Take the 2-minute tour ×


What is the best way to go about researching and presenting for a technical whitepaper? I dont mean the format, overview, sections and such stuff.

I've never written one - and I wonder if a white paper needs to be very very generic (conceptual) or specific (for instance favouring a particular tool/methodology)

And if your answer favours the generic approach, I'd like to know how one can research for that. Is it better to focus on a smaller use-case scenario, start small, use a particular tool/method, gain good understanding and then research more and develop a wide-angle view on the subject?

share|improve this question
add comment

6 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Yes, try to read other technical white papers. But don't just read any white paper. Read the better ones. You can usually determined which is the "better" one by checking how many times the paper has been cited (One web site I go to for this is cite seer and google scholar). Some general guidelines would be:

  1. Try to be straight to the point, don't beat around the bush.
  2. Use your acronyms consistently.
  3. Take the opportunity to state the weaknesses of previous methods, as it kinda shows you have put in effort to review/survey other's methods.
  4. A technical paper needs to be very specific. State exactly how your method works, state exactly how you conduct the experiments (so that others can replicate your experiments), state exactly your findings (lots of graphs would be nice), and finally, conclude it in 40-60 words or so.
  5. Emphasis on stuff that are new (Stuff that you are proposing) and less on stuff that are old (That would be your background). Make the distinction clear.
  6. Generally, you don't include your source code in your paper. If you must, published in a web page together with links to your paper.

P/S: My advice is a bit biased towards academic paper. But I think it should apply in your case.

share|improve this answer
academic paper != white paper –  RichH May 19 '09 at 3:02
add comment

My 0.02:

Read a couple, and try to make mindmaps trying to come up with an idea of how they look like.

After you did this analysis, go back and pick the sections your whitepaper is going to need. In particular, build ANOTHER mind map with your document structure.

Data is also an important way to convey information. So, think a while about Data Visualization tecniques before charting your data.

share|improve this answer
add comment

The purpose of a white paper is usually to advocate a particular point of view or propose a specific solution to a problem.

If, however, your white paper comes across as little more than marketing or a sales pitch, you won't have made a very good case. The conventional advice is that you must begin by articulating a need that your audience has (the 'pain point' in bizspeak) and address your solution to that need.

share|improve this answer
+1 for clarity and the word "advocate" –  annakata Feb 2 '09 at 9:41
add comment

This sounds a bit unhelpful, but white papers come in all forms, from very specific to very general. Determine what the end goal is. Are you trying to sell something, or describe how a new technical widget works, or describe an experience? Also, determine your audience are they business, technical, home etc.

Take a look around at examples - most big companies (IBM etc) have hundreds on their website. Read a few and see what strikes you as the good and bad points.

share|improve this answer
add comment

A whitepaper could be either general or very specific. It depends entirely on the subject, audience, and the intent.

For example, a paper on an R+D topic, or presented within academia, or designed to provide a conceptual sketch of some future work is going to be written in a more passive voice, almost Q+A format. A discussion. You'll probably present multiple ideas and might pro/con them without necessarily reaching a fixed conclusion.

A whitepaper on a particular technology, for a clients' benefit of clarification, or to illustrate or document some result will be very firm, fixed, and have definite conclusions. Numbers.

The only thing you can say generally is that the process works from the vague -> specific.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Your Answer


