We have decided to do our white paper project on some of the more popular PDA/smart phone’s that are on the market today, including the IPhone, Blackberry Storm, and the G1. Our plan is to successfully inform the reader about each one of the phones characteristics, features, some pros and cons, and give them some general information about their operating systems. We will try to successfully inform the reader without sounding biased about any of the phones or manufacturers. The main goal of our white paper will be to help the reader make an informed decision about buying the correct smart phone.
Our white paper will use information collected from several different types of sources. One possible source is going to be the current users of the different products. We could approach our peer at work or a group of people who all have smart phones to discuss what features they like and don’t like about their current smart phone.
A large chunk of our research will come from online articles containing reviews of the phones and from the phone manufacturer and provider web sites. Most phone manufacturers and cell phone companies have descriptions of all of the different features and options a phone has, this will most likely also be a large source for our research. This information might be a little bias because they are selling the product, but we will try to look past that and just get the facts.
Consumer reviews will also be used to get the feelings of the actual consumer and they describe what users alike and dislike of each smart phone. From the research we do we will try to identify why a person has chosen the phone that they are using and if it’s because of a provider preference, what the consumer likes and dislikes about their smart phone, and finally the phone’s specifications and characteristics.
Our primary audience consists of people or businesses/corporations that are looking to make a large scale purchase of smart phones. This is a very large audience because it includes businessmen and women, schools, corporations, and just about any group of people who are looking for a top of the line smart phone. The secondary audience could possible be the people who work at the actual phone manufacturer or people who work at the cell phone company. Our tertiary audience could be people who are interested in the technology behind smart phones or the actual engineers/evaluators that manufacture or sell the phone itself. Our gatekeeping audience will be the other members of our group (since they are the ones who will be proofreading and checking our actual white paper) and the instructor.
We will try to have an attractive design that focuses the reader’s attention on the facts in the most effective and appropriate way. We will use Microsoft Office to draw diagrams and figures for the white paper. Our white paper will have an in depth design that will have descriptions of the phones along with pictures and other helpful information.
The following is an initial list of responsibilities. They will adapt during the course of the project.
• Joey
o Proposal Draft
o Revise weekly reports
o Research
• Zebulon
o Weekly group reports
o Research
• Emil
o Revising the proposal
o Comparing technical features
o Revising the design
o Maintaining the group collaboration website
o Research
• Scott
o Design draft
o Research
• Doddy
o Collecting and organizing the feedback from phone users
o Layout
o Research
Overall, we are optimistic about this project and that we will produce a white paper that will help people choose a smart phone that fits their needs.
re: White Paper Project Proposal – Group 7
Overall, this seems like a solid proposal. You are presenting competing options in an unbiased way to an audience that must select from among them. However, there were two things that I noticed while I was reading.
The first thing is that your primary audience seems a little off. That is to say, it doesn't seem likely that many phone purchasers would read white papers about this topic. Most people in this class indicated in their weekly comments that they hadn't heard of white papers before this project, and this is a group that is tech savvy enough to be in an online technical writing class. A more appropriate audience would be people who are responsible for making large-scale purchases, such as corporate IT personnel. That audience would benefit from an unbiased evaluation of the pros and cons (cost, features, durability, battery life, interoperability with current systems, etc.) of smart phones.
The other thing I noticed was this line: "We will approach our friends, peers in class or at work, and others to discuss what features they like and don’t like about their current smart phone." I don't think this would be a productive use of your time. What your friends say probably doesn't constitute defensible data, and there wouldn't be enough to function in an aggregate. The idea to look at customer reviews seems to be covering the same ground, and there would be more of them from a more diverse sample pool.