Project Information:
I want the research paper to report on mass incarceration betweeen marginalized groups. How minor drug crimes can result in major time. The narratives of white crime vs. black crime. How cocaine and crack are basically the same thing but crack is way more criminalized in black communities than cocaine is in white communities.
A “white paper” can mean many things, but for our project, we’re using the most basic definition of the genre, adapted from Wikipedia: “A white paper is an authoritative report that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and briefly presents the writer’s perspective on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue.” It can also be referred to as a research brief. These terms may be used interchangeably. Please note that ‘perspective’ is not meant to by synonymous with ‘opinion’.
More information on the underlined phrases will help you address each piece accurately:
Authoritative: This means that you’ve done a lot of research on this topic, problem, or question. When discussing this topic, you know what you’re talking about. You’ve done your homework, so you have enough situated ethos, or authority, to present the problem accurately and fairly to your readers.
Report: This is not an argument paper. This is not a paper arguing for or against something or proposing the best solution. It is a research report, or “research brief,” on the current state of the research on your topic, question, or problem. It reports on relevant research and the perspectives of relevant stakeholders.
Informs: The purpose of a white paper is to inform. Your purpose in writing this paper is to help your readers understand the topic, problem or question you’ve selected to focus on so that they themselves can consider solutions or make decisions about it.
Readers: The audience for your white paper is not everyone; it is the specific group of readers you identify as wanting to reach. It is a specific (narrow or relatively small) group of people who are stakeholders of the problem or another identifiable group that you think needs to be informed about this issue. You must compose and design your white paper with your specific audience in mind.
Concisely: Research briefs are short—for a reason. They assume that readers cannot and will not take a lot of time to read lengthy, technical, or overly detailed reports. You only have 5-6 pages to inform your readers of everything you know and discovered about this issue through your research.
Complex issue: The challenge of a white paper is to convey to your readers, in very few pages, the complexity of the issue, question or problem you’ve focused on. There are no easy answers or obvious solutions to your issue; if there were, it would already be figured out. Most issues are “wicked” problems, which means that they are so difficult and complex that they are nearly impossible to solve, or a “good” solution ends up creating more and different problems. Don’t oversimplify your issue for your readers. They can’t think about viable ways forward if they don’t appreciate its complexity. Please note that a complex issue does NOT mean you have to research a “problem”. You are welcome to research things that are not considered a problem – the point is that we write about them in a complex way and seek deep research about these things!
Writer’s perspective: Your own views on the issue are presented briefly in the discussion section of your white paper. As a professional, public-facing report, you will not convey your own ideas on the problem with “I think,” “I believe,” or “I argue” statements. Instead, you’ll state additional facts and findings from your research, along with informed opinions from experts, straightforwardly and authoritatively.
Assignment:
You will write a 1,750-to-2,100-word research brief on the topic, question or problem of your choosing related to truth, media, and news literacy issues we have been discussing in the course. Choose a specific and researchable topic for this paper that you are interested in. You will compile a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 10 resources and synthesize them as necessary within your paper to inform your decided audience. Since this is intended to be a professional and public document, follow these guidelines as you research, compose, revise, design and edit your report.
Audience
You need to identify, define, and know your readers. Be clear about who you want to reach with your white paper. The smaller, narrower, and more specific your audience, the better—the easier it will be to write for them. What do they already know, think and believe about this problem? What is their relationship to this issue? What would be helpful for them to know to decide on this question?
Format and design
Make your report look official and authoritative rather than like a school assignment. It needs an informative title, along with your name, the date it was created (finalized), and your institutional affiliation (the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee).
Don’t over-do design and or over-use word processing features, but you can use bolding, hyperlinks, bullet points, images/graphics, etc. very judiciously.
Sections and headings (your paper must have all five of these sections to be considered complete)
Introduction: one ~150-word paragraph describing and setting up the problem, issue or question for your readers.
Background: one ~150-word paragraph giving readers background information about the problem, issue or question.
Thematic/Topical sections with titles as headings: Organize your report of research thematically or by sub-topics. Each of these sections can be one to three paragraphs long. Each should clearly reference and accurately summarize the relevant research. Each section should have a title/heading.
Discussion: one ~150-word paragraph explaining to readers the key take-aways from the research. This is where your own informed views on the issue are conveyed to readers.