White Papers -Reply

[David Hailey <FAHAILEY -at- WPO -dot- HASS -dot- USU -dot- EDU>]

Snip

Joy Switzer
I have recently been given the task of creating "white
papers" for my company's products. . . .  I was wondering if
there was any set standard for creating these papers.  What
exactly are White Papers?  What type of information goes
into the pages?  How much?  Are they suppose to be more
technical than marketing directed?

I fairly often write a white paper, but it sounds like what
I am writing may be slightly different from what you have
been assigned.  For us, a white paper proposes an idea
without going to the extent of a formal proposal.  If I were
going to send a $100K, 20 page proposal to a company that
knew us only in passing, I would begin with a series of
phone conversations, followed by a white paper (maybe five
or ten pages) that described the project I had in mind in
very general terms.  The paper wouldn't mention costs or
exactly who would be working on the project.  It would
simply explain in broad terms how the project might work and
how it might be benificial for everybody involved.

Ours are very rhetorical--that is to say very marketing
oriented.

Since we clearly have different definitions of "white paper"
I would be interested in other definitions.  Anybody else
out there write white papers?

Dave Hailey
at USU

                  TECHWR-L List Information
To send a message about technical communication to 2500+ list readers,
E-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send administrative commands
         ALL other questions or problems concerning the list
       should go to the listowner, Eric Ray, at ejray -at- ionet -dot- net -dot-