Beating the bureaucratic brainstrain

If you're baffled by government gobbledygook or bamboozled by business jargon, don't despair.

The annual WriteMark Plain English Awards are on the horizon and the organisers are calling for nominations.

"The aim of the awards is to make plain English the norm," says founder Lynda Harris.

"When members of the public are trying to interact with government, we ought to be able to understand it and not waste our time or feel frustrated and not feel that it's our fault.

"The same goes for legal and financial documents. We're always saying to people, when you get something you don't understand, challenge it. It's not your fault."

It's not hard to find examples.

The Ministry of Transport's Statement of Intent 2009-2012 includes: "To align with the government's priorities we will ensure that Ministry resources are flexible enough to marshal our expertise to address the priorities of the day and the strategies that will shape the sector in the future."

And the Waikato Primary Health Interdisciplinary Care Paper, in the Waikato District Health Board's June 2009 newsletter, contains this suggestion:

"The next step here might be to begin discussion about horizontal integration between podiatry practitioners and general practices and in so doing identify champions prepared to develop some principles around interdisciplinary engagement and, then to trial operational processes in specific areas where there are champions."

Organisations that make an effort to be honest and clear are in the running for a grand prize of $10,000.

But the winner of the public-nominated Brainstrain award can look forward to a rubbish bin full of sour lollies, and tips to help them improve.

One organisation which did was the Ministry of Social Development. It received the dubious honour for its Studylink student loan agreement in 2006.

Its reaction was "absolutely wonderful", says Harris, who runs a plain language business writing company.

"They said, 'Fair cop, we know it's not good enough and we're going to fix it'. And they did."

Other Brainstrain winners haven't been so co-operative.

The 2007 recipient was the New Zealand Qualifications Authority for one of its unit standards. Harris said the standard remains unchanged.

This year's awards will be presented by Fair Go's Kevin Milne in Wellington in September. Nominations close July 28.

Confused? You're not alone

Examples of gobbledygook nominated for past Brainstrain awards:

* Part of Pacific Blue's terms and conditions: "To the extent permitted by applicable laws, any liability of the Carrier for a breach of any provisions of the contract of carriage or related obligations shall not exceed resupply or the payment of the cost of resupply of the services in question."

* From the US Embassy website, about what to do when a US Citizen dies in New Zealand: "It is unfortunate at this sad time that we must immediately call your attention to the need for making necessary arrangements relating to the disposition of the deceased's remains."

* A teacher's report on a nine-year-old pupil talked about "surface and deeper features of each strand" and included an "aMs" score with algebraic references.