A line-up of the best for 2022 | Photo by Nicola Welby
Congratulations to all our 2021 winners — what a fabulous achievement! Our judges were so impressed with the quality of entries this year and you deserve all the praise you’ve received.
We loved hearing the plain language stories that you shared with us. And we’re proud that you’ve kept the torch burning bright for clear communication in such a busy year. So pat yourselves on the back for a job well done!
Our Awards champions — raising the bar for clear communication
An extra special shoutout to Citizens Advice Bureau New Zealand, winner of the Plain English Champion — Best Organisation category. And another one to Lauren Kelindeman from Legalite in Australia, winner of the Plain English Champion — Best Individual or Team category. Your contributions to the plain language movement are making all the difference to the lives of everyone in our corner of the world.
As our founder Lynda Harris said,
Whether you’re a bold visionary, a passionate campaigner, or a quiet doer, you have qualities that the world needs more of. You have stories to tell about people who need clarity and connection. And you have the skills to inspire others to be champions like you.
So keep up the good fight and stand up for what’s right! Because you’re our champions for 2021 and we couldn’t be more proud.
Find out more about the 2021 winners
Jonathan Tan October 14th, 2021
Posted In: 2021 Awards ceremony
Tags: 2021 finalists, 2021 Plain English Awards, 2021 winners, Best Annual Report, Best Individual or Team, Best Legal Document, Best Organisation, Best Plain English Communication, Best Plain English Sentence Transformation, Best Plain English Technical Communicator, Best Plain English Turnaround, Best Plain English Website, Champion, clear communication, judges, People's Choice, sponsors. Awards ceremony
Lots of people work behind the scenes to make technical communication work well | Image by Wilfried Pohnke from Pixabay
Thanks to Write consultant and technical communicator Earnsy Liu for this blog post
2020 was a long year. The world was on tenterhooks, wondering how long COVID-19 would be around. Everyone hunkered down, made sourdough bread, and hoarded toilet paper. People got used to life on Zoom, and sometimes discovered cat filters the hard way.
Some workplaces changed tack completely and manufactured new products or offered new services. Other workplaces kept doing what they always did, but in different ways.
Your chance to get the recognition you deserve
Whichever category your workplace fell into, you probably did something differently. If you wrote any technical information you’re particularly proud of, the Awards judges want to hear from you.
Tell us about your clear procedures
Tell us about the new procedures you wrote, so that essential work could continue — safely distanced — through the pandemic. Procedures so clear and easy to use, that your colleagues could carry out complex procedures without missing a beat.
Tell us about your user-friendly online help
Tell us about the chunks of online help files you rewrote, so that non-techy customers could find answers to techy questions easily. Super easily, even though your customers came from diverse language and educational backgrounds.
Tell us about your new technical specifications
Tell us about the new technical specifications or instructions that you developed for your company’s new products in double-quick time. Maybe you wrote them while grappling with MadCap Flare or Framemaker, and collaborating for the first time in Confluence too!
Show us what you’ve done as an expert technical communicator
Send in up to five samples of your work. Showcase your plain language skills (hint: pick samples that show off your structure and layout too).
Tell us the context of your documents, including their purpose and audience.
Read more about our Best Plain English Technical Communicator category
Need more encouragement to enter?
Check out silver sponsor TechCommNZ’s fun video ‘10 reasons to enter the 2021 Plain English Awards’ in our gallery.
View TechCommNZ’s video
Anne-Marie Chisnall July 15th, 2021
Posted In: 2021 Plain English Awards, Best Technical Communicator, Plain English Awards
Tags: Best Plain English Technical Communicator, clear communication, TechCommNZ, technical communication, technical communicator, technical writing
