Long College Essays vs. White Papers

College students — don’t get upset when your professors require you to write a 7-20 page essay.

You may not understand the complete purpose of those long and highly detailed essays right now.

There’s a relationship between writing long essays in college and creating white papers for professional companies and C-Level executives.

White papers are 87% of the document content used by major corporations in making their purchasing decisions.

In 2015, white papers, webinars, and ebooks ranked as the top three most valued content types.

Take a look at the purpose of creating 7-20 page college essays and compare it to the purpose of writing white papers.

College Essays

1. A big or unifying idea.
2. A substantial promise or benefit supported by subordinate claims.
3. Ample proof of each claim.
4. Involves the use of statistics, illustrations, charts, and highly credible resources.
5. Not meant for casual reading.
6. Often 10 or more pages long.
7. Detailed reports on particular subjects.
8. Evidence that the product, product provider, and the person behind the document, article, sales letter, and advertisement are trustworthy and highly credible.
9. Offers value, can take months to write, is well organized, and expresses thought leadership.

White Papers

• Supported by in-depth research statistics, illustrations, charts, and highly credible references.
• Not meant for casual reading.
• Longer than blogs, often 10 pages long.
• Detailed reports on particular subjects.
• Ample proof of each claim.
• A substantial promise or benefit supported by subordinate claims.
• A big or unifying idea.
• Evidence of the best solution that solves an industry problem.
• Evidence that the product, product provider, and the person behind the document, article, sales letter, and advertisement are trustworthy and highly credible.
• Offers value, can take months to write, is well organized, and expresses thought leadership.

It’s non-productive and very unfair to overlook college students, graduates, and other professionals who have studied Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Criminal Justice, Human Services, English, Communications, Advanced Mathematics, etc.

College students who’ve written college essays and dissertations are well prepared to write quality white papers before they leave college.

Many freelance writers charge between $3,000-$10,000 to produce white papers via contract.

When planning white papers include the following:

1. The main objective for the document.
2. The target audience and their position in the buyer’s journey.
3. CTO= call-to-action.
4. Focused keywords/ SEO.
5. Several titles.
6. Client’s background via permission by the client.
7. Credible resources for further investigation.
8. Your writing tool Microsoft is highly suggested.
9. The designing tool implemented to produce the pages; Adobe InDesign is highly recommended.
10. A realistic time frame to complete the project.

The article you’ve just read falls under the category of a comparative essay in college, otherwise known as article marketing in the world of content creation.

Please feel free to share this article with college students and your professional colleagues.

Sources Cited:

Agrawal, H. (n.d.). How to Create a Watertight White Paper in 9 Steps. Retrieved from https://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/how-to-create-a-white-paper/