sponsors – Plain English Awards

A partnership worth a thousand words

Tue, 27 Aug 2019 23:29:16 +0000

Working alone has its benefits. But joining forces with someone else can be even better.

We’re excited to announce that we have an official media partner for this year’s People’s Choice Awards — the independent news and current affairs website Newsroom. Many of you will know Newsroom, a New Zealand site with a team of award-winning journalists. This team produces quality written and video stories that set the national news agenda and inform intelligent conversations at every level of New Zealand life.

Focusing on people, progress, and democracy

One of the many traits we love about Newsroom is their focus on delivering ‘in-depth storytelling for thinking audiences with an interest in the people, progress, and democracy of Aotearoa’.

‘Newsroom and the Awards share some important values,’ says Gregory Fortuin, Chair of the WriteMark Plain English Awards Trust.

‘We’re both interested in the progress of Aotearoa and in how New Zealanders exercise their democratic rights. At the Awards we believe that clear communication is the democratic right of every New Zealander.’

What this partnership means for the Awards

As our media partner, Newsroom will be helping to spread the word about our Awards. They’ll also officially announce our winners on Thursday, 28 November. We’ll direct you to their site for these announcements, if you don’t get there earlier. And all other announcements, including shortlists and finalists, will continue to be published on our Awards site.

When to look out for results

Our judges’ decisions will be announced on the following dates.

The post A partnership worth a thousand words appeared first on Plain English Awards.

]]>

You’d like to know what?

Thu, 01 Mar 2018 00:24:29 +0000

You’ll all be familiar with the idea of the world becoming smaller as fast-paced communications connect even the remotest places on earth to the wider world. With the click of a button we can instantly be in touch with someone as far afield as Siberia in the far north and Antarctica in the far south. But does the amount of communicating we’re doing necessarily mean that we’re understanding each other?

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

The post You’d like to know what? appeared first on Plain English Awards.

]]>

Immigration New Zealand is keeping it clear for new New Zealanders

Tue, 08 Aug 2017 10:43:30 +0000

Immigration New Zealand is supporting clear communications for new and not-so-new New Zealanders by sponsoring the Best Plain English Turnaround Award in 2017.

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) understands how important it is to use plain English. INZ helps migrants to get established in New Zealand. By providing newcomers with clear information and services, we can help them to successfully settle and contribute to our communities.

Immigration New Zealand is keen to encourage the use of plain English as a common practice in our country.

Judi Altinkaya, National Manager, Migrant Settlement explains:

With more than a quarter of New Zealand’s population born abroad, not everyone understands English well. It’s important for people whose jobs involve communications to keep this in mind.

For migrants new to New Zealand, the quality of information they receive as they settle into their new lives here can make all the difference. The more that New Zealand organisations deliver that information effectively, in plain English, the more we can facilitate a smoother settlement process for newcomers.

Immigration New Zealand is keeping it clear

In August 2016, INZ launched Keeping it Clear. This online resource is designed to help organisations present their information more clearly so that it is easily understood by the growing proportion of new migrants in New Zealand.

We think the aim of these resources and the aim of the Plain English Awards are a natural fit!

What’s the Turnaround Award all about?

The Best Plain English Turnaround Award recognises the best rewrite of a document or website that was originally difficult to understand but has been significantly improved by adopting a plain English approach.

The Best Plain English Turnaround Award is open to all forms of communication, whether online, in print, or video.

Entries close on 31 August, with the awards to be announced on at the Awards ceremony on 23 November at the Royal Society of New Zealand’s premises in Wellington.

Thanks, Immigration New Zealand

We couldn’t do it without you!

The post Immigration New Zealand is keeping it clear for new New Zealanders appeared first on Plain English Awards.

]]>

Plain English Awards: It’s good to be back!

Mon, 12 Jun 2017 10:47:12 +0000

Did you miss us? Last year, the Awards took a partial break as major sponsor Write Limited was busy with the international Clarity2016 conference. We celebrated the People’s Choice Best and Brainstrain winners at a gala dinner with conference delegates.

This year we’re back in full force, with all the categories. We’re looking forward to New Zealand organisations getting in behind the Awards as you’ve done since 2006.

We couldn’t do it without our fabulous sponsors. Thanks to your generosity, we’re pretty sure the Awards will be bigger and better than ever in 2017.

The fabulous trophy awaiting our winner

The post Plain English Awards: It’s good to be back! appeared first on Plain English Awards.

]]>