Academic Writing

It's worth repeating here that every team's white paper will be different. That said, the white paper is generally a multipage report incorporating visual elements like charts, graphs, and diagrams, that educates readers about a particular problem and solution. Your white papers should: 1) Be roughly 8-12 pages in length (depending on how your pages are laid out and what kinds of images you use) and be at least 1,250 words. 2) Should include visual elements that you have created (you may also include pictures you have collected as long as you attribute their sources, but focus on making your own). Screenshots tend to be particularly useful when describing software. 3) Be written for multiple audiences within your organization. Remember that people with different responsibilities will be looking for different kinds of information. Some readers may look for financial data, others for implementation strategies. Your job is to anticipate what major questions and concerns need to be addressed. Within those parameters, the specific details will vary with each team. General White Paper Advice and Examples Looking at this example white paper from Motorola, there are a few features I want to call to your attention. First of all, in terms of writing, the paper begins with a short "executive summary" that covers all the information contained within the report. This may be all someone reads before deciding whether to continue or not, so it should include the most important benefits and advantages. You'll also notice little blocks of text in the left-hand column. These are additional summaries, one for each section. Not all white papers include these running summaries, but many do, and it's certainly something your team can consider emulating. Also, pay attention to the title and the section headings. These are all descriptive (i.e., not "Section 1," "Section 2," etc.) making it easy to skim the report and find particular kinds of information. Finally, in terms of design, the report is not terribly colorful, but it does make good use of a header and footer, and the orange color is repeated throughout (even in the diagrams), tying the report together visually. If you look at this example white paper by MessageLabs, you'll notice a lot of the same features: executive summary, a column of summaries running through the report, and section headings that tell you about the information they contain. This white paper also includes a table of contents. Your teams should be able to find many more white papers online, simply by searching for "white papers." You may even be able to find white papers dealing specifically with disaster management and/or online collaboration (hint, hint). Here are some other examples to look over: IBM Collaboration White Paper Blackboard Accessibility White Paper Forrester Collaboration White Paper These focus specifically on collaborative software, so they should give you a fairly clear sense of how to proceed.