Now that you've gotten quite a bit of research done -- enough to complete your annotated bibliographies -- it's time to use those annotated bibliographies to sort through which sources will be most useful for you in writing the first draft of the white paper.  This is a pretty good time to revisit the issue of target audiences, as covered in the assigned reading for last Monday.   Remember...how you shape information for readers is as important as the information itself.

We can look at target audiences in terms of what kinds of presentations appeal to them and/or influence them. Here are some categories into which we can place our target audiences:

• Audiences who respond to appeals to authority
• Audiences who respond to statistics and other "solid" details
• Audiences who respond to relevance-establishment
• Audiences who respond to appeals to usability
• Audiences who respond to "the latest information" or "cutting-edge" approaches
• Audiences who respond to "professional appearance"

Audiences who respond to appeals to authority like to see sources that are generally recognized as "authorities" in their fields, as well as highly-recognizable "names." Some examples here are federal-level government agencies, multi-national corporations, colleges and universities with "world-class" and national standing, and well-known trusts and think-tanks. These companies and organizations have high levels of name recognition and/or several years of proven quality/output.

Audiences who respond to statistics and other "solid" details like to see sources that present surveys, measurements, case studies, observations, and interviews. Because some of the information that comes from these types of sources can be fairly dense, presentation of this information often comes in the form of graphics, sidebars, and appendices. Keep in mind, though, that just because these audiences like details doesn't mean that you should bombard them with information that doesn't directly relate to the position that you're arguing. Keep your white paper -- and your audiences -- focused!

Audiences who respond to "relevance-establishment" will want to know how your points relate to them, their backgrounds/expertise, and their daily routines. Be sure to offer details related to how your position pertains to them, and specific suggestions for implementing your suggestions in ways that benefit these audiences. Also, these audiences often won't have time to read your entire white paper, instead preferring to focus on one or two sections and/or reading sections in an order different from the order in which you present them.

Audiences who respond to appeals to usability, like those who respond to "relevance-establishment," won't have much time to read your white paper and likely won't read your white paper from front to back. Tables of contents, as well as pull quotes to highlight key points, will meet your audiences' needs while ensuring that they read what you want them to read. Descriptive headings and subheadings meet this group's needs, since they preview sections in a way that helps audiences determine whether to read the entire section, skim it, or skip it.

Audiences who would like to see the most up-to-date information, or who best respond to the idea that the information they're receiving is on the "cutting-edge," will welcome information from sources such as blogs, discussion lists, and podcasts. These sources distribute information much more quickly than do books and articles. These sources also present information that might not make it into more "mainstream" publications at all, and are valuable for gaining perspectives that you might not have gained otherwise. If your white paper focuses largely on technology, a field in which three-month-old information might be considered "outdated," these are the sources for you.

Audiences who respond to "professional appearance" like to see features such as well-designed title pages, company logos, a variety of high-quality graphics, and attractive headers and footers. This approach is especially useful for business- and/or government-oriented white papers, and is also useful for science-based white papers that carry a lot of statistics-oriented information that needs "clean" and clear presentation of complex details.

So...with all these issues in mind, how do your sources stack up at this point in the process?  You've got a pretty good collection of sources, as shown by your annotated bibliographies.  But don't stop research now!  If you recognize one or more of the above descriptions within your own target audiences, and you don't have source-based material to account for them...keep researching, and fill in those gaps!