Winning plain English document dubbed ‘a breath of fresh air

Embargoed: 9:00 pm, Saturday 5 November

Winning plain English document dubbed ‘a breath of fresh air’

People’s Choice awards for the best and worst of business writing were announced at a gala dinner in Wellington, New Zealand on Saturday, 5 November.

The award for the Best Plain English Communication was taken out by well-known economic consultancy firm, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) ahead of a number of strong contenders. NZIER’s report on international trade and agreements and sovereignty, ISDS and Sovereignty, was judged to be an outstanding example of clarity and reader focus.

The judges, Sue Chetwin of Consumer NZ and plain language experts Simon Hertnon and Ralph Brown, had high praise for the writers: ‘The NZIER report is a breath of fresh air to readers used to struggling through lengthy, jargon-filled advisory documents.

‘We wish this style of advisory writing were the norm rather than the exception. Decision makers across New Zealand would not only be better informed, they would have more time and energy available to think about what to do with the advice they receive.’

Judges also praised the communications nominated for the two other finalists, calling Business.govt.nz’s Employment Agreement Builder ‘an impressive online tool’ and Z Energy’s annual report ‘zesty’ and ‘refreshingly engaging’.

As always, the winner of the dreaded ‘Brainstrain’ Communication award was announced at the ceremony. This award reveals, in good humour, the document most notable for dumbfounding readers with gobbledygook.

A job description produced by the Parliamentary Service was the dubious winner. The judges said the job description was ‘…a classic example of the myth that a verbose and impersonal document is somehow more professional than a concise and engaging one.’

To their credit, the Parliamentary Service took the award on the chin. They issued a response by way of a tongue-in-cheek video, shown to guests at the ceremony, in which they welcomed winning such a ‘prestigious’ award.

It’s not all bad news. Along with the traditional bin filled with sour worms, the winner of the Brainstrain award gets two hours free consultancy with Write Limited to start transforming the offending document, or another like it, into plain English.

The People’s Choice awards, one segment of the usual yearly Plain English Awards, were held this year as part of the Clarity2016 conference, an international gathering of plain language and communications specialists, legal writers, and business people.

Awards founder Lynda Harris says, ‘We’ve seen the Awards shift attitudes and expectations about communication in the business, professional, and public sectors. Organisations recognise that plain language is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s crucial to their success.’

The full Plain English Awards programme will resume in 2017.

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Get more information

www.plainenglishawards.org.nz

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