Can a Team Write a White Paper?
March 27th, 2008, by Michael StelznerI have a confession. I was totally stumped yesterday with this question…
I was at a client site training a group of engineers on writing white papers.
One guy asked me, “What do we do when there are four of us writing a single white paper?”
Surprisingly this is the first time someone has come to me with this question.
A few thoughts came immediately through my mind.
“What a nightmare.”
“That project is going to take forever.”
Then I gave my answer.
My first response was to ask whether all the writers were aware of the target reader.
The answer was no.
So my concern was that there would likely be a mismatch between the four writers. One might think he should be writing to the director and another might think it would be appropriate to write about the everyday employee.
This was just one of my concerns.
So I have a confession. I have never written a “group” white paper.
Now there are always groups of individuals involved with the process. For example, a writer, an editor, a project manager, the content experts, and so on.
But what about multiple writers?
Have you been on a project like this? What advice or feedback might you recommend?
If you're new here, be sure to signup for my newsletter and join 20,000 others. Thanks for visiting!
Receive email updates when new articles are posted.>> Related Articles on This Blog
March 28th, 2008 at 7:08 am
It does sound like a disaster waiting to happen. Maybe they’d have a chance if they have different segments of the WP done by different writers, with a lead writer to pull everything together and even out the tone. Still, it would be an uphill battle. Did the 4 writers have any sort of plan yet for doing this?
March 28th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Rick - Here is the scary part. They were all engineers. - Mike
March 28th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Then none of the 4 is a writer. Scratch my suggestion. Outsource the project to a writer to work with the 4 engineers. Or pass the scenario on to Scot Adams.
March 28th, 2008 at 7:43 am
I’d want to know what the approval process is. If there’s one person who’s clearly in charge, that would improve the odds of success.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Good morning,
I’ve had the experience more than once; with software engineers from several different companies, attorneys, industry analysts, and forensic specialists. I handled it by taking a different approach to the whitepaper.
First, I recognized that each of them had something of value to contribute to the whitepaper, and that it was important to document each of their “perspectives” (not opinions) on the project.
Second, I sent them an email explaining the theme, objective and purpose of the whitepaper, and attached three documents:
The first document was my standard audio recording release.
The second document was a form requesting their biographic information.
The third was a form requesting them to compose the five to ten questions they’d like to be asked about the project that would best express their knowledge of the project.
I also scheduled a recording date with them (via teleconference, so no one had to travel).
On the given date, I explained the nuances of making the recording, including what to do if they made a mistake or “misspoke.” By the time of the recording, I had organized the questions they provided in a logical progression, and added a couple of my own.
I edit the recording, and send it off to my service provider to have it transcribed.
While the recording is being transcribed, I compose an intro and an outro to the whitepaper. When the transcription returns, I perform a second edit, combine it with my intro and outro, and send it off for first draft review.
I’ve trademarked the approach: “Whitepapers and Case Studies – In Your Own Words™,” but that certainly doesn’t mean you can’t use it in your own work.
Hope this helps.
March 28th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I just had a conversation about editing-by-committee over at the Copywriting Maven — you’ve just cranked the nightmare up another notch!
I agree that the first thing they need to do is find a professional white paper writer.
If that is not an option, then they should designate one of their group to do the actual, physical writing. They can all brainstorm, decide on the outline, and then discuss edits together. But get them to decide who the best writer of the group is, and let him/her write the drafts.
I think it is hard enough to get four professional writers paddling together — four non-writers would just scoot around in circles unless they got very lucky.
But then if the goal is to get the project yourself, it might not be a bad idea to let them have at it for a while… (lol)
~Graham
March 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I agree that someone in the group should be designated as the point person or lead writer, but I don’t agree that it’s necessarily a disaster in the making. I know many engineers who, because of the skills they call on in their profession, make excellent writers. They’re logical, generally have a consistent flow to their work without gaps, and are happy to follow a writing formula. I would suggest that the team leader designate specific tasks to each - have one person draft background and/or historical perspective, one person handle interviews and/or fact gathering, and all of them collaborate on the benefits of the target product or service.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:25 am
This reminds me of some of the exercises we used to do back in school. Writing a poster or a story as a group never quite worked. I can’t imagine what writing a white paper would be like.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:13 am
Agree with Toddie Downs. If You can divide the tasks to each person, what part he should write - it would be much more full, interesting and informative whitepaper.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Toddie Downs and Digest are right…Determining a person as the leader and task dividing are the answer. But, at the early stage those writter should share and equalize their perspective.
April 5th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Yes, I also believe that Toddie and Digest are right. Particularly Toddie when he says that it must be a writing leader or conductor. I liked the suggestio of Shane, that says that this leadership must be born into the composing process.
This works, in fact I writed some white papers in group. It is stressfull and sometimes almost physically painful, due to the large amount of disagreement and abilities in this procedure.
But when a natural leadership is borne, and the process is launched, we can realize that a group paper writing is a magnificent way to achieve a more united workgroup.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:06 am
My very first experience with producing a white paper was in a written-by-committee situation. The bulk of the content was contributed by folks from marketing and engineering, and I was the lowly contractor borrowed from another project to stitch the pieces together and try to give it “one voice”. I did not have enough of either experience or authority to provide leadership to the project. The Director of Marcomm wrote the outline and assigned the sections to the various authors, and then I followed up on all the details to get it done.
I thought it came out pretty well, considering the circumstances. Years later, though, I can see a lot more flaws in the final result than I did at the time.
I’ll never forget this exchange from one of the many, many conference calls about the project:
Marketing Guy: “I want us to say that this technology will give a 10x performance improvement.”
Lead Engineering Gal: “Well , the main problem with that, is that that would be LYING.”
(I became her fan for life.)
April 11th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Janet - Sometimes marketing needs to wake up to reality, don’t they Janet? - Mike