Does using the words “white paper” create a negative picture in your mind?

Is the term overused?

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of teaching a teleclass with Bob Bly, an author of more than 70 books on writing and marketing.

One student asked the question, “Does it always make sense to call a white paper a white paper?”

This is a very good and important question. It spawns a number of other questions.

Bob’s answer was, “I don’t like using the term white paper.”

So here are my questions to you:

• When should you “not” use the term white paper?
• Does the label white paper carry any negative baggage?
• Are there positives that can be gained from describing a document as a white paper?

Please chime in. Your thoughts matter.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 7:09 am and is filed under Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.