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Welcome to the Vidcasts of the OWL@Purdue
where we deepen our knowledge of rhetoric, logic, invention, and communication
whether you want more info on the ancient history of rhetoric
or get some advice on the best medium for your message
OWL Vidcasts are here to help you
our research might be formal or informal,
conducted in a library or at a conference table
by asking people in our field or 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 or developments in their fields
It's 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 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 they are written within or for
Internal White Papers have the goal of informing a company about a current trend
External White Papers are written to inform a public audience within a particular discipline or field
At your first post-college job, your employer might ask you to write a white paper on new social media trends
That the company could use to stay relevant in your field
In the white paper, you would inform or update your company
about new online collaboration software (LinkedIn, Twitter, PBworks, Skype, Google Docs, etc)
and ask: how is this new social media changing thenature of business communication
and how business is conducted within and outside my company
and how can our company not fall behind in this changing changing technological landscape
If you wrote this report internally for your company only,
you might overview your company's previous approaches to social media
including their mistakes or embarrassing moments
If you write it 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 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 your field
Some businesses, like marketing and research firms 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/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 investment in the topic they are presenting on
Take, for instance, this white paper written by Best Buy's CEO about his Twitter use 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
with a goal of emphasizing the positive aspects of himself and his company
As you begin to write your own white paper,
it's important to ask "what does an excellent white paper do?"
Instead of telling what action a group should take,
they offer background information upon which decisions could be made in the future
thus functioning somewhat like research papers
Successful white papers include six sections
The Executive Summary begins the white paper and
and in this brief overview, you should into and summarize your reseach
as well as establish the expectations of what's to follow in your report
In your executive summary, you want to state clearly
how your research topic is relevant or useful
either generally to businesses in your industry or specifically to the company
Give us a good reason, as company executives, to want to read this
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 about how this topic is important to your company or industry
Avoid "roadmapping" in this situation
by which we mean just stating the section headings of the report
Set up your audiences expectations for the whole report
and especially make it's purpose and relevance clear
but there's not necessarily a need to provide a table of contents here
in "Previous Approaches," provide an overview of previous approaches or strategies people have used with your 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'll need to discuss techniques already used traditionally in your field
If you're informing your company about social media trends,
you might explain how team members currently coolaborate
(Maybe they use e-mail primarily)
and how those strategies could use improvement
Maybe there are more organized ways to work online as a team
that you can plan to introduce in your white paper
"New Findings" is the most important section
Your job in the report is to both present and interpret data on your topic for your audience
Data or research does not speak for itself
It requires that you explain it's relevance clearly and directly
in a way that is understandable to your audience but also respectful of them
what's most important for your ethos and credibility as a researcher
in that you make it clear where data comes from (including infographics)
and that you integrate it into the report by explaining how it's relevant to you report's stated purpose
In the conclusion, discuss your research findings in comparison to the previous approaches that you overviewed in the beginning
Conclusions of white papers don't have to suggest specific strategies or solutions
but they should offer insight into the topic nor concern that instigated the research in the first place
Most white papers end with a source-citation or bibliography
Be sure to list all 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
or they can be given their own page
The idea is to make sure your readers can find the same articles or websites and books you cited in your text
While it's not required you use a style like MLA or APA,
such a guide is probably familiar to readers in your field and helps them recognize the format and find your sources more quickly
Therefore, it's a good idea to use such a style
Overall, your sections don't have to have boring titles
like "New Findings" and "Previous Approaches"
Get creative and name the sections according to the information you'll present within them
For example, instead of "Previous Approaches, you might write "Previous Strategies for Collaborating Online"
or "Previous Techniques for Sampling Groundwater"
Captioned by Patrick Love