Preparing White Papers in the UWC

Author: M. A. Syverson

Adapted by: Lisa Avery, Sylvia Bartolic, Kim Hoffman, Lisa Leit, Kanaka Sathasivan

Date: 27 November 2006

White Paper Series Number: 061127-01

Keywords: writing, technical reports, white papers, UWC

Abstract: This white paper launches the UWC White Paper Series. It establishes a rationale, principles, and guidelines for structuring white papers and suggests how they might be distributed and archived for future use.

Rationale for White Papers in the UWC

TRADITIONALLY, research and development units in academic, business, non-profit, and government institutions have produced white papers to document their work both internally and for public audiences. This genre is more formal and more developed than a memo or newsletter item, less so than an article in a peer-reviewed journal. It serves a valuable role in the social distribution of information within and outside of organizations and it provides an institutional memory with historical value.

Although the Undergraduate Writing Center is well established, and although there is a great deal of thoughtful and creative work by instructors, students, and administrators in the center, much of the ongoing intellectual, pedagogical, and organizational activity remains invisible. White papers can help fill the need for an ongoing record of the intellectual activity in the center, and serve many other purposes as well. For instance, they can help us further develop the relationship between existing writing center theory and our practices, as well as provide professional development opportunities for our graduate and undergraduate consultants. In the process, they will help document how the resources of the center are being used, documenting the case for the support of the UWC and its work.

Theoretical Foundations

As a reflection of our mission, white papers can help our staff better support undergraduates with their writing process in a way that fosters independence and empowers students. They can also serve a valuable purpose in presenting some of the theories and methods we are investigating and using in the center, for training, consulting, professional development, community outreach and research. In this way we can develop a deeper connection between theory and practice (for example: what is the relationship between using laptops in consultations and the quality of the consultations? How do we maintain our commitment to non-directive consultations when we are confronted with ESL issues?) White papers will provide a medium for documenting and sharing this exploration of our practices within the UWC and beyond.

Advancing Research Agendas

The UWC offers a wide range of research opportunities. White papers can support our mission statement by providing the means to publish our practices and our work as an intermediate step between data gathering and final reporting. We envision them as a way to track the mechanisms, policies, procedures, and practices that inform the work we do at the UWC, and we hope they will raise the profile of that work both institutionally and across writing centers nationwide. They can also stand alone as way to initiate critical thought that can develop into more formal journal articles, books, conference talks. White papers can provide opportunities for early peer review and critique to strengthen ideas. Furthermore, sharing ideas publicly in this way can suggest possible research collaborations, both within the UWC community, and outside, in related fields, disciplines, institutions and in the community.

Professional Development

The process of planning, preparing, revising and formatting white papers can give graduate and undergraduate consultants (as well as staff and faculty) practice in professional communication. It will also provide an opportunity for consultants to earn publication credits. A white paper may serve as a seed or stepping stone to a conference presentation, journal article, paper, dissertation, or UWC research project. From a larger perspective, white papers can also help reveal the limitations or shortcomings in our thinking, as we review them with a critical eye and invite feedback from readers.

Community Building

The UWC is a vibrant ecosystem of staff, clients, networks, and social structures. Both consultants and clients can be unsettled and confused by the collaborative, yet non-directive, environment. Since the center is an unusual environment for mentoring, learning and research, white papers about this environment will be of interest not only within the university, but in other institutions and programs as well. They can also provide a crucial venue for communication, both within the center and beyond it. They may serve as a useful tool for working out issues that cause difficulties or challenge our administrative or pedagogical thinking. But most importantly, white papers can reflect and continue to develop a culture of intellectual activity and communication.

Principles

Some fundamental principles will establish the white paper series on a solid foundation:

• Everyone participates. This is to say that we will welcome contributions from anyone connected with the center, including faculty and administrators, graduate and undergraduate consultants, staff and clients.

• White papers should not pose an added burden of extra research—they are based on what we know or are working out. References to relevant research or other resources, while welcome, are not require.

• White papers tend to focus on a single topic.

• In the UWC, topics might include pedagogy, technology, research, administration, or various issues in literacy, ethics, or the intersections of 2 or more of these.

• White papers should be written in a conversational yet professional tone—not as formal as a journal article, but more formal than a newsletter article.

• If references are included, a bibliography should be provided only for sources cites.

• Because white papers reflect on both the writer and on the UWC, we expect that great care will be taken with the content and presentation.

• White papers will be read by a review board, primarily for appropriateness to the white paper series and should reflect our goals as laid out in our mission statement. Authors may be asked to clean up paper with serious flaws or problems. We hope that this forum will inspire exemplary thought and writing.

Formal Structure

The white papers in this series will likely cover a wide variety of topics and may be presented in diverse formats. However, a certain minimal structure should help readers quickly recognize that this is a serious piece of writing in a professional series. This structure provides a scaffold for the development of the piece. It should include:

The heading (see example above):

Undergraduate Writing Center
White Paper Series
Number in Series (date: yymmdd-pub order for that date, e.g., 061127-1)
Title
Author(s)
Date

Keywords: Identify topics that can ultimately make these papers more searchable

Abstract: Provide a brief overview that can be quickly scanned

Body: Makes liberal use of subheadings. Typical length ranges quite a bit, form 4-25 single-spaced pages. There should be minimal use of footnotes.
Bibliography: Include cited sources only. If there are some important uncited sources readers should know about, there should be an explanation in the body, then referenced in the Bibliography.

Distribution

White papers will be published on the web. Print-based documents will be made available on the web in PDF format. The URL for the online paper will appear in place of the “body” section. White papers will be archived at http://www.uwc.utexas.edu/whitepapers. We plan to implement the archive with a blog, which will

• Provide a robust environment for commentary and discussion

• Incorporate built-in publishing and archiving

• Note most recent additions

• Post a list of recent comments to build community

• Allow multimedia to be linked to articles.

Concluding Thoughts

We hope the series provides a helpful resource, both within the UWC community and in the university and larger communities, as we present, share and discuss our ideas. Over time, the white paper series will become a resource for institutional memory and historical research as well.