Media release: 5 November 2016
People’s Choice awards for the best and worst of business writing were announced at a gala dinner in Wellington, New Zealand on Saturday, 5 November.
The award for the Best Plain English Communication was taken out by well-known economic consultancy firm, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) ahead of a number of strong contenders. NZIER’s report on international trade and agreements and sovereignty, ISDS and Sovereignty, was judged to be an outstanding example of clarity and reader focus.
The judges, Sue Chetwin of Consumer NZ and plain language experts Simon Hertnon and Ralph Brown, had high praise for the writers: ‘The NZIER report is a breath of fresh air to readers used to struggling through lengthy, jargon-filled advisory documents.
‘We wish this style of advisory writing were the norm rather than the exception. Decision makers across New Zealand would not only be better informed, they would have more time and energy available to think about what to do with the advice they receive.’
Judges also praised the communications nominated for the two other finalists, calling Business.govt.nz’s Employment Agreement Builder ‘an impressive online tool’ and Z Energy’s annual report ‘zesty’ and ‘refreshingly engaging’.
As always, the winner of the dreaded ‘Brainstrain’ Communication award was announced at the ceremony. This award reveals, in good humour, the document most notable for dumbfounding readers with gobbledygook.
A job description produced by the Parliamentary Service was the dubious winner. The judges said the job description was ‘…a classic example of the myth that a verbose and impersonal document is somehow more professional than a concise and engaging one.’
To their credit, the Parliamentary Service took the award on the chin. They issued a response by way of a tongue-in-cheek video, shown to guests at the ceremony, in which they welcomed winning such a ‘prestigious’ award.
It’s not all bad news. Along with the traditional bin filled with sour worms, the winner of the Brainstrain award gets two hours free consultancy with Write Limited to start transforming the offending document, or another like it, into plain English.
The People’s Choice awards, one segment of the usual yearly Plain English Awards, were held this year as part of the Clarity2016 conference, an international gathering of plain language and communications specialists, legal writers, and business people.
Awards founder Lynda Harris says, ‘We’ve seen the Awards shift attitudes and expectations about communication in the business, professional, and public sectors. Organisations recognise that plain language is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s crucial to their success.’
The full Plain English Awards programme will resume in 2017.
END
Get more information:
www.plainenglishawards.org.nz
Lynda Harris, founder of the WriteMark Plain English Awards, [email protected] and 021 404990
Gregory Fortuin, Chair of the WriteMark Plain English Awards Trust, 021 465 254
www.clarity2016.org
Nicola Welby November 6th, 2016
Posted In: Communications
Tags: Brainstrain, Clarity2016, clear communication, People's Choice, Plain English Awards, plain language
Nominate the best and the worst for an award in 2016
We’re mixing it up in 2016 with a different event from previous years. Our major sponsor Write Limited is co-hosting Clarity2016 this year. So we’re focusing on the People’s Choice categories instead of holding the full range of Plain English Awards. Read on for three reasons to get involved.
You’ve always wanted to do something to help banish jargon and gobbledygook
When you nominate a document for the not-so-coveted ‘Brainstrain‘ Award, you’ll be helping to make a positive difference to the way organisations communicate. Almost without exception, organisations step up to ‘take it on the chin’ when nominated for the dreaded bin of sour worm lollies. With the public scrutiny they get from winning the Brainstrain category, they’re motivated to change.
You’ve found a wonderful example of clear communication that you’d like to share with the world
We love to celebrate the great work happening in so many organisations that are improving the way they communicate. Winning the award for People’s Choice Best Plain English Communication is a public pat on the back for New Zealand’s clearest communicators. Help them get the recognition they deserve.
You’ll be helping to promote New Zealand as a country that takes plain language seriously
The People’s Choice Awards will be announced at the international Clarity2016 conference’s gala dinner. Delegates are coming from around the world to this prestigious event, hosted for the first time here in Wellington.
Contact us if you’d like more information
Anne-Marie Chisnall August 21st, 2016
Posted In: Communications
Tags: Brainstrain, Clarity2016, clear communication, People's Choice, Plain English Awards, plain language
Who's the clearest of them all?
The Awards celebrated 10 years in 2015. The time seemed right for a fresh new look.
Craig Christensen of Graphic Solutions was keen to help. Craig is a great advocate of clear communication in words and visuals. And he designed the popular theme ‘Who’s the clearest of them all?’ for some of our earlier Awards.
‘Who’s the clearest of them all?’ successfully captured the essence of what the Awards are about. ‘We thought it was time to bring that theme back, but with a new twist’, says Craig. So now those words sit in a speech bubble against a background of editing symbols. The idea is to convey the idea of working hard to create the best and most effective communication.
The simple sentence as a graphic
The gold Awards icon is a simple graphic representation of a sentence. It was inspired by the emergence of icon-based visual language in digital media. The best known of these icons is the ‘hamburger menu’ icon, widely used on mobile websites to show where the navigation menu is kept.
Using gold for the icon signifies the prestige associated with the Awards and helps to bridge the gap between the old and new brands. Adding a deep electric blue to the colour palette adds vibrancy while complementing the gold of the original brand.
We’ve used some good old Kiwi phrases as language-based, companion imagery on the website, conveying the idea of fun Kiwi straightforwardness.
A new era for the Plain English Awards
This bold new identity represents the refreshed face of the Plain English Awards. We hope it’s going to become a very visible and recognisable brand and that it will help to further raise awareness of plain English in New Zealand.
Thanks to The Wright Family Foundation for kindly sponsoring the new website.
Anne-Marie Chisnall July 16th, 2016
Posted In: Awards brand, Communications
Tags: branding, clear communication, Graphic Solutions, plain English, Plain English Awards, plain language
