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| IRS winners of the Center for Plain Language’s Clearmark Award… NOT the Wondermark Winners |
CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland’s muddled explanation of its healthcare benefits captured the WonderMark award for the most confusing language at Thursday evening’s Center of Plain Language’s 2011 ClearMark Awards, held at the National Press Club.
This award – in juxtaposition to the Grand ClearMark Award for clear language, which was presented to the IRS – recognized submissions that reflect the worst or most unclear language use. According to the Center’s Annetta Cheek, the awards were named WonderMark because “we wonder what they were thinking when writing these documents or websites.”
Judges said CareFirst’s submission was a classic example of required disclosure that provides no information, leaves the reader uncertain and is not an explanation of anything that makes sense.
Plenty of ClearMark finalists were honored, but sometimes the fun is in the #fail. Other WonderMark Award finalists included:
- MicroSoft Software License Terms Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. A judge said that reading this was a “turgid romp through incomprehensible legalese. Fun for the whole family, we laughed, we cried, we scratched our heads and said, ‘Heck – sure we agree!'”
- New Jersey Ballot Interpretative Statement. The judges said this ballot illustrates two things: not only can’t legislatures write legal language, they can’t write plain language that explains their legal language. Which raises the question: do they even know what they’re trying to say?
- Department of Defense, Veteran’s Benefits Administration, VBA My Pay System. Said one judge: “Now I know what language to speak if aliens ever abduct me. If I read them this statement, they will acknowledge me as their kin.”
