People’s Choice awards — entry requirements for Category 5

There are four awards in the People’s Choice category:

Best Plain English Document
Best Plain English Website
‘Brainstrain’ Document
‘Brainstrain’ Website.

We invite members of the public to nominate documents or websites from any New Zealand-based organisation, other than their own workplace, for a People’s Choice award. (The names of people who enter documents in this category will remain confidential.)

As part of the judging process for these awards, entries will be assessed against the WriteMark Plain English Standard.

General entry requirements for People’s Choice awards

Remember the following requirements when entering a document or website for a People’s Choice award.

Entries should be:

whole documents, rather than extracts
no more than 10 pages
documents in current use.

You may not nominate a document from your own workplace for any of the People’s Choice awards.

Works of fiction and extracts from books will not be accepted.

Documents or websites edited or proofread by Write Limited are not eligible to win a People’s Choice award.
If you only have a hard copy of the document, complete the entry form and print it before submitting the form.

Best Plain English Document

This award honours the most outstanding example of a plain English document nominated by a member of the public.

Prizes for this award

The winner of the People's Choice — Best Plain English Document award will receive:

a stunning steel and bronze trophy crafted for the Awards by Wellington sculptor Campbell Maude
the latest StyleWriter plain English editing software — single-user licence, worth $325 (from Editor Software)
Plain English training to the value of $1,300 (from Write Limited).

Best Plain English Website

This award honours the most outstanding example of a plain English website nominated by a member of the public.

Prizes for this award

The winner of the People's Choice — Best Plain English Website award will receive:

a stunning steel and bronze trophy crafted for the Awards by Wellington sculptor Campbell Maude
the latest StyleWriter plain English editing software — single-user licence, worth $325 (from Editor Software)
a subscription to award-winning web content training, worth $300 (from Contented)
an annual subscription to one of three software tools that help designers create websites that are easier to use, worth $1,000 (from Optimal Workshop).

‘Brainstrain’ Document

This award reveals, in good humour, the document most notable for confusing and dumbfounding its target audience with obscurity and gobbledygook.

The ideal entry for the ‘Brainstrain’ document award is a publicly available or widely used document that causes problems for many people. By putting these confusing documents under the spotlight, we hope that the organisations responsible will rewrite them in beautifully plain English.

Prizes for this award

The winner of the People's Choice — 'Brainstrain' Document award will receive:

the famous ‘Brainstrain’ rubbish bin filled with sour worms
the latest StyleWriter plain English editing software — single-user licence, worth $325 (from Editor Software)
two hours of advice to help convert winning material into plain English, worth $330 (from Write Limited).

‘Brainstrain’ Website

Like the 'Brainstrain' Document award, this award is for the website that most confuses and dumbfounds its target audience.

The ideal entry is a website that is widely used.

By putting confusing websites under the spotlight, we hope that the organisations responsible will transform them into shining examples of plain English.

Prizes for this award

The winner of the People's Choice — 'Brainstrain' Website award will receive:

the famous ‘Brainstrain’ rubbish bin filled with sour worms
the latest StyleWriter plain English editing software — single-user licence, worth $325 (from Editor Software)
a subscription to award-winning web content training, worth $300 (from Contented).

See how a 'Brainstrain' winner became a good news story !

If you have any questions, email Christopher Travers ([email protected]).

Judging process for the 2009 Plain English Awards

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