Technical Communicator of the Month

July 2014

Each month, TechCommNZ profiles a technical communicator from around the country to emphasise the incredible wealth of technical communications talent that we have here in New Zealand.

This month's star technical communicator is Judith Wright, Team Leader Editorial from Statistics New Zealand, winner of the Best Team category of the Writemark Plain English Awards 2013.

How did you get started in the plain language industry?

I started using plain language in 1987. My job was to interview scientists and summarise complex information so that implications from it could be incorporated into the book New Zealand after nuclear war (published by the New Zealand Planning Council). I also worked with the editor and author to ensure these messages were clear.

I continued using plain language while editing and rewriting research-heavy papers, to make more readable and accessible articles for busy teachers. These were published in set: Research Information for Teachers by the NZ Council for Education.

It wasn't until 2006, as an editor with the Office of the Auditor General, that I became aware of 'plain language' as a concept and industry. The publishing team there introduced me to the StyleWriter software that measures plain language.

What has been your proudest moment as a plain language specialist?

Being the team leader of a winning team. In 2013, the Statistics New Zealand editing team won the WriteMark award 'Plain English Champion: Best individual or team'.

What has been your favourite project to work on so far?

It's hard to pick a favourite, but a recent success was editing an article submitted to the 2014 International Association for Official Statistics prize for young statisticians. The author took on board my numerous editing suggestions, and re-wrote much of the article. She was rewarded with second prize (out of the 41 submissions from 19 countries). (As it happens, the first prize went to another young statistician from Statistics NZ.)

I was pleased to be able to guide a new author to think about the purpose of her paper and her intended audience.

Conceptually, what does plain language mean to you?

Breaking down hidden barriers between the author's message and their readers' understanding. Making sure the reader 'gets the author's intended message fast and accurately'. Shifting the effort of understanding from a confused reader to the author.