English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

White papers provide unbiased information on problems that particular companies might be experiencing in the business, industrial, and governmental world. You can think of a white paper as a “beefed” up brochure type paper that goes into much more detail than your typical brochure. White papers often deal with a technical situation that needs to be explained in a very detailed manner. These documents generally follow a certain format that includes a title page with an executive summary, a body broken into “chunks”, and a conclusion to sum it all up.

From the reading this week, I gathered many details about White Papers. When I began the reading, I wasn’t entirely sure what was meant by the phrase but now understand. White papers are used in many contexts from business, to industrial, and even governmental. The similarity is that the subject of the White Papers is often technical and the goal is to achieve certain credibility and reliability with the reader. The format is also generally similar with a title page, executive summary, body/argument, and conclusion.