A Master in the Making

It’s hard to believe just a week ago I didn’t know what a white paper was, and now I’m preparing to write one! These papers hold so much value within and have so many unique illustrations that make reading them a lot more interesting and valuable. The white paper I plan to write will focus on the Advertising industry and how we as a society have a lot more difficulty paying attention for long amounts of time. This in effect, has challenged those in the field to be innovative and adapt quickly to the constant technology advancements. As someone who is looking to work in the Advertising field, I think it will be really beneficial to further understand these challenges and look towards solutions.

Concerns and Questions

I have to admit one of my biggest concerns about writing this white paper is finding the right structure. I also want to make sure I don’t stress myself out too much while writing the paper since I know I don’t have too much time to write it. After reading further in Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, I know how stress can massively hurt our ability to focus and pay attention, so I’m going to have to really plan out my time well while completing this paper. After all, this is my first white paper and I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to organize myself.

I found working on the outline to be quite daunting and a little overwhelming. I guess I’m just not used to elaborating on this subject and I don’t know what the best approach will be. On top of learning how to write this paper, I think I’m learning a lot of other necessary skills for the future in the process. I know this will be a huge challenge for me and I’m going to have to push myself to write in a more formal tone. I will also be utilizing resources like Grammarly to help me get my wording to be accurate and concise, which I’m not always the strongest at doing on my own.

Helpful Guidance

I watched some brief videos on white papers which helped me to strategize and figure out tips on how to improve my writing. The video 3 Things To Do Before Writing Your First White Paper by Brian Boys, suggests looking at other white papers and analyzing what makes their writing so strong. I think it will be helpful for me to continue to research other white papers and look at how they organize their writing.

Brian Boys has a lot of other really helpful white paper videos on his YouTube page that go into detail on how to have success in writing, especially for beginners. In another video by Boys, What’s Your Best Source For White Paper Topics?, he talks about how important it is to research the topic in depth before starting to write the paper. That may seem like something that is obvious, but I think his point is that the more information we’re able to provide, the more interesting the paper will be. Overall I think this is going to be a great thing for me to learn how to do and I’m excited to see what the finished outcome will look like!