solved Writing Assignment #4 White Paper for an External Audience Summary

Writing Assignment #4
White Paper for an External Audience
Summary of the Assignment:
• Task: In this paper, you will write a document that provides information that an external
audience can use to inform a decision.
We have read various white papers in the class this semester. White papers can be any
one of the following types:
o technical papers
o business benefit papers
o advocacy papers
o hybrid technical/business papers
The CANRIGHT document that is provided in the class in LEO describes all four of
these types of white papers.
• Length: 1200-1600 words
• Graphics: at least three graphics, two of which have to be original
• Format in Citing and Listing Sources: APA
• Number and Sources: at least five sources, at least one of which has to be obtained
through OneSearch
Brief Description of the White Paper:
In preparing for this assignment, you will want to review the following video:
“White Papers: An Introduction to the Genre and Its Expectations,” from the Purdue OWL
You may take any of the following approaches:
• a general white paper to an external audience – written to individuals in a particular
industry or field of study, but not an organization you are a part of. The white paper
could address a problem you are attempting to solve in the organization or to inform an
external audience about a relevant trend.
• a white paper promoting a new product or service to potential customers. This is an
example of a white paper to an external audience, but it features different rhetorical
considerations than the typical white paper written to an external audience does.
Both options are discussed in the Purdue OWL video mentioned above.
Please note: You will not be writing a white paper to your boss or to superiors in the
company for which you work.
That type of paper would be an internal white paper. If you take WRTG 394, you can
write that type of paper. For WRTG 393, we ask for a white paper to an external audience.
Strategies to Consider for the White Paper:
Please follow these guidelines:
• have a focused topic. Please see the sample white papers from previous students for
examples of how previous topics have been developed for this paper.
• write to a reasonably focused and identified audience
o A white paper to an external audience can have a broad audience or a narrow
audience.
â–ª For example, if you do not work for a hair salon and you write a white
paper promoting a new billing system for hair salons, the audience will
probably be the various hair salons in your neighborhood.
o A white paper that promotes a product or service to potential customers could
have a fairly broad audience.
â–ª For example, a white paper promoting a new taxi service in your
neighborhood has, theoretically, all residents in the neighborhood as a
potential audience.
• integrate thorough research
• do not directly tell the audience what action it should take. Rather, offer background
information that the audience can use to make a decision. The Purdue OWL video
mentions this principle. This is one reason the video refers to the white paper as a
backgrounder report.