A white paper is a position paper for all practical purposes. Businesses and organisations use white papers to establish authority in their particular sector, sometimes relating to a topic that is especially relevant at the time the paper is produced. White papers follow a standard format that presents information in a way readers expect to receive it. A white paper can help your business or organisation by giving you a platform to establish your authority. It is also a good tool for explaining why your products or services are the best option for your target audience. A well-written white paper develops a topic thoroughly, explains how your business or organisation addresses the topic and offers solutions where appropriate. Please note that white papers are not blog posts or extended adverts. Using them as such can be counterproductive.

There are different ways to format white papers for maximum effectiveness. Connotations has developed a format based on combining several industry standards into what we believe is the best way to present white paper information. A Connotations white paper:

• introduces the organisation behind it;
• introduces the problem or opportunity at hand;
• provides evidence that the problem or opportunity is real;
• offers different ways the problem or opportunity can be addressed; and
• presents the organisation’s solution.

By sticking with our format, we are able to create uniform white papers that present information in a way that is acceptable in any business environment. Multiple white papers written for a single company or organisation offer continuity regardless of the problem or opportunity being discussed. Of course, Connotations can deviate from our format at the client’s request.

While Connotations always respects client word count requests, it has been our experience that trying to define a white paper with a pre-determined word count is not a wise idea. White paper writing is a unique kind of writing that can’t necessarily be conformed into a particular length for every purpose. Some white papers cover topics that are very detailed by nature. As such, they might require longer pieces of 1,000 words or more. By the same token, there are other topics that are not as involved. Trying to create a white paper of 1,000 words would result in superfluity – excess text that takes up space without offering anything relevant. Connotations prefers to write each white paper based on the topic and the number of words necessary to develop that topic properly.

Our role as professional writers enables us to create white papers with very little effort required on the client’s part. However, our writers do require some guidance on white paper topics and the points the client wants to make. Remember, the purpose of the white paper is to establish your company or organisation as an authority in your industry. You can make our job easier by giving us a general idea of what you want to say in your white paper. If the white paper is to contain any factual data, we appreciate your help in sourcing that data. We also need information pertaining to any solutions you choose to offer for the problem or opportunity being discussed in the paper. We don’t need a lot of information from you, but we do need enough to create a basic framework.

White papers may or may not be highly technical depending on who orders them. Perhaps a better term to use would be ‘industry-specific’. White papers are, by nature, specific to the industry the customer is involved with. Any white paper you were to order from us would deal with a topic that is related to whatever it is you do. Where technical aspects are concerned, our writers can be as technical or non-technical as the customer wants. There may be instances when we require a bit of technical assistance to cover topics our writers are not intimately familiar with, but we exhaust our research resources before requesting such assistance. Generally speaking, a highly technical white paper does require a bit more work. This is why we price white papers on a case-by-case basis.

It is very difficult for us to assign an amount of time to producing a quality white paper. White papers are, by their nature, very detailed documents intended to provide readers with a lot of important, relevant information. The amount of time it takes one of our writers to complete a white paper really depends on how much information will be included in the text, the scope of the topic at hand, and the amount of research necessary to get the job done. Our general rule is to ask for as much lead time as possible for producing white papers. This isn’t just because white papers are complex documents, it’s also because we have to work every new order into our existing schedule. The more time we have to complete your project, the more thorough all writers can be in the work they do.

Every form of content Connotations produces can be sent back for edits, including white papers. However, not all edits are performed free of charge. If edits are the result of unclear instructions or requirements that changed after the original order was placed, we reserve the right to charge for the additional work. Edits required as a result of our writers not meeting the customer’s standards are obviously made at no additional charge. Where white papers are concerned, we encourage clients to be sure they know exactly what they want, before they order, so as to avoid costly edits down the road.