Winners Announced in the 12th Plain English Awards
Utilities Disputes was the big winner at the 2017 Plain English Awards held at the Royal Society Te Apārangi in
Wellington last night. Jerome Chapman, Deputy Commissioner, received the Best Organisation supreme award on behalf of
the not-for-profit company. The judges noted:
Utilities Disputes has deliberately embedded plain English into the core of its organisation culture. And its
perseverance and commitment have obviously paid off. They are truly plain English champions, and deserve recognition for
their expertise and commitment to plain English philosophy.
Utilities Disputes won services worth $5,000 from New Zealand’s plain English specialists and founding sponsor, Write
Limited.
Another champion recognised.
The other award in the Champion category went to Steph Prince from NZ Transport Agency for Best Individual or Team.
Praise for best documents and websites.
The award for the Best Plain English Document for the private sector went to Tower Insurance Limited for their House
Insurance Premium Cover. Superu took out the award for the public sector with Making Sense of Evaluation — a handbook for the social sector.
The Best Plain English Website award went to the Department of Internal Affairs for the govt.nz website. This
informative yet accessible website has won before.
Re-thinking a document or website to improve it.
The Best Plain English Turnaround award went to Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management for its happens.nz website, replacing the Ministry’s getthru.govt.nz website.
Legal, Technical Communicator, and Annual Report categories.
Parliamentary Counsel Office took out the Best Legal Document award for its Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017.
The Best Plain English Technical Communicator was Louisa Eades from Streamliners.
Z Energy won Best Plain English Annual Report for its 2017 report titled Solving what matters for a moving world.
Spotlight on the humble sentence.
Jan Schrader at Stats NZ won the award for Best Sentence Transformation. Stats NZ has won in this category before, most
recently in 2015.
People’s Choice—the best and the worst.
Members of the public also submitted entries for two categories. The People’s Choice awards recognise the best and worst
in government and corporate communications. Wellington City Council won the Best Communication award for its Our Wellington magazine. Of this entry the judges said:
What’s not to like? The document’s intention is clear and headings highlight the key messages. It has a vibrant design,
clear statement headings, friendly language, and good variety. It successfully combines drier council initiatives with
more exciting information on events. This good piece of work is probably well liked by Wellingtonians.
The People’s Choice Worst ‘Brainstrain’ award went to Inland Revenue. The Department received this could-do-better award
for its direct debit condition. The judges said, ‘This is supposedly an explanation of the conditions under which IRD
has authority to accept direct debits — we think!’ The person who nominated the document said:
IRD say they have improved their website and made it easier to do business. But when you choose to pay by direct debit
and two days later this nonsense is emailed to you — from a do not reply email so there is no way to ask for plain
English — they could do better.
Inland Revenue responded in good spirit with a humorous video.
The benefits keep coming after 12 years.
After 12 years of Awards, we’re really starting to reap the benefits of business and government using clear
communication to engage with their clients, consumers, and customers.
Chris Trudeau, US plain language specialist and professor of law, has said that New Zealand is ‘far ahead of the game’
in plain language. And this year, judges felt only one entry truly qualified as a ‘Brainstrain’. That’s got to be good
news! And may this trend of constant improvement continue.
The 2017 Awards received entries from new entrants and previous award entrants. So it’s evident that those entrants
recognise the benefits of New Zealanders receiving messages that are clear, concise, and consistent.
As chair of the WriteMark Trust, Gregory Fortuin says, ‘Think of people caught in an emergency getting fast help from
their insurer through an easy-to-complete claim form. Or patients experiencing less stress because they can easily
understand their treatment. Or investors being able to understand their investment options from reading a clear
investment statement. Communications written in plain English really can improve the lives of everyday Kiwis.’
Awards sponsors
Sponsors for this year’s Awards included Write Limited, NZ Super Fund, Immigration New Zealand, printing.com, Wright
Family Foundation, The Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand (TechCommNZ), Graphic Solutions, and Consumer
NZ.
Other sponsors, whose contributions to the Awards were invaluable, are Editor Software (United Kingdom), JUNO Investing
Magazine, volunteer organisation Community Comms Collective, Business NZ, Shelly Davies Writing & Training, Summer KiwiSaver Scheme, and Justly.
See the full list of winners and finalists at www.plainenglishawards.org.nz.
ENDS