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Do you need a white paper or a whitepaper? ASK MIKE

By Michael Stelzner

What is the proper label for those six to twelve page documents that we all read and write?

Kathleen, one of my newsletter readers, recently asked this question:

I have a very basic question: what is the correct “grammatical” designation for white papers? I have seen various forms:

  • White Paper
  • Whitepaper
  • white paper
  • WhitePaper

I have also seen companies use initial caps for their titles e.g. “Acme Company White Paper” but then switch to lower case when referring to white papers more generically e.g. “Acme Company has developed a white paper on…….”

Any thoughts? Does it matter? Thanks!

Kathleen, I think I can answer your question.

First, about white paper verses whitepaper. A quick Google search reveals there are 84 million results for the phrase “white paper” and only 7 million for the word whitepaper. I always use the two words “white paper.”

Second, about the capitalization of the words white paper. I would not normally capitalize those words unless they are used as part of a title. Often I will use the words WHITE PAPER in all CAPS on the front page of my white paper.

I would love to hear from others on this.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 5:22 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.

  • By the way Doug, you are the only one who does "not know" what a white paper is.

    This entire blog is dedicated to the topic of white papers and you are insulting the intelligence of my readers with your comments.
  • Doug Rosbury
    Please tell me what "WHITE PAPER" means. No one to date has come up with
    an explanation. How can Susan Weiner say "I agree with white paper", When none of you people has found an explanation for "WHITE PAPER"?
    This kind of discussion violates my sense of logic. We're all talking about
    "WHITE PAPER" and no one actually knows what it means. HOW DUMB (!!!)
    How can you say, "I agree with"WHITE PAPER" when you have no idea what the meaning of it is? Is this an example of our intelligence? Hmmm(!!!)Doug
  • I agree with "white paper."
  • Doug Rosbury
    Mike: ( " Document ") Awhite paper is a sheet with no type on it. A document
    is the data on the paper. Doug Rosbury
  • Brian Spare
    Honestly, the question never occurred to me, but good point. I have always assumed it to be two words - white paper - with no capitals unless as you say the words are part of a title.
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