Plain English Awards

celebrate New Zealand's clearest communicators

The Plain English Awards
The Plain English Awards

Watch this space! We hope to have news about the next Awards soon

We made the difficult decision to postpone the Awards in 2020 because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on many individuals and organisations.

We’ve loved the wonderful examples of plain English that we’ve seen in New Zealand and overseas during the pandemic. This heightened interest in clear communication gives us an extra incentive to get back up and running when the time’s right. More coming soon!

Are the Awards still making a difference?

 

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And if you’re interested in sponsoring the Awards, we’d love to hear from you too. Email [email protected]

Get involved with our People’s Choice awards


Best Award

The Best Communication award honours an outstanding example of a plain English document or webpage nominated by a member of the public

Find out more


Brainstrain

The Brainstrain award reveals, in good humour, the document or webpage most notable for confusing and dumbfounding its target audience

Find out more

You beauties

Congratulations to our 2019 plain English heroes


People's Choice – Best Plain English Communication 2019

Winner: Accuro Health Insurance

Finalist: Simplicity Classrooms

Finalist: Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment

Finalist: Commonsense Organics


People's Choice – Worst Brainstrain Communication 2019

Winner: Auckland Council

Finalist: Rabo Capital Securities Ltd

Finalist: Christchurch City Council