Internet and Print Publishing Team, Inland Revenue
Winner: Best Plain English Turnaround 2013
IR 240 and IR 333 information guides
Warrick Gibbs, UDC Finance Ltd (Awards sponsor) with Teressa Dillon and Georgia Nelson of Inland Revenue
Judges' comment
In the original’s first pages my eyes glazed over just by reading headings about tax, interest, and obligations. By page 4 of the rewrite I exclaimed aloud “this is great!”. A breath of fresh air for IRD material. It’s very easy to follow and extremely uncluttered.
The use of contractions makes the language friendly and relational. Key technical terms are defined well and the clear, simple, active voice epitomises plain English.
Media statement
Inland Revenue is delighted to win the Best Turnaround category of the 2013 plain English Awards.
Inland Revenue has many tax and social programme guides, which we update following government policy changes and on an annual or as-needed basis.
Without undergoing a full review, publications can lose focus after a few years of additions and updates. One of our key goals for the next few years is a progressive “cover-to-cover” rewrite of Inland Revenue’s external guides.
Two years ago we began a review and rewrite programme where we produced our Guidelines for writing excellent guides.
We wanted our new guides to be relevant and readable. We wanted the structure to back our commitment to using plain English, and make our guides logical and easier to understand for our customers.
We have made this investment and believe that we have achieved fantastic results. We thank WriteMark Plain English Awards for recognising the ‘turn around’ we have made.
Sarah-Lee Ryan
Media Advisor, Communications