Attorneys and White Papers: The Common Thread
By Michael Stelzner
While working on a recent project, one of my customers said something that stopped me dead in my tracks. “You know, in my previous life I was an attorney, and what you are telling me about white papers is not all that different from what I would say when defending a case.”
Hmm. Things started connecting in my brain and then shazamm!—the light went on.
A white paper is not far from a courtroom legal argument. Interestingly, they are amazingly similar. Good white papers:
- Formulate arguments
- Interview witnesses
- Carefully examine the opposing parties’ claims
- Present a persuasive case, backed up by facts
- Preempt objections
- Help the jury make the right decision
Legal arguments are equivalent to the problems or needs faced by white paper readers. For example, “Knowledge workers are wasting precious corporate time recreating information that already exists somewhere within the enterprise.” Formulate good arguments and persuade.
Witnesses are the content experts, the analysts and customers. A good white paper writer will ask lots of questions to develop a solid message and may even bring star witnesses “to the stand” by quoting them in the white paper.
Examining the defense’s claims are akin to examining the competition’s claims—a critical procedure when developing a white paper. Make sure your white paper addresses all the issues your competition does.
Good white papers do not simply present the facts, they also explain what the facts mean and why they should be weighed when making a decision. A key goal of most white papers is to persuade readers.
Key objections can and often should be neutralized by addressing them clearly in the white paper. For example, if a competitor clearly has a more advanced cooling system in their computing hardware, it might be wise to talk about the non-standard equipment necessary to adopt such a system.
Similar to helping the jury make a decision, a good white paper should be written in easy-to-understand language, the facts should be restated in different ways and you should ask the reader to act at the end of the paper.
Now go argue your case and produce an excellent white paper.
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