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Users of spin, gibberish, weasel words and convoluted corporate language will be publicly shamed at an awards ceremony on Thursday.
The Plain English Awards celebrate clear communication. Finalists were announced today.
Companies and government departments were nominated for best use of plain English, or for producing "brainstrain" communication.
The Plain English Awards Trust said plain English was easy to read, understand, and act upon after just one reading.
Gregory Fortuin, WriteMark Plain English Awards Trust chairman, said he thought of his 81 year-old mum when asked why he cared about plain English.
"When my mother signs up for a house, I want the real estate agency to very clearly say: This is what I will do for you. This is what it will cost you...Not 35,000 pages of 'notwithstanding', 'this might be'...and you need five lawyers to interpret things for you."
Despite the continued existence of HR-ese terms such as "moving forward", "outside-the-box", "leveraging" and "incentivising", Mr Fortuin said many New Zealand companies were communicating more clearly than in previous years.
He said some who once won Brainstrain awards had since improved.
Mr Fortuin said last year, the State Services Commission won a Brainstrain award thanks to a job description citing "continous improvement."
"But the great thing is, they fronted at the awards. They said: Yep, that was terrible. Did we really write that?"
He said most Brainstrain winners admitted to "stuffing up" but some were "a little bit aggro" to be nominated.
Organisations self-nominate for most of the prestigious awards, such as Best Plain English Document. The public could also nominate for two "people's choice" awards.
Nominees for best use of plain English this year included Deloitte, ANZ, the Commerce Commission , Open Polytechnic and New Zealand on Air.
Nominees for the worst communication were Air New Zealand and the Earthquake Commission.
First prize in the premier Champion category was $10,000 in plain English consultancy from sponsor Write Limited.
"Clear communication is an important contributor to an organisation's success," the Plain English Awards Trust said. "...Last year's grand prize winner, the Ministry of Social Development, reduced the number of phone calls from welfare clients needing to clarify a point from an average 25 per cent to just 2.5 per cent."
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PLAIN ENGLISH AWARDS NOMINEES
-Plain English Champion, Best Organisation:
ANZ
Deloitte
-Plain English Champion, Best Individual or Team:
Inland Revenue, Lindsay Botham
Ministry of Social Development, Sarah Moodie
StudyLink, StudyLink Service Support Team
-Best Plain English Document, Public Sector /NGO:
Commerce Commission, "Know your rights as a consumer" brochure
NZ On Air, Statement of Intent 2014-2018
The Open Polytechnic, Get Ahead Skills: My Planning My Preparation: Workbook
-Best Plain English Document, Private Sector:
Mercer (NZ) Limited, Annual Member Benefit Statement
Skills Active Aotearoa, Information Sheets
Woods Creative Limited, PowerSmart DLE brochure and owner's manual
-Best Plain English Website, Public Sector / NGO:
Careers New Zealand, careers.govt.nz
Commerce Commission, construction.comcom.govt.nz
Ministry of Education, parents.education.govt.nz
-Best Plain English Website, Private Sector:
Mercer (NZ) Limited, mercerkiwisaverscheme.co.nz
Woods Creative Limited , powersmartsolar.co.nz
WooHoo NZ Tax Refunds, nztaxrefunds.co.nz
-Best Plain English Sentence Transformation:
Internal Affairs, sentence from website
Statistics New Zealand, sentence from Income tables [web page]
Xero , sentence from Tax Rates
-Best Plain English Technical Communicator:
Janet Green, Risk and Assurance team, Ministry of Social Development
Kylie McGrath, Xero
Laura Southgate, Xero
Ros Black, Xero
-Best Plain English Annual Report:
Beef + Lamb New Zealand , Annual Report 2012-2013
Mercer (NZ) Limited , Annual Report
-Best Plain English Turnaround:
MAS , MAS Motor Vehicle Insurance
MAS , MAS House and Contents Insurance
Spark New Zealand , Call Minder
-People's Choice , Best Plain English Communication:
Only one finalist, to be announced on Thursday.
-People's Choice, Worst 'Brainstrain' Communication:
Air New Zealand, Important Notices
Earthquake Commission, Email about a simple repair job that hadn't been sorted after 3 years (and 3 months)