Have you ever been charged with “moral turpitude” and wondered what it meant? If so, you might have been reading an immigration form written by Customs and Border Protection. That’s just one example of less-than-ideal writing that won an award for being so terrible.
Christopher Balmford is managing director of Words and Beyond, an Australian company that helps organizations and agencies clean up and simplify their obfuscatory and meandrous words. He’s also host of the Center for Plain Language’s 2014 ClearMark Awards.