Our judges explain why they love to be involved in the Plain English Awards | Photo by Anastasia Zhenina on Unsplash

When we surveyed our judges for their top tips for a winning Awards entry, we got some lovely feedback about why they love to judge the Awards. We thought you might like to read it too. Perhaps some of the thoughts here will inspire you to celebrate plain language in your own organisations. And you might feel more inclined to demand clear communication from the organisations you encounter in your daily life.

Our judges love celebrating the use of plain English

Our judges felt that that the Plain English Awards are a fantastic way of encouraging and celebrating plain language in organisations.

As an ardent supporter of clear writing, I’m delighted to support them.

I think we should encourage people to excel in this area.

It’s fun, interesting, and it helps me with my mission: plain language as a human right, world wide!

I’ve been leading workshops on writing in five countries for more than 30 years. Judging the competition has always seemed a natural complement.

I love what Write does and stand for and I think any opportunity to promote plain language is a good opportunity.

It’s incredibly important to recognise good writing in and by organisations because they serve as an example to other organisations. In addition, New Zealand’s Plain English Awards have been a model and inspiration for other awards. I learn so much each time I judge.

To help out the plain English community. To keep in touch with the standard of writing across Aotearoa. And I suppose it’s good to have my name connected with the Awards. It’s certainly ‘on brand’!

Awards founder Lynda Harris asks us all to demand clear communication

When Lynda Harris spoke at the Awards ceremony in 2018, she encouraged everyone present to demand clear communication, whether as a writer or a consumer.

So, believing what you do about the power of plain language, my question to you as both writer and consumer is ‘what action can you take that is bigger and bolder than before?’ How can you make your sense of care count?

Read Lynda’s inspiring words from that speech in our 2-part blog.

Care — the shortcut to plain language (part 1 of Lynda’s speech)

Care into action — rewrite or reject! (part 2 of Lynda’s speech)