Plain Language Awards

Celebrate the stories of our clearest business communicators

Lead judge: Best Plain Language Sentence Transformation

Image, Maryland Spencer


Writer, editor, trainer, consultant: WriteBrand Communications, Wellington, New Zealand

Maryland’s plain English journey began at the London School of Journalism, with later New Zealand developments in the Yale/Oxford Information Mapping model. She noted that both Fleet Street and Info Mappers called fancy-schmancy lingo ‘ego-speak’ and realised it was a globally recognised nonsense.

Her mission — and she chose to accept it — is to ‘seek and destroy’ bafflegab and red-pen the ego-speak. This attitude won her a couple of these Awards beauties, and an Award of Distinction.

Destroying gibberish and duplications halves a chunky tome and future-proofs legal risk. Adding a tone of ‘fun and colour’ makes people actually read stuff.

She promotes clarity, audience targeting, ‘at a glance’ structures, and the sparkle and personality of a company’s brand. It makes dry dusty docs blossom into easy reads that can be digested without the need for Metamucil.

View Maryland’s video in our gallery


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