). Sophie and her business partner Ryan Hillier set up Novalex to have a self-sufficient business model, serving both corporate clients and others who need legal help. Neither an exclusively for-profit business, nor an exclusively philanthropic organisation, Novalex is a purpose-driven enterprise doing business for good. For every fee-paying hour, they give a pro-bono hour to eligible start-ups, non-profits, or individuals.

In Sophie’s words, ‘We believe everyone should have access to justice and top-notch legal advice. We hope that corporate clients will see using Novalex as a socially responsible choice. And we hope to give back in any way we can.’

Does this values-based model create clearer law? Sophie: ‘Absolutely! We know that even the smartest people aren’t necessarily familiar with legal terms and concepts. So a huge part of what we do is to make the law understandable. We use concrete examples and remove the abstract, along with many other techniques such as metaphor (“It’s like…”), and “This means…” We remove jargon and make important concepts stand out. We do what we need to do to be understood.’

Care intuitively leads to plain language

Hearing this long list of useful and well-founded plain language techniques, I asked Sophie if she had ever had any formal plain language training. She hadn’t. Nor had Alexandra or Joel. Yet instinctively, motivated by strong human values and a sense of care, all three ticked so many plain language boxes.

My hypothesis was looking good — all three firms proving that care really can be a shortcut to plain language. Admittedly my sample size was only three, but these inspiring leaders and others like them are truly showing the way to clearer law using an approach based on care.

Find out more about each of the three firms here:

Atticus

Clearpoint.

Novalex

Find out more about the WriteMark Plain Language Standard

The post Care — the shortcut to plain language (part 1) appeared first on Plain English Awards.

In return for their support, sponsors get the same feel-good factor they would get from donating. But on top of that, they also get a return on the investment in their chosen cause. So, true sponsorship offers an organisation something sustainable and tangible in return for its commitment.

Sponsors get clear returns on their investment

Sponsoring the Plain English Awards offers clear returns on your investment, such as:

• alignment with plain English values. You’re seen as customer-focused, transparent, and trustworthy
• brand exposure. Forget about advertising! You’ll be widely promoted in our Awards publicity, reaching large groups of potential new customers
• networking opportunities. Plain English Awards entries come from a huge range of public and private organisations. The networking opportunities you get from Awards forums (in person and online) offer a hugely valuable return, as does the actual presentation ceremony.

Is your organisation a sponsorship ‘best match’?

Looking at the values and aims of the Plain English Awards, and from our past experience, we know the types of organisations that benefit most from sponsorship.

If you can answer ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, sponsoring the Plain English Awards could be just the thing for you:

• Do you want to reinforce to your clients or customers that you always work with their best interests in mind?
• Do you want to reinforce to your clients or customers that you are transparent in your dealings with them and with other organisations?
• Do you want to be part of a movement to improve government and business documents so that all New Zealanders can understand them?
• Do you want to help build a public preference for plain English?
• Do you love celebrating success?

Answered ‘Yes’ to one of more of these questions? It’s time for a conversation!

We’d love to hear from you

Get in touch if you’d like to talk through sponsorship opportunities at this year’s Awards. We’d love to discuss a sponsorship arrangement that would benefit both the Awards and your organisation.

Phone:  +64 4 384 6447

Email:    [email protected]

Visit our website for more information about the 2018 Plain English Awards

The post The mighty side of sponsorship — a big step beyond donating appeared first on Plain English Awards.

What if I just speak a little louder?

I don’t have to dig too deep into my own experiences of travel outside New Zealand to know how difficult a language difference can make life. I even remember once falling into the dire trap of increasing my volume to try to get my message across. How was that ever going to work? Luckily for me (but not the poor person I was talking to), our topic of attempted conversation wasn’t too important.

So what must life be like for the many migrants who make their way to New Zealand each year and don’t speak English fluently? To put things in perspective, a quarter of New Zealand’s population was born overseas. And for many of these people, English is their second — or even third — language. Imagine what these statistics mean for an organisation like Immigration New Zealand (INZ), which needs to communicate ideas, many of them complex, through a variety of mediums every day.

What plain English means for migrants to New Zealand

At the end of November last year, supporters of the annual Plain English Awards celebrated its 2017 winners at a ceremony in Wellington. INZ was one of the Awards’ valuable sponsors, and representative Anne-Marie Masgoret gave a brief address during the ceremony. While no one in the audience needed any reminding of the importance and value of plain English, Anne-Marie’s words served as terrific reinforcement.

Anne-Marie Masgoret, right, from sponsors Immigration New Zealand, with winners Anthony Frith and Bridget Cheesman.

‘Moving to live and work in a new country involves finding out a great deal of information that locals simply take for granted,’ Anne-Marie explained.

Focusing on user-friendly information

INZ’s goal is to help migrants make New Zealand their home. They aim to support these people to fully participate in and contribute to all aspects of New Zealand life. And they do this by communicating clearly and simply through a variety of mediums.

INZ also relies on other organisations to deliver their message directly to migrants.

‘New Zealand organisations are very good at providing newcomers with information. However, the information provided is not always written in a user-friendly way,’ said Anne-Marie.

‘For those new to New Zealand, the quality of information migrants receive as they settle into their new life here can make all the difference in the way they settle into this country and make it their home. It can also make a difference to whether a newcomer acts on information or just ignores it.’

Keeping it clear for those new to New Zealand

To support organisations to write clear communications, INZ created the Keeping It Clear resource. This aims to help organisations create or rewrite information in a short, simple, and easy-to-understand format.

Check out INZ’s Keeping it Clear resource

Find out about the winners of the 2017 Plain English Awards

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