Judges – Plain English Awards

Behind the scenes — introducing our 2019 People’s Choice judges

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 23:16:59 +0000

Every year we’re honoured to enlist the support of plain language specialists from around New Zealand and the world to judge entries and nominations in our Awards. This year’s People’s Choice Awards are no different.

The exciting task of deciding who’s best

For our Best Communication category, we’re delighted to announce Deanna Lorianni, communications strategist from Virginia, USA, as panel chair. She’ll be joined by plain language specialists Emma Fossey in Scotland and Paula Shelton in Auckland. Together Deanna, Emma, and Paula will make the tough decision on which of your nominations is this year’s plain language superstar.

The difficult job of sorting bad from worse

For our Brainstrain category, we’re lucky enough to have the expert eye of two judges who’ve been part of this panel for several years: Simon Hertnon from Nakedize, who’ll be chairing the panel, and Sue Chetwin from Consumer — we’re excited to have them back! Simon and Sue will be joined by the equally valuable Paula van Gemen, plain language specialist from the Netherlands.

The post Behind the scenes — introducing our 2019 People’s Choice judges appeared first on Plain English Awards.

]]>

Fly my pretties! What happens to your entries after you press ‘submit’

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 00:40:12 +0000

Submitting your entry in this year’s People’s Choice Awards is one thing. What happens to your entry after that is another.

Your nomination joins the list so experts can decide who’s best and worst

After you submit a nomination, it joins a catalogue of other entries in our professional submission platform Submittable, where it’ll sit until entries officially close. Soon after that, the Awards administrators open up entries for the Best and Worst categories to their respective judging panels.

Our judges then sort through entries to come up with a shortlist, followed by a more in-depth assessment to create a list of finalists.
Finally, the judges decide which entries are our ultimate winners. This year’s winners will be announced on Thursday, 28 November.

The judges assess the entries using plain English criteria

Because our Awards are all about plain English, our judges use specific criteria to decide which entries are best and which are worst. These criteria are based on the following aspects of clear communication:

Purpose
Structure
Usability (for websites)
Headings and main messages
Paragraphs
Sentences
Words
Layout and presentation

Thanks to the Wellington band Fly My Pretties for being the inspiration for our blog title! Visit their website flymypretties.com

The post Fly my pretties! What happens to your entries after you press ‘submit’ appeared first on Plain English Awards.

]]>

Announcing our 2018 shortlists

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 23:39:03 +0000

From what we’ve heard from our judges, finalising this year’s shortlists has been no mean feat. We received many outstanding entries from across both the public and private sectors. We’re thrilled to announce which of those entries made our shortlists.

Take a look at our 2018 shortlists

We’ll make our next big announcement — this year’s finalists — some time around 19 October. Watch this space!

The post Announcing our 2018 shortlists appeared first on Plain English Awards.

]]>

Outstanding entries deserve outstanding judges

Mon, 03 Sep 2018 00:19:38 +0000

Meet our incredible line-up of plain English experts — from around New Zealand and the world — who’ll be judging entries in this year’s Awards. We’re proud to have such a wonderful pool of experts, and honoured that they’ve all offered their time to help us decide on our finalists and winners. We’re also grateful for the feedback they’ll give to all shortlisted entrants.

Judges for the 2018 Plain English Awards

The post Outstanding entries deserve outstanding judges appeared first on Plain English Awards.

]]>