2010 WriteMark |
Friday 3 September 2010 |
New Zealand Plain English Awards |
|
Media release
Award winners champion citizens’ rights
Making government, financial, and legal information clear and understandable is central to our rights as citizens and consumers — and some New Zealand organisations are taking that responsibility seriously. Five of the country’s top government organisations and businesses were honoured last Friday I6 November in the WriteMark New Zealand Plain English Awards 2007.
The WriteMark Awards 2007, sponsored by Write Group Limited and other New Zealand and Australian organisations, attracted strong competition from organisations all over New Zealand. There was even one off-shore nomination from the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise office in Washington DC.
More than 130 guests gathered for the black-tie event at Wellington’s Te Papa Museum to hear the finalists and winners announced for the six awards.
The premier award, for Plain English Champion — Best Organisation, went to Castalia, a New Zealand-owned international economics consultancy.
The prize, valued at $10,000, was awarded to the firm for ‘their outstanding progress in creating an organisation-wide plain English culture in an industry more typically known for jargon and impenetrable text’. The prize is to be spent on a plain English project designed to bring tangible, measurable results for the firm.
In accepting the award, manager Anton Murashev said, ‘We are honoured to receive the award. Castalia staff in Wellington, Washington DC and Sydney work hard to keep the English in our reports plain and simple, even though the concepts dealt with are anything but. We are pleased to have the hard work of our staff recognised. We believe that plain English is a key reason why, in New Zealand and internationally, corporations, governments and multilateral financing agencies come to Castalia for advice on issues crucial to economic development and business value.’
Other winners included ACC for People’s Choice — Best Plain English Document; PHARMAC for Best Plain English Document — Public / NGO Sector; IAG New Zealand Limited for Best Plain English Document — Private Sector; and National Library of New Zealand for Best New Zealand Plain English Website.
And, in a good-humoured poke at the all too familiar gobbledygook that still confounds us, a Brainstrain prize was awarded to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) for their Unit Standard 9734: Management — developing and coordinating people. The document was dubbed by the judges as ‘full of disgraceful jargon and meaningless phrases — especially horrific in the education sector’. Rather than the stunning bronze awards handed out to the other winners, the prize for this category was a stainless-steel rubbish bin, appropriately filled with sour worms.
No one from NZQA was present to collect their prize, but we understand they may issue a media statement soon.
Other finalists in the Brainstrain category included Tournament Parking’s Terms and conditions and the Ministry of Education’s call for tenders for their Over-arching strategy for dissemination and use of best evidence synthesis (BES) iterations.
Kevin Milne of Fair Go fame was once again right behind the cause as MC for the evening. And keynote speaker John Ansell (aka ‘Simpleman’) delighted the audience with an address titled ‘Confessions of a Distiller — An Ad Writer’s Take on Poetry, Politics and Paper Manners’.
The awards entries were judged by David Russell, former CEO of Consumers’ Institute; Rachel McAlpine, web content specialist; and Jacquie Harrison, Senior Communications Lecturer AUT University.
Sponsors
We would like to thank the following sponsors for their support in 2010.
