After the event - Plain English Campaign's annual awards 2010

Rather than sing our own praises we thought it would speak volumes to share some of the feedback from guests at last year's award ceremony.

Thanks very much for sending us this (winners) logo. We'll be sure to add it to both leaflets the next time we reprint them.

John and I had a lovely day on Friday - was a very enjoyable event.

Best wishes
NSPCC

Thank you so much for Friday. Julia and I were very proud to receive the award on behalf of the charity and to be recognised for the support and information we offer our beneficiaries.

The event was a real success and we very much enjoyed being part of such an important and often overlooked aspect of media and communications.

From all of us at the Foundation, many thanks!

We will certainly take the opportunity to use the logo in our materials and proudly show off the achievement.

Best regards
Bladder and Bowel Foundation

I would like to thank you for organising the awards on Friday.

Please can you let me know if we are able to purchase copies of the pictures that were taken.

Many thanks.
Family Fund

Thanks very much for asking me to attend on Friday, I very much enjoyed the awards section and got to speak to some good people who were equally as passionate about the use of plain English in their communications. It was also nice to be able to accept our certificate from Chrissie in person.

Aviva UK

Just a quick email to thank you for allowing me to park at Chetham's to take part in the Plain English Campaign Awards on Friday. It was a long trek up from Salisbury but I am so pleased that the weather was on our side and I was able to take part in the ceremony.

It was also an honour to receive my award from Chrissie herself - a very inspirational lady.

With regards
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)

A brief note to thank you and all your colleagues for your hospitality at Chetham's School yesterday.

Unfortunately I could not stay for the afternoon's events and entertainment, (I would have dearly liked to hear the Music), but we had to rush back to Kendal. I didn't even have a chance to say cheerio and thanks to Chrissie.
She had vanished - for interviews I think. Please pass on my thanks to her, and indeed to everybody involved. It was a great day.

Cheers, and thanks again,
Buncrana Town

I would like to convey to you and the rest of your team my thanks for a very enjoyable time on Friday at the awards ceremony. It was a exceptional combination of humour, music and education in which it was a privilege to be able to take part.

Thank you again for(!) a wonderful time, and I trust that I may be able to support your organisation in the future.

Yours sincerely,
Golden Bull nominator

Some of our award winners were unable to attend the event, but have kindly sent us statements that we would like to share with you.

Prudential Malaysia

"We are delighted to receive this recognition. Having our customer-facing documents in plain English is important in ensuring that we are clear and transparent in all our dealings with our customers. We have benefited so much from transforming our customer communications."

Tengku Sheila Tengku Azib, Head of Marketing Support, Prudential BSN Takaful Berhad.

Robbie Savage

"It's an honour, as a Welshman, to accept an award for speaking plain English. I can't believe a boy from Wrexham has won this award just a few months into hosting such an iconic radio show. 606 is a football institution and I am honoured to work on a programme where we hear from such a variety of fans- some who speak perfect sense, and others who don't!
I am like Marmite, you either love me or hate me but I hope all the 606 listeners appreciate that I try to say it as I see it- whether that is on Wayne Rooney, Hereford United FC, England's failed 2018 bid or Pizzagate. Everyone thinks they can make it as a football pundit but I'm learning it's hard to talk a good game while being entertaining and informative so it's wonderful that the listeners have voted for me for this award. And it's a good job the award is for plain English. If it was for plain Welsh I would have been struggling."

John McCririck

"Clear communication is vital to me in my work and my personal life. I don't waste time waving my arms around aimlessly - Tic-tac means something very explicit. Neither do I have the energy to spend on pointless words whether on the racecourse, where there's money and reputations at stake, or at home when dinner needs to be on the table."

Website award winner - www.bupa.co.uk

Dr Layla McCay, assistant medical director for Bupa, said: "We're delighted that Bupa.co.uk has won this award. We've worked hard to ensure our website is easy to read and navigate. We're pleased the Plain English Campaign has recognised our efforts to make sure anyone who visits our website can find what they need quickly and that we explain complex health care issues simply."

Joint National TV News reporting winners - BBC Scotland

"Last week, the Russians got the World Cup, this week, the Scots get the Plain English award!"

"On behalf of everybody on Reporting Scotland, I'd like to thank the Plain English Campaign for this honour. I think most journalists would consider such an honour among the most satisfying of their career. As editor of Reporting Scotland, I can confirm that it is certainly a highlight of mine and one which is shared by my team. It is particularly satisfying for us that the award has come from a public nomination.

"It's always a challenge for TV news to get across often complicated ideas to a mass audience. On Reporting Scotland we try hard to write as clearly as we can to meet that challenge. It's great to know that that this hard work is appreciated and recognised in this way.

"Our new challenge now is to maintain our own high standards!

"Again, many thanks to the Plain English Campaign and to those who nominated Reporting Scotland."

Diarmid O'Hara
BBC Scotland

Even our award winners of the infamous and undesirable awards were gracious enough to acknowledge their misdemeanours and some even made great efforts to rectify the problem.

Wandsworth Adult Social Services completely reworded the documents criticised by the public and sent us this statement.

I'm sure that you had a good event on 10th December. Whilst I was not able to attend and collect the award in person, I hope you will agree that I have been putting my time to good use, since we have taken the comments made in good spirit, along with others, and we have responded constructively by redrafting the consultation document and the response document. These will be finalised tomorrow and will be distributed to all of the original circulation list and of course yourselves, hopefully you will agree that they represent an improvement on the originals.

Regards,
Wandsworth Adult Social Services Department

Others like the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, took the criticism in the spirit that it was intended and even produced a plain English alternative to the original gobbledygook.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office attaches importance to clear communication, particularly with the British public.

This document, although for internal use with a specialist audience, did not meet these standards. Like the many other organisations who have received "Golden Bull" awards in the past, we accept it in the spirit in which it was intended - an encouragement to us to do better.

We would be grateful if you would publish this response and the translation below.

Original text:
Maintenance and development of the UK narrative around FCO and its value proposition, using insights from research and evaluation as well as knowledge of the evolving FCO strategy to inform resonant messaging.

Plain English translation:
Work out better ways of telling people what the Foreign and Commonwealth Office does.

And one Golden Bull winner even turned up to accept their award and stand up to the scrutiny of the campaign and its supporters.

A representative of the ARC promised they would find a more constructive use for their coasters with the pointless safety warnings although we had to restrain him from skimming the heads of our guests with the offending item.