Government Contract White Papers
I have been asked by a manufacturing client to create a white paper to attempt to secure a government contract. I've written white papers before but only for software. I'm stymied, I did a google search and found some stuff, but I have to pay for it! I can't do that, so I'm wondering if anyone knows any resources for creating this type of white paper? I need information on methodology and layout.
Michele -
This consultant will send you his paper on writing white papers if you request it from him. His site gives a brief background on white papers plus some examples:
http://www.stelzner.com/copy-g-HowTo-whitepapers.php
If you go to big technology sites like macromedia.com, hp.com, or ibm.com and search the term "white paper" (use the quotes to keep the two words together in the search) you will also uncover a load of examples -- some of them quite good.
You will find what one of the other posts already pointed out -- the term "white paper" has really blurred over the past few years to the point that many of the documents that purport to be white papers are really technical brochures or a thinly veiled sales pitch in the form of a paper. A true white paper doesn't beat you over the head with market-speak but rather presents a problem and then provides procedures and data that make the case for your product self-evident to an intelligent and interested reader.
The other thing you will find is that there is no set format for a white paper, except the one set by your company documentation team. If this is your client's first white paper and they don't have any documentation standards in place, you can set the style. Take a look at many examples from different sources, and get a feel for the flow, use of headings and graphics, headers/footers, placement of legal/copyright disclaimers, contact info, etc ... It's interesting to search through examples from the same company to see how their styles have evolved over time -- and how some departments seem to deviate from corporate standards altogether! Learn from the best examples you see, and then make the doc work with your client's brand.
Hope this helps.
~ Chris Willis
Where there's a Willis, there's a way!
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