Plain English Awards seeks to tackle gobbledygook

In an effort to tackle jargon and gobbledygook, the Plain English Awards seeks to recognise organisations that communicate clearly and to promote the use of plain English in all public information.

The National Adult Literacy Agency has teamed up with leading law firm Mason Hayes & Curran to launch the second Irish Plain English Awards.

With many consumers complaining about jargon-filled corporate emails and unintelligible terms and conditions, the blame, according to the awards’ organisers, lies squarely with the organisations.

Building on the success of the first awards in 2016, this year’s awards programme has five new categories, including one for the public called “Best letter or email rewritten in plain English.” This category will be open to members of the public to rewrite in plain English a confusing letter or email they received from an organisation. Entries for this category will be in with a chance to win €500.