We're all people trying to connect with other people | Image by Fauxels on pexels.com

We’re simply people communicating with other people

Plain language writers, creators, and designers can relate to this whakataukī (Māori proverb) beautifully!

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata!
What’s the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people!

We’re all people trying to connect with other people. And when we use plain language, it shows we value that connection enough to care deeply about how we communicate and help other people.

Plain language matters to everyone — whether we know it or not

While we celebrate our work through the Plain Language Awards, others don’t know plain language is even a thing. They don’t know that life can be simpler if information is easy to find, understand, and use.

We all know people’s stories of frustration, hurt, uncertainty, and even harm that can come from unclear information. These stories come in many shades.

• A frazzled elderly person trying to pay for parking on a machine with confusing instructions
• A business owner with dyslexia who thinks it’s their fault they can’t understand how to tender for work on an unintelligible online portal
• A tired new mum working out how to dress their cesarean wound from wordy, unclear instructions in a hospital discharge letter

We also have the other side.

• A worker writing a standard operating procedure (SOP) that’d take someone 20 minutes before they found out how to deal with the toxin they’d just inhaled
• A school sending busy parents a newsletter about an upcoming school camp that mentions you need to have your child at school at 6.45am — on page 5
• A business owner throwing every bit of info they can at their clients, hoping that’ll seal the deal

We help people value how they connect with others

Then there’s us — the writers, designers, creators, learning developers, and user-testers — connecting people and proving the value in doing so. Digging into empathy, backflipping into people’s worlds to understand their needs, and convincing others to convey their information in the most helpful way they can.

People creating connection, clarity, and confidence by being courteous. People helping people to understand the value in caring for and valuing other people.

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata!

We’re all in this together.

Meet the team behind the Plain Language Awards

Make a nomination for the People’s Choice category