Winners of the 2017 Plain English Awards

Congratulations to all our winners and finalists!

Utilities Disputes was the big winner at the 2017 Plain English Awards held at the Royal Society Te Apārangi in Wellington last night. Jerome Chapman, Deputy Commissioner, received the Best Organisation supreme award on behalf of the not-for-profit company. The judges noted:

Utilities Disputes has deliberately embedded plain English into the core of its organisation culture. And its perseverance and commitment have obviously paid off. They are truly plain English champions, and deserve recognition for their expertise and commitment to plain English philosophy.

Utilities Disputes won services worth $5,000 from New Zealand’s plain English specialists and founding sponsor, Write Limited.

Another champion recognised

The other award in the Champion category went to Steph Prince from NZ Transport Agency for Best Individual or Team.

Praise for best documents and websites

The award for the Best Plain English Document for the private sector went to Tower Insurance Limited for their House Insurance Premium Cover. Superu took out the award for the public sector with Making Sense of Evaluation — a handbook for the social sector.

The Best Plain English Website award went to the Department of Internal Affairs for the govt.nz website. This informative yet accessible website has won before.

Re-thinking a document or website to improve it

The Best Plain English Turnaround award went to Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management for its happens.nz website, replacing the Ministry’s getthru.govt.nz website.

Legal, Technical Communicator, and Annual Report categories

Parliamentary Counsel Office took out the Best Legal Document award for its Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017.

The Best Plain English Technical Communicator was Louisa Eades from Streamliners.

Z Energy won Best Plain English Annual Report for its 2017 report titled Solving what matters for a moving world. 2017 Annual Report.

Spotlight on the humble sentence

Jan Schrader at Stats NZ won the award for Best Sentence Transformation. Stats NZ has won in this category before, most recently in 2015.

People’s Choice — the best and the worst

Members of the public also submitted entries for two categories. The People’s Choice awards recognise the best and worst in government and corporate communications. Wellington City Council won the Best Communication award for its Our Wellington magazine. Of this entry the judges said:

What’s not to like? The document’s intention is clear and headings highlight the key messages. It has a vibrant design, clear statement headings, friendly language, and good variety. It successfully combines drier council initiatives with more exciting information on events. This good piece of work is probably well liked by Wellingtonians.

The People’s Choice Worst ‘Brainstrain’ award went to Inland Revenue. The Department received this could-do-better award for its direct debit conditions. The judges said, ‘This is supposedly an explanation of the conditions under which Inland Revenue has authority to accept direct debits — we think!’ The person who nominated the document said:

‘Inland Revenue say they have improved their website and made it easier to do business. But when you choose to pay by direct debit and two days later this nonsense is emailed to you — from a do not reply email so there is no way to ask for plain English — they could do better.’

Inland Revenue responded in good spirit with a humorous video.

The benefits keep coming after 12 years

After 12 years of Awards, we’re really starting to reap the benefits of business and government using clear communication to engage with their clients, consumers, and customers.

Chris Trudeau, US plain language specialist and professor of law, has said that New Zealand is ‘far ahead of the game’ in plain language. And this year, judges felt only one entry truly qualified as a ‘Brainstrain’. That’s got to be good news! And may this trend of constant improvement continue.

The 2017 Awards received entries from new entrants and previous award entrants. So it’s evident that those entrants recognise the benefits of New Zealanders receiving messages that are clear, concise, and consistent.

As Gregory Fortuin, chair of the WriteMark Plain English Awards Trust, explains, ‘Think of people caught in an emergency getting fast help from their insurer through an easy-to-complete claim form. Or patients experiencing less stress because they can easily understand their treatment. Or investors being able to understand their investment options from reading a clear investment statement. Communications written in plain English really can improve the lives of everyday Kiwis.’

Thanks to our 2017 sponsors

Major sponsors for this year’s Awards included WriteMark Limited, Write Limited, NZ Super Fund, Immigration New Zealand, printing.com, Wright Family Foundation, TechCommNZ, Graphic Solutions, and Consumer NZ.

Other sponsors, whose contributions to the Awards were also invaluable, were Kendons, Editor Software (United Kingdom), JUNO Investing Magazine, Community Comms Collective, Business NZ, Shelly Davies Writing & Training, Summer KiwiSaver Scheme, and Justly.