Plain English Awards

celebrate New Zealand's clearest communicators

No People’s Choice Awards for 2020 — but we’ll be back!

Your chance to change the way New Zealand communicates!

While we’re not running the Awards in 2020, we will be back! So hold on to your entries.

Read why we’re waiting until 2021 on our blog

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.


You can make a difference! Help us celebrate a really good document or webpage. Or let us know about a really bad one. Send in your nominations now.

The People’s Choice category has two awards:


Best Plain English Communication

This award honours an outstanding example of a plain English document or webpage nominated by a member of the public.

Imagine a world where your insurance documents, legal contracts, application forms, and other important pieces of information are clear and easy to read. The more that we all speak up and demand plain English, the easier it is for everyone!


What you need to know

The ideal entry for the Best Communication award is a publicly available or widely used document or webpage that gets its message across quickly and clearly, and is a pleasure to read.

Documents or webpages nominated in either of the People’s Choice categories must:

  • be whole documents or webpages, not extracts
  • be in current use for business purposes
  • be owned by an organisation that operates in New Zealand
  • not be owned by the organisation you work for
  • not be a book, or an extract from a book.

We promise to keep your personal details confidential. We won’t reveal anything about you to our judges or to the organisation that produced the communication you nominate.


Prizes for this award

The winner of the Best Communication award will be thrilled to win:

  • a stunning steel and bronze trophy produced for the Awards by Wellington sculptor Campbell Maud
  • the latest StyleWriter plain English editing software — single-user licence (from Editor Software)
  • a place on any of Write Limited’s 1-day open workshops before 15 December 2020.

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.