How To Write Up Your White Paper
The good news is, if you have followed this structure, the hard work has been done! All too often, the write-up can be long and stressful, when really it should be fun and exciting.
However, by having carried out all the research upfront, we now simply need to copy and paste our work together and add hooks, signposts and links, as well as any charts, diagrams or images we feel will help the telling of the story.
What Are Hooks, Signposts and Links?
This is where we have the chance to be creative.
The hooks represent a lead statement that grabs attention, the signposts help to guide the reader on how you are going to set out your argument, and the links bind the previous idea to the next.
Let’s take a look at this in practice.
What Makes a Good Hook?
You’ll see that from our research, we have our first point as “The cost of fixing data,” which we are using as the working title of our first section or article.
While this accurately describes what we are going to talk about, it is not especially exciting as it stands. We now need to think about how to articulate this in a way that conveys urgency or a call to action.
This is where we get to play with language.
An ideal hook should be simple, concise, and convey urgency or a need for action. Alternatively, it may make a contentious or bold point to challenge the reader. Or, it may introduce a fact, such as a data point.
You might think back to your target audience, or the research you have carried out and reformulate this as, “CTOs must urgently fix inaccurate data to save costs.” Or, you could position a bold statement, such as “CTOs are losing out to inefficiency and bad data.” Or, if you have uncovered a data point, you might be able to say something such as, “70% of CTOs are unaware of the hidden costs of bad data.”
Here, you can use your research to really zone in on the pain points that have surfaced and play around with the hook until you feel you have created a statement that will engage your readers.
A hook should be used as a way of drawing the audience into the introduction of the section, and a series of hooks should be used to open each paragraph, to entice the reader to continue reading and progress through the white paper.
In our example, we need four hooks. One for the introduction, and three to introduce each paragraph that will comprise the argumentation, as highlighted below:
The type of language that you use for the hook may be guided by the overall tone that you decided to adopt to your white paper, whether it is predominantly educational, consultative, or confrontational will help you decide what formulations work best.
What Is Signposting?
Readers of business white papers like to have their expectations set. They like to know where they are within the argument and what is coming up.
It is therefore important to pull out the signposts and make these explicit.
Again, using our example of the data cleansing service, we can identify the points that need signposting as such:
You’ll see that the three signposts are the three key major points that we are going to expand upon in our argumentation.
Signposting can be as simple as laying these out as bullet points in your introduction, as follows:
In this chapter, we evaluate the three key reasons why fixing bad data must be a priority for CTOs:
- Bad data is wasting employees time
- It means x
- Third point
Making Strong Links
Having strong linking phrases helps to guide the reader through your argument and enables them to appreciate the logical flow of the information that you are setting out.
Linking elements are frequently built out using transitional words and phrases, such as:
- Accordingly
- Although
- As soon as
- Consequently
- Conversely
- Even so
- Hence
- However
- Meanwhile
- Nevertheless
- Therefore
- Until now
- Whereas
References and Quotations
As we have explored, much of your research should come from primary sources. Most of your document should be primary source focused. That means the information comes from our own interviews, our own webinars, our own research, such as surveys or polls on social media.
Any secondary source validations should be accurately represented, with a link to a footnote with the link. It should come from a credible source, such as an article from a well-regarded media outlet in your industry area, to support your story point.
