Plain English Champion — Best Organisation award — entry requirements

The award for Best Organisation is the premier award. This award is open to any New Zealand-based organisation that can show evidence of an active campaign to create an organisation-wide culture of plain English writing.

Present your entry in two parts: project description and supporting evidence.

Project description

Please describe your project in no more than 2500 words, using the three headings below. We have given you some examples of content, but you may include whatever information you think supports your entry.

Planning

Content could include:

business case for the project
project objectives
plans to achieve management commitment
detailed plain English project plan.

Activities and resources

Content could include:

staff training
documents redrafted into plain English
internal and external publicity campaigns
internal or external plain English standard
style guide that supports plain English
intranet materials
publications
online forums
staff champions
plain English editing software.

Results to date

Record successes, milestones achieved, and lessons learned, including:

audits of plain English use
solicited and unsolicited feedback from readers, staff, or clients
before and after results
other measurable results.

Supporting evidence

You can back up your project description with as much supporting evidence as you like. Remember that we need five copies of your entry for the judging process.

Prizes for this award

The winner of the Plain English Champion — Best Organisation award will receive plain English consultancy and editing services to the value of $10,000 from Write Limited. The prize is to be used on a specific plain English project designed to produce measurable results for the winning organisation (that is, savings in time or money, or both).

The winner will complete the project by 30 June 2011. They will then document the results in a project report by 31 July 2011. Please include with your entry a short description of the plain English project your organisation would undertake if it won this award. (Your idea for a project isn't part of the judging criteria.)

The winner will also receive:

a stunning steel and bronze trophy produced for the Awards by Wellington sculptor Campbell Maude
the latest StyleWriter plain English editing software — single-user licence, worth $325 (from Editor Software)
short brand/image analysis, worth $3,000 (from BrandNew)
two places on a half-day day Plain English and your Brand Workshop, worth $800 (from Write and BrandNew).