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Writing Lessons From an IDC Report? You bet!

By Michael Stelzner

I will regularly profile excellent white papers in this column.

The goal is to help you learn from what the best of the best are doing.

Let’s face it, white papers are typically dry and boring.

However, they don’t have to be. (Let’s you and I change that, ok?)

This week, I am taking a look at a great paper by IDC called “The Expanding Digital Universe.”

This new paper (released this month) was written by John F. Gantz and a team of 8 other writers (which makes it even more amazing how well the whole thing flows).

This paper reads like a great story rather than an analyst report.

It includes much of the trademarks of an excellent white paper, including lots of images and creative subheads.

However, what I want to draw your attention to its outstanding writing.

Consider this excerpt:

HOW BIG IS THE DIGITAL UNIVERSE, REALLY?

It is pretty easy to picture a byte – it’s the equivalent of a character on a page – or even a megabyte, which contains about the same amount of information as a small novel. But what about a million million megabytes, which is an exabyte?

If we stick with the book analogy, then the digital universe in 2006 could be likened to 12 stacks of books extending from the Earth to the sun. Or one stack of books twice around the Earth’s orbit. By 2010 the stack of books could reach from the sun to Pluto and back. In 2006 those books would represent about 6 tons of books for every man, woman, and child on Earth. A large adult elephant weighs about 6
tons.

Ok, this paper is absolutely littered with conversational writing.

My friend Bob Bly would be proud.

Take home lesson: Conversational writing can and should be utilized to convey complex ideas and draw in readers.

Take a gander at this piece and I think you will agree.

What are your thoughts on conversational writing? Are most white papers using this approach?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 11:55 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.

  • The conversational writing style definitely works!

    It was long - yet the approach kept you involved.
  • Hey Guys;

    I was really floored by the style of writing.

    It is so "not IDC"

    I think more and more writers should begin adopting this style of writing.

    The use of analogies was really most excellent.

    Mike
  • At first glance this paper looks very good. It has a nice conversational style and plenty of visuals.

    On the other hand it's 19 pages, which is almost double the size of a standard white paper. While it has an executive summary (which you typically don't like), it's unlikely that a busy executive will sit down and read it from cover to cover.

    Nonetheless, the name IDC usually has a lot of cache associated with it, so I'm sure it will be well received.

    Jonathan
  • I like the example you linked to. I think a conversational style of writing is highly effective at conveying complex issues, especially when communicating with non-technical people. I like a conversational style in lead generation activities, it's a nice way to introduce a subject and position an offer.

    White papers today are much different than they were a decade ago...I like your call to change them again. Not that there's anything wrong with white papers today, but I think business communication has significantly changed - less formal, more transparent, conversational - white papers are an important part of business communication and as such may need to change as well. A conversational style may be the change...or a first change.

    Putting my sales hat on, it seems to me there is a need for a document that combines the best of a white paper, case study, and sales letter...an odd combination, but it works:-) This document could educate, persuade, and compel a suspect or prospect to advance their qualification and take the next step in a sales cycle. A conversational tone would be required.

    A white paper could be tweaked to provide such a use. A lot of white papers could be re-purposed this way...food for thought. That could be a nice market opportunity for you, me, and others :-)

    Good post...it makes you think!
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