CorpComms Magazine

So what are the Plain English Awards?

Today is Plain English Day when the best and worst communicators from the past year are revealed.

What a good idea! But why did it start?

A group travelled to Parliament in 1979 in order to shred jargon-filled documents on Parliament Green. The police were called and read out the Metropolitan Police Act - which was full of legal jargon and completely incomprehensible! This fuelled Chrissie Maher to form the Plain English Campaign.

What does the Campaign want to achieve?

The idea is to encourage anyone who writes public information to use clear and easy to understand English. It is basically a crusade against jargon and gobbledygook.

Umm, gobbledygook sounds a bit like a jargon word to me!

Yes it is a bit odd. It was coined by the frustrated chairman of the US Congress Smaller War Plants Committee in 1944 who compared his fellow committee members to turkeys, 'always gobbledy gobbling and strutting with ludicrous pomposity'.

So who are the turkeys this year?

They are actually given a 'Golden Bull' as an award. This year's recipients are the Met Office for the phrase 'A rash of beefy showers'. They have also been criticised for jargon such as 'possibility of precipitation'. Boris Johnson has racked up a couple of awards for past comments. Last year he referred to London as 'a cyclised city' of 'pioneers' and in 2004 he remarked on a BBC news quiz: 'I could not fail to disagree with you less'.

Well that has gone completely over my head. Has anyone got an overall prize?

The Foot in Mouth Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed on George W Bush for this statement: 'I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe - I believe what I believe is right.' (Rome, 22 July 2001)

Close runner-up was Silvio Berlusconi for this gem on fidelity in 2006: 'I am pretty often faithful.'

Is anyone getting it right?

The clearest documents of the year include Russell Hobbs for their trusty volume Vacuum cleaner instructions and Liverpool Housing Trust for successfully explaining rent and service charges.

On a more serious note, English language newspaper China Daily received the International Media Award and BBC's The One Show scooped Best National Television Programme.

How are the winners chosen?

The winners are nominated by general members of the public and assessed by the organisation. So beware if you are writing for the public as the nominations are now open for 2012!

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