Plain English Awards

celebrate New Zealand's clearest communicators

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What happens to the documents you've nominated once they're entered? Image by Lorie Shaull. Flickr licence.


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

Read more about our judging criteria
Find out how to nominate communications

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

Posted In: 2019 People's Choice Awards, Judges

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Consumer NZ wants the best for New Zealand communication. Image by Daria Nepriakhina. Unsplash licence.


The Plain English Awards and Consumer NZ have something very important in common — we both want what’s best for New Zealanders.


The Plain English Awards is a not-for-profit charity that aims to raise the bar for clear communication. We want everyday New Zealanders to understand what’s written for them.

Consumer NZ is a non-profit organisation dedicated to getting New Zealanders a fairer deal. So it’ll be no surprise that Consumer NZ is a long-term supporter of the Plain English Awards. In particular, Consumer NZ has supported our People’s Choice categories for many years.

Consumer’s Chief Executive, Sue Chetwin, has been a member of our judging panel for several years, focusing specifically on our People’s Choice categories. She’s returning again this year as one of the panel judging our Worst Brainstrain category.

We’re sure you’ll join us too by nominating the best and the worst communications you find in your daily life. All of us want New Zealanders to be able to make legal, financial, health, and all sorts of other decisions with ease.

Take a look at what Consumer NZ has to say about this year’s People’s Choice Awards

Find out how to nominate documents here

Posted In: 2019 People's Choice Awards, Sponsors

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