CMD scoops eight Silver Quill awards

The Newsroom of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Communication and Marketing Department (CMD) scooped eight 2019 International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Silver Quill awards – two Excellence and six Merit – lauding the writers and editors for “business communication excellence”.

The awards, to be presented at a gala evening in Gauteng on 16 October, recognise work that makes a significant contribution to business outcomes, with evaluators seeking out entries where communicators can demonstrate the impact of their work on business goals. They must also be innovative and unique.

CMD won two Excellence awards, one for writer Carla Bernardo’s article “UCT’s hijab-wearing rugby player talks inclusivity”, and one for the Year in Review 2018, edited by Pete van der Woude, head of Newsroom and Publications.

The judges said Bernardo’s “excellent article” speaks “to the hearts of not only fellow students, but South Africans and the rest of the world alike”.

They said Year in Review 2018 was “well targeted to the audience” and praised the “excellent professional execution of the project”.

Merit awards

The following articles earned Merit awards:

• “Bottling academic excellence”, by freelance writer Susan Segar.
• “Afrophobia: Language does the dirty work”, also by Bernardo.
• “Cape Town’s drought under the microscope”, by staff writer Niémah Davids.
• “Levelling the maths, physics playing field”, also by Davids.

Merit awards were also presented for Campus Life 2019, another publication edited by Van der Woude, and for a suite of UCT Fact Sheets, the product of teamwork by the department.

Gerda Kruger, Communication and Marketing executive director, congratulated the winners and said the accolades reflect the high calibre of skilled and committed people working within CMD, and the exceptionally high standard of work being produced by many colleagues in the department.

“It is fantastic to see such recognition and reward from our peers, especially in a programme like this which recognises business communication excellence across the continent, and which is acknowledged as one of the most prestigious global communication awards,” she said.