Presentation for advanced composition course.

1. Defining Problems
for White Papers

2. Albert Einstein said, “If I had
an hour to save the world, I
would spend 55 minutes
defining the problem.”

3. Well,
maybe
he said
that.

4. In any case, defining the problem is
undoubtedly important – what’s the point of
coming up with a solution if it’s a solution to the
wrong problem?

5. Questions that will help you
define the problem for your white
paper:
1. What stakeholders (groups of
professionals who have something to
gain or lose) are invested in your
topic?
2. What needs do each of these
stakeholders have?

6. Let’s say your topic is
dairy farming in Idaho.

7. 1. What stakeholders (groups of
professionals) are invested in this topic?

8. 2. What needs do each of these
stakeholders have?
Example: Local Cheese Producers
They need to have a regular, quality supply of
milk from dairy farms at a predictable,
affordable price.

9. PROBLEMS arise when the
stakeholders’ needs are somehow not
being met.
In relation to dairy farming and cheese
makers, for example, perhaps the farmers’
supply to the cheese makers is irregular.
You can use the white paper to define why
this might be happening, what the effects
are, and what some possible solutions
might be.

10. Other Types of Stakeholder Problems:
• They’re not in an ideal situation because they lack
something.
• They have specific challenges related to this thing: people
problems, process problems, quality problems, “absent”
problems (issues that occur when something is missing).
• If they understood this thing better, they’d be able to do
(something) better.
• They’re stressed out by a problem and need a way to
understand or solve it.
• They confuse this thing for another thing (and that creates
problems for them).
• They have overlooked important information.
• They are misinformed about this thing (that’s
important/significant to them) because it typically gets
wrongly portrayed.

11. Once you determine the problem that you
want to help a specific group of
stakeholders solve, you’ll have a clearer
understanding of your white paper’s
objective.

12. But that’s just the beginning!
Your white paper needs to convince your
readers that they have a problem by
providing EVIDENCE that the problem exists,
and that it’s a problem for them specifically.

13. Your evidence will come from doing
research to demonstrate the scope and
consequences of the problem, using
sources that your audience would
accept.