Plain English Awards

celebrate New Zealand's clearest communicators

Brainstrain or Best — prizes for all in the People’s Choice Awards

Judge Matt Huntington, left, hands over a trophy to last year’s winner of the People’s Choice Best category, Troy Churton from the Commission for Financial Capability. Photo by Rebecca McMillan.

Awards media partner Newsroom will announce the winners of this year’s People’s Choice Awards on Thursday, 28 November.


We can’t wait to find out which of our finalists have come out tops. And we’re very excited to have the support of Newsroom to help us spread the word.
James Elliott — our fabulous and funny MC at Awards presentations for the last 5 years — is continuing his support for plain language by being our star announcer.

All sorts of goodies await the winner of the Best Plain English Communication

We know our judges have been thinking long and hard about which of the top four nominations in their category deserves to win. What can the finalists, all supported by members of the public, look forward to if they win?

First of all, we’re pretty sure they’ll be celebrating their award, knowing that their communication has had a positive impact in the world.

As well, thanks to our wonderful sponsors, the winner will walk away with some fabulous prizes.

They’ll be thrilled to receive the iconic trophy in steel and bronze by Wellington sculptor Campbell Maud. They’ll enjoy using the latest StyleWriter plain English editing software from Editor Software to craft future documents.

And we think they’ll be excited to extend their skills with a place on any of Write Limited’s 1-day open workshops.

A little bit of fun for our Brainstrain winner

Our Brainstrain judges are all industry experts and take their roles very seriously. Even so, we always present the Brainstrain Award with good humour. That’s why the winner of the Worst Brainstrain Communication gets the famous Brainstrain rubbish bin filled with sour worms.

Image, winner's bucket of gummy worms from the People's Choice Awards 2018

Who’ll win the notorious rubbish bin full of sour worms this year? Photo by Rebecca McMillan.

Winners of our Brainstrain category need serious prizes too! They’ll also get:

  • the latest StyleWriter plain English editing software from Editor Software
  • 2 hours free consultancy from Write Limited to start transforming the document or webpage into plain English
  • a place on any of Write Limited’s 1-day open workshops.

Good luck to all our People’s Choice finalists!

We look forward to finding out our winners on Thursday, 28 November. Why not join us?