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 is another of our New Zealand judges and chairs two international panels. She’s worked to clarify legalese and medical-speak, ensure website clarity, and provide communications that target behaviour change. Her background with the London School of Journalism and Information Mapping provide the ‘reader psychology’ behind turning terrifying tomes into concise, engaging clarity.

She loves to ‘red-pen the ego-speak’, create an at-a-glance scannable structure, and use brand to add a spark of fun and colour.

Her ‘seek and destroy’ attitude towards gibberish has won her two Best Plain English Sentence Transformation awards and a finalist placing in the Plain Language Awards.

View Maryland’s video in our gallery


Meet the judges for the Plain Language Awards

How the judging process works