© Karen L. Thompson, University of Idaho

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Writing

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Social or Political Focus

• The term white paper was originally used to describe a report that states the social or political position of an organization.

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IT Marketing Focus

• Sometimes a white paper is a marketing document aimed at selling a certain technology or products.

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Technical White Papers

• At other times, a white paper presents the results scientific research or findings from a usability test of a product(s).

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Writing Your White Paper

• Title Page• Introduction • Methods• Results/Discussion• Recommendations

IMRAD structure

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Title Page: Poor Design Choices

Notice how color choices and design elements convey meaning.

Clearly, these are not the best rhetorical design choices.

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Title Page: Improved Design Choices

Notice how color choices and design elements convey meaning.

These rhetorical design choices match the purpose of the white paper.

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Word: Title Page Tip

• If you change the background color of the title page (or any page) in Word, that background color will be in all pages.

• To avoid that problem, use a text box, and stretch it the width and length of your cover page.

• NOTE: there are other solutions to that problem.

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How Introductions to Usability White Papers Function

• Rhetorically, the introduction creates a permanent record of what was tested, why, who did the test, and for whom.

– It’s important to be specific in defining/describing the products you tested and typical users of these products.

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Rhetorical Moves for Writing the Introduction.

Option 1: Start the introduction with a purpose statement.

Example:This white paper describes the findings from a usability test of two free blogging tools: Tumblr and Blogger.

Example:This white paper evaluates how Gimp, a free cloud computing tool, compares to its pricey counterpart: Adobe Photoshop.

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Rhetorical Moves for Writing the Introduction

Option 2: Start the introduction with sentence definition/description then move to purpose statement.

Example:Weebly and WordPress are [write a concise definition/description of these two tools]. This white paper describes the findings from a usability test of these two products.

Another Example:Image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop often have steep learning curves, deterring most novices from trying them. This white paper describes the findings from a comparison of two image editing products aimed at novice users: [name the two products].

• Make a decision about which rhetorical move to make in your introduction based on audience analysis. What do they know? What do they need to know?

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Introduction: other content to include.

• Description of the users you identified when designing the test. If the user description is complex, then you might consider moving the level of detail to the methods section, and just briefly describe users in the introduction.

• Add who did the testing and why. If you include this project in your portfolio, you will want to make it clear that the usability test was done as part of course work in technical writing.

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Methodology Section

• Tasks. Describe the specific tasks you did when using each product. Consider using a list here.

• Test Environment. State when you did the test, where, and anything else that helps a reader understand the testing methods you used such as type of computer (laptop, desktop, PC or Mac etc.?).

• Evaluative Criteria/Rating Scale. State the criteria and Likert Scale used to evaluate usability. You may do this by abbreviating the criteria statements from the data collection form or writing the full statements. Your decision on whether to abbreviate or not depends on how you plan to organize the findings (see slides 16 and 17 in this lecture).

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Results: (digest the data) for Readers

• What this means:– In one study comparing successful and unsuccessful engineering

reports, engineers and managers frequently referred to "digested" vs. "undigested" data.

– Effective engineering communicators were those who "digested” their findings and explained what the data means.

– These engineers not only reported technical information but helped their readers understand the significance of the data.

• You will want to do the same with your raw data.

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Results• Analyze the raw data from your data collection form. Decide the

most significant aspects of the test findings. Turn the notes you took into clear, concise technical descriptions of what happened when you did the task and how you evaluated usability (i.e. criteria and Likert Scale scores).

• Decide on a logical structure for the results section that helps you organize the significance of the findings for readers (see slides 17 and 18 for two options). There are other ways to organize the data other than these two options.

• Incorporate visuals to help reader follow the test findings:– screen shots and/or graphics to represent some of the test findings such as

significant aspects of the Likert Scale rankings.

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Ways to Organize Test Results

The following slides explain two ways to organize test results.

NOTE: There are many ways to organize test results based on what makes sense for your usability test data.

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Here is one way to organize the results. Abbreviate criteria in the methodology section. Use complete criteria statement with Likert Scale in the results section.• Task 1: Create a web site and assign a theme.

[List each task and describe what happened when you did the task. Include screenshots as needed. End your description with the criteria statement and Likert Scale with score.]

[Insert criteria statement used to evaluate usability.]

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At the end of your results section, compare scores earned per criteria statement for each product. You could graphically represent the scoring data in a table or bar chart.

List each criteria statement you applied with the corresponding score. See usability testing lecture for information on criteria statements and Likert Scales.

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Here is another way to organize the results. Write complete criteria statements in the methodology section. Abbreviate criteria in the results section with scores.• Task 1: Create a web site and assign a theme.

[List each task and describe what happened when you did the task, include screenshots as needed, but without the actual Likert Scale. Do this by abbreviating the criteria and include the corresponding score for each abbreviated criteria statement.

For example, if one of your criteria statements in the methodology is aimed at evaluating the time it took to do the task, you can make the connection between criteria and score clear by abbreviating the statement using just the word “time.” Make certain your criteria abbreviations correspond to the criteria statements and in the same order listed in the methodology section. ]

At the end of your results section, compare scores earned per criteria statement for each product. You could graphically represent the scoring data in a table or bar chart.

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Recommendations

• Make recommendations to potential users of the product. Consider if it is useful to explain which product might be best for a novice vs. a product for a more experienced user.

• NOTE: if both are about equal, then say that.