Helen Bradford | Plain language editor

I am a writer and editor who specialises in plain language and making complex material understandable for non-specialists.

My business Capire is a leading New Zealand plain-language writing consultancy.

What I do

I help governments, businesses, NGOs, and international development organisations create:

• documents that people can easily read and understand
• documents that people will use
• documents that will make a difference
• people who are better writers.

About my work

In 2023, I won New Zealand’s Best Plain Language Technical Communicator, awarded by the WriteMark Plain English Awards Trust. For the award, I submitted a publication called Agriculture Activity Insights. I wrote this report for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade about its agriculture projects in developing countries.

Here are other examples of how my work has made a difference to people and organisations.

I help organisations get the best results from any document. I regularly help clients with business cases, funding proposals, strategies and plans, technical reports, guidelines, policies, manuals, case studies and web content.

Find out more about the services I offer.

My background

I am an accredited editor and coach who has worked with government departments and NGOs for over 30 years.

Originally from the UK, I have lived in New Zealand since 2010. From 1996 to 2016 I worked for Voluntary Service Overseas, the United Nations and New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and New Zealand. In 2017 I left the New Zealand public service and set up my own writing and editing consultancy.

I have a postgraduate editing and proofreading qualification from Whitireia New Zealand. I am also an accredited editor of the Institute of Professional Editors. Being an accredited editor means I have demonstrated I can competently apply the IPEd Standards for Editing Practice.

Find out more about my experience and qualifications.

My clients

Government of New Zealand

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Ministry of Justice; Ministry for Primary Industries; Inland Revenue Department; Ministry of Health; New Zealand Police; New Zealand Transport Agency; Ministry for Regulation; Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment; Public Service Commission; Ministry of Social Development; Independent Children’s Monitor; Standards New Zealand; Ministry for the Environment; Hutt City Council; Te Whatu Ora; Reserve Bank New Zealand.

International organisations

UNDP Arab States, UNDP Timor Leste, UNDP Viet Nam WHO Geneva, UN Tunisia, UNICEF Azerbaijan; Islamic Financial Services Board; ILO.

New Zealand health organisations

Pharmacy Council, TAS; Royal College of New Zealand General Practitioners.

New Zealand and Australian NGOs

Save the Children, Tearfund, Corymbosa Charitable Trust, St Vincent de Paul, Oceania Football Confederation, Australian Trauma Group, World Vision, SurfAid International, Rose Gold Trust.

New Zealand businesses and consultancies

Acumen, BeConnected, Taimana Wealth, Mangrove Collective, Solomon Leonard, Palladium Group, Lewis Financial, The Project Lab, The Marschall, Future Partners, Paua Interface, Gas Industry Company; Tribe; Stacey Tennant Consultancy.

New Zealand universities

Victoria University Wellington

Pacific regional organisations

SPREP, SPC.

What my clients say

Here is a selection of comments from my clients. Read more recommendations on LinkedIn.

We hired Helen to edit a handbook for staff in the International Development Cooperation Programme. Helen was amazing at pulling together and making sense of all our policies, strategies, guidelines, processes and terminology, creating an easy to read and use product. Helen was a delight to work with. I highly recommend Helen for all your editing needs.

Natalie Slade, Lead Adviser, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

I would highly recommend Helen as a professional editor. Helen did an outstanding job editing a national strategy document on a complex subject matter. She helped refine the detailed content and language so that we ended up with a very logical, clear, plain-English document that will reach a wide range of target audiences. She also has the ability to suggest removing, re-ordering and consolidating content without losing the core messages during a first edit, which is a real risk with significant editing of complex documents. This limited the amount of back-and-forth I needed to do on the document (for which I was very grateful). Helen was very thorough, yet very fast, turning around the work so I could review within tight time frames. Helen is also very personable, a pleasure to work with, and I would not hesitate to do so again.

Grant McLean, Principal Adviser, New Zealand Police

Helen was a unique and much needed contributor to our work recently. With a thorough understanding of our work and context, and a brilliant ability to edit and summarise our thinking. This unique skill meant she could take my ramblings and help consolidate our thoughts into words that said what we really meant in a clear and powerful way. Helen was a pleasure to work with, and calmly took vague instructions and made a meaningful contribution.

Andrew Johnston, Director of International Development, Save the Children New Zealand

Helen has been working for me in her capacity as an exemplar editor and reviewer of written ministerial work. Helen has excellent experience and skills, and as a natural coach and trainer she is fast becoming an invaluable asset to the ministerial team reviewing work and providing advice and support to team members to assist their growth in writing. The quality and standard of our work has noticeably lifted. Helen is also assisting in the review of the team's policy work. I would highly recommend Helen to any organisation that is looking to grow their capability in this space - the added bonus is she is a great team member!

Leisa Coley, Manager of Ministerial Services, New Zealand Transport Agency

Helen helped us clarify and edit an application for a large grant for a Pacific development project. We were really impressed by her knowledge, professionalism, fast turnaround and willingness to work with our timeframes! We would definitely work with her again and I am looking forward to the next time.

Jessica Smith, Head of Programme Development & Impact, TearFund New Zealand

Helen is great at synthesising research and evaluation reports into easy to understand, plain English, communication and learning pieces. Thanks Helen for your work on the PNG renewable energy baseline study for MFAT.

Claire Shirley, Policy Officer, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

• Editor
• Proofreader

• Non-fiction
• Business & finance
• Economics
• Education & training
• Environment & nature
• Finance
• Health, fitness & wellness
• International relations
• Life sciences
• Psychology & psychiatry
• Public policy
• Science
• Social sciences
• Sport & leisure
• Technology
• Transport

• Writing
• Business writing
• Technical writing
• Proposal writing
• Bid/grant writing