WHITE PAPERS:AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GENRE AND ITS

EXPECTATIONS

What is a white paper or “backgrounder” report? What contents make up white papers, and who reads them? This vidcast explains the genre and expectations

of this style of report-writing.

By Katie Trauth TaylorIn cooperation with the

Purdue Online Writing Lab

No matter our profession, we educate ourselves about breaking issues in our fields by doing background research. Our research might be formal or informal, conducted in the library or at the conference table by asking other people in our field—or in related fields—what they’ve heard about new topics and trends.

White papers provide background for decisions. The white paper is intended to update long-term professionals on current trends and developments. It is often written by newly graduated professionals who bring new research from their university training. So there’s a good chance you’ll want experience writing white papers before you start your first post-college job.

Since white papers are written about a variety of topics—from economic approaches to marketing strategies, from new social media trends to legal and governmental updates—they are often profoundly influenced by the particular discipline that they are written within or written for.

White paper reports can be internal—which means they are written for people in a private business setting with the goal of informing the company about a current trend in research, or external—which means they are written to inform a public audience within a particular discipline or field.

At your first post-college job, for example, your employer might ask you to write a white paper on new social media trends that the company could use to stay relevant and up-to-date in your field. In the resulting white paper, you would inform—or update—your company about new online collaboration software like LinkedIn, Twitter, PB Works, Skype, or Google Docs, asking: How is this new social media changing the nature of business communication

and how business is conducted within and outside of my company? How can we (our company) not fall behind in this changing technological

landscape?

If you wrote this report internally for your company only, you might overview your particular company’s previous approaches to social media, including their mistakes or embarrassing moments.

If, however, you wrote this report for an external audience of people in your entire field (or even publicly for your potential customers), you would likely speak more generally about social media in your field, and avoid discussing your company in any negative light.

For this reason, it’s important to be rhetorical about external white papers, anticipating negative associations that your research might have on your company. For example, you wouldn’t want to write an external white paper about marketing strategies that successfully manipulate people. This would represent your company in a potentially negative way to the general public or to your field.

Some businesses—like marketing and research firms that are hired by larger companies—create informative white papers that are really meant to attract business customers. Such corporate white papers function more like advertisements, telling you as a business owner or worker why your company needs to hire their firm. This approach to white papers isn’t necessarily “sneaky,” but it does remind us to question the information presented in white papers—because they’re often written by companies who have some kind of investment in the topic they’re presenting on. In other words, white papers are sponsored by businesses and companies, and therefore, we should be cautious of viewing all white paper reports as neutral or objective informative research.• Take, for instance, this white paper written by Best Buy’s CEO about his use of Twitter as a

business leader. In this external white paper published in the Harvard Business Review, the CEO writes about his caring interactions with customers and employees, emphasizing the positive aspects of his company.

What does an excellent white paper do?• It takes a unique and clear approach to a specific topic

or trend, sharing research that is up-to-date.• It is written to a specific audience using arguments,

claims, and information that work well to inform that audience of the topic of trend under discussion.• It provides thorough research, including at least five (5)

diverse sources through a variety of research approaches (including internet, magazine, newsletter and book searches, as well as interviews or discussions with professionals in the field).

White papers differ from recommendation reports and feasibility reports because they do not reach a decision about what action a group should (or should not) take. Instead, they offer backgrounds upon which decisions can be made, thus functioning somewhat like research papers.

What are the sections of a white paper?Executive Summary

•The “executive summary” should briefly introduce and summarize your research, as well as establish reader expectations for what is to follow. Make sure to state clearly here how your research topic is relevant or useful, either generally to businesses in your industry, or specifically to your company. Give me a good reason—as a company executive—why I should bother reading this.

Introduction•Your introduction should prepare your readers in more detail for the main issues of the paper. You may choose to begin by defining the major terms in your report, or by giving a specific anecdote of how this topic is important to your company or industry. Avoid “road-mapping,” by which I mean just stating the section headings of the report. Set up your audiences’ expectations for the whole report and especially make its purpose and relevance clear.

Previous Approaches•Overview of previous strategies or approaches to the topic, either at your company (for an internal report) or in your larger field (for an external report). For example, if you’re informing your company about new techniques for sampling groundwater, you will need to discuss the techniques that are used most frequently or traditionally in your field. If you’re informing your company about social media trends, you might explain how team members currently collaborate (maybe they use email primarily), and how these strategies could use improvement (maybe there are more organized ways to work online as a team that you plan to introduce in your white paper).

New Findings•Your job in the report is to both present and interpret the data on your topic for your audience. Data or research does not speak for itself; it requires that you explain its relevance clearly and directly in a way that is understandable to them, but also respectful of them. What is most important for your ethos and credibility as a researcher is that you make it clear in the report where data has come from (including infographics) and that you integrate it into the report by explaining how it is relevant to your report's stated purpose.

Conclusion•This section of the white paper discusses the research findings in comparison to the previous approaches. Although conclusions of white papers don’t have to suggest specific strategies or solutions, they should offer insight into the topic or concern that instigated the research in the first place.

Sources/Bibliography•Be sure to list all of your sources and reference materials in a section at the end of your white paper. These can be designed to fit unobtrusively near the conclusion of your report, or can be given their own page. The idea is to make sure that your readers can find the same articles, websites, and books that you cited in your text. While it’s not required that you follow a citation style guide like MLA or APA, such a guide is often familiar to readers and can help them recognize the format and find your sources more quickly.

Overall, your sections don’t have to have these boring titles—get creative! Name the section according to the information you will present within in. For example, instead of “Previous Approaches,” you might write, “Previous Strategies for Collaborating Online” or “Previous Techniques For Sampling Groundwater.” Your sections should reflect the knowledge that people in your field share and recognize, and inspire them to read each section carefully.

Works CitedPorter, James E., Patricia Sullivan, Johndon Johnson-Eilola (2009). Professional Writing Online

3.0. Available from: http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/product/Professional-Writing-Online-Version-30/9780205652129.page.

CreditsMusic:

“Rhetoric Tranquility” written and performed by Z. Koppelmann, 2011.Images (used with permission):

Purdue Business Writing Student White Paper ExamplesPublic Domain and Creative Commons

THIS HAS BEEN A PRESENTATION OF “WHITE PAPERS”

WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY | KATIE TRAUTH TAYLOR

BROUGHT TO YOU IN COOPERATION WITH THE PURDUE ONLINE WRITING LAB