A white paper is a long, evidence-based report that argues for one way to solve a problem a specific reader has. A good way to learn the form is to read real ones, so this page starts with four published papers that are free to read in full, from Satoshi Nakamoto's nine-page Bitcoin paper (2008) to a 2023 UK government policy paper. Examples 5 to 10 are different: excerpts and outlines written for this page, one for each common type, with invented companies and figures. Each comes with notes on what to copy and the decision it helps its reader make.
For planning, research and structure, see how to write a white paper. For a blank structure to fill in, start from the white paper template.
| Example | Type | Written for | The decision it supports |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example1. Bitcoin (2008) | TypeTechnical proposal | Written forCryptographers and developers | The decision it supportsWhether the design can work |
| Example2. Ethereum (2014) | TypeTechnical and vision paper | Written forDevelopers and early backers | The decision it supportsWhether to build on or back the platform |
| Example3. NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 (2024) | TypeGovernment framework | Written forOrganizations of any size | The decision it supportsWhich security outcomes to aim for and track |
| Example4. UK AI regulation white paper (2023) | TypeGovernment policy paper | Written forRegulators, industry, the public | The decision it supportsHow to respond to proposed regulation |
| Example5. Cold-chain losses at the dock | TypeProblem/solution | Written forOperations heads at food distributors | The decision it supportsWhether the problem is real and needs a new approach |
| Example6. A flood sensor network | TypeBackgrounder | Written forCity stormwater engineers | The decision it supportsWhether one product fits an approach already chosen |
| Example7. Moving a law firm's files | TypeNumbered list | Written forManaging partners | The decision it supportsWhat to ask vendors before choosing one |
| Example8. Freelance editors' rates | TypeResearch report | Written forEditors, authors, publishers | The decision it supportsWhat to charge or budget |
| Example9. Broadband at rural libraries | TypePolicy paper | Written forState legislators, library boards | The decision it supportsWhat to fund, and who acts |
| Example10. Offline field inspections | TypeTechnical design paper | Written forEngineering leads | The decision it supportsWhether to adopt the design |
Real white papers worth studying
These four are easy to find on their publishers' own sites, and each shows one technique worth copying. Read the first page and the headings of each before the notes.
1. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
Satoshi Nakamoto posted it to the cryptography mailing list at metzdowd.com on October 31, 2008, and bitcoin.org still hosts the PDF. It runs nine pages: a short abstract, twelve numbered sections from Introduction to Conclusion, and eight references. The abstract's first words state the goal: “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments…” The sections then build the system one piece at a time: transactions, a timestamp server, proof-of-work, the network, incentives, privacy, and a section of calculations on the odds of an attacker succeeding.
What to borrow. The problem comes in section 1, the proposal right after it, and the obvious objections are answered before a reader can raise them. There is no product, no company and no call to action. The argument is the whole product, and nine pages were enough to make it.
2. The Ethereum white paper
Vitalik Buterin's paper, headed “A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform,” was published in 2014, before Ethereum launched. It opens with a long section on Bitcoin and existing concepts, then describes Ethereum's accounts, messages and state transition function, then lists applications (token systems, financial derivatives, identity and reputation systems, decentralized file storage, decentralized autonomous organizations). A section called “Miscellanea And Concerns” takes on fees, scalability and mining centralization.
ethereum.org still publishes it, with a “Before you read” note saying the paper no longer reflects what Ethereum is today and listing what has changed, including the move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake in 2022.
What to borrow. Background first, for readers who don't know the predecessor. A section that names the weak points instead of leaving them to critics. And, years later, a note on top that says what has changed, instead of a silent rewrite, which keeps the original trustworthy as a record.
3. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0
The National Institute of Standards and Technology published version 2.0 on February 26, 2024, as CSWP 29 in its Cybersecurity White Paper series. It runs to about 30 pages with its appendices, in five sections, and its abstract says plainly what it is not: “The CSF does not prescribe how outcomes should be achieved.” Its Core, which NIST describes as “a set of cybersecurity outcomes arranged by Function,” has six Functions, each defined in one sentence. As a work of the US federal government, the text is in the public domain.
- GOVERN: The organization's cybersecurity risk management strategy, expectations, and policy are established, communicated, and monitored.
- IDENTIFY: The organization's current cybersecurity risks are understood.
- PROTECT: Safeguards to manage the organization's cybersecurity risks are used.
- DETECT: Possible cybersecurity attacks and compromises are found and analyzed.
- RESPOND: Actions regarding a detected cybersecurity incident are taken.
- RECOVER: Assets and operations affected by a cybersecurity incident are restored.
What to borrow. The order of the argument. The paper states its scope first (outcomes, not methods), names a small set of parts, defines each in one sentence, and then builds the rest of the document on those parts. The definitions carry the argument too: each describes a state the organization reaches (“risks are understood”), not a task to perform, which is the outcomes-not-methods claim in miniature. Because every definition has the same grammatical shape, a reader can hold the whole framework in mind after one pass. If your paper introduces a model or a method, state its scope, name its parts and define each this way before you explain any of them.
4. A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation
The UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published this white paper on 29 March 2023 as Command Paper 815. It has a ministerial foreword, an executive summary, seven parts and three annexes, the last of which explains how to respond to the consultation that came with it (it closed on 21 June 2023). At its center are five principles for regulators: safety, security and robustness; appropriate transparency and explainability; fairness; accountability and governance; and contestability and redress.
What to borrow. This is the term's original home: a government white paper sets out policy, and this one also asks for views, with numbered consultation questions inside the text. Short, named principles give every later section something to refer back to. A commercial paper can do the same with its three or five key recommendations.
Sample business white papers
Gordon Graham, author of White Papers For Dummies (2013), sorts commercial white papers into three types, and the guide to writing one explains each. Here is a sample of each type. The companies, products and figures are invented.
5. Problem/solution: losses at the loading dock
The loading dock problem: where cold-chain losses start, and how distributors can stop them
For operations directors at regional food distributors running 20 to 200 refrigerated trucks
Executive summary. Temperature failures in the cold chain are usually blamed on trucks. In the dock logs reviewed for this paper, more of them began before the truck left: pallets staged on an open dock while a load was finished. This paper explains why dock time is rarely measured, why the three usual fixes fall short, and how a dock-first approach works: staging lanes inside the cold room, a 20-minute limit on open-dock time, and alarms tied to door sensors. Section 4 describes a 90-day pilot at one distribution center.
- The 40 minutes nobody measures
- Why better trucks don't fix it
- Dock-first: three changes
- A 90-day pilot at one distribution center
- Questions to ask any refrigeration vendor
- Next step: a one-week dock audit
Why it works. The title names the problem in the reader's words, and the summary states the position by its second sentence. The headings alone tell the argument. The vendor's own product, if any, waits until the reader accepts that dock time is the problem, which is the order this type depends on.
6. Backgrounder: how a sensor network works
How the Sluicewise network measures street flooding: a technical backgrounder for city engineers
Each sensor is a sealed ultrasonic unit mounted under a storm drain grate. Every five minutes it measures the distance to the water surface and sends the reading over a low-power radio network to a gateway on a nearby streetlight. When water rises faster than a threshold the city sets, the sensor switches to one reading a minute until the level falls.
- Range: 0.1 to 4 meters below the grate
- Battery: about five years at the standard reading rate
- Data: readings exported as CSV or through an open API
- Maintenance: a lens check twice a year, from street level
What this paper doesn't cover: pricing, which depends on the number of sites, and flow rates, which the sensors don't measure.
Why it works. A backgrounder is for a reader who has settled on an approach and is now checking one product, so it is specific about how the thing works and honest about what it doesn't do. The “doesn't cover” line heads off the question an engineer would otherwise raise in the first meeting.
7. Numbered list: before you move to the cloud
7 questions to ask before you move your firm's files to the cloud
For managing partners and office managers at firms with 5 to 50 lawyers
1. Who holds the encryption keys? If the provider can read your files, so can anyone who can compel the provider. Ask whether you can hold your own keys, and what happens to access if you lose them.
4. How fast can you get everything back? Not one file: everything. Ask for the export format, then ask for a test export of a closed matter before you sign. A provider that hesitates has answered the question.
Why it works. The numbered list is the easiest type to read and to forward, which suits a buyer in the middle of their research. Each question is phrased the way the reader would ask it, and each answer ends in a test the reader can run. The paper stays vendor-neutral until its last page, which makes the list more credible.
Research, policy and technical samples
Outside marketing, white papers carry original research, recommend policy, or explain an engineering design. The shapes differ, but the rule is the same: the evidence has to be on the page.
8. Research report: what freelance editors charge
What freelance editors charge in 2026: a survey of 1,214 editors in 14 countries
Method. An online survey, open March 2 to April 15, 2026, shared through three professional associations' newsletters and on social media. Rates are self-reported and the sample is not random, so the figures describe the editors who answered, not every editor.
- Median developmental editing rate: 3.5 cents a word.
- Median copyediting rate: 2.2 cents a word, almost unchanged from 2024.
- Editors who send each client a project style sheet reported more repeat clients (61% vs. 44%).
Why it works. Original data is the white paper other people cite, so the method comes first and its limits are stated in plain words. Each finding is a single sentence a reader can quote without checking three charts.
9. Policy paper: broadband at rural libraries
Closing the last mile: a plan to fund broadband at rural libraries
For state legislators, the State Library and county library boards
- Fund outdoor Wi-Fi at 112 rural libraries. $2.1 million, one-time, through the State Library's capital grants. Signals reach parking lots after hours, where most use already happens.
- Pay for one digital navigator per county. $3.4 million a year for 46 part-time posts, through county library boards.
- Collect the same usage data everywhere. No new money: the State Library adds four measures to its annual survey, so the next paper can show what the first two cost and did.
Why it works. Policy readers want to know what to do, who does it and what it costs, and each recommendation names all three. The rest of the paper exists to support these three items, and a legislator's aide can lift them straight into a briefing. The research behind a paper like this is often a case study; see the case study examples for one on a rural library.
10. Technical design paper: offline field inspections
Offline-first field inspections: keeping data intact on unreliable networks
Inspection apps fail where inspectors work: basements, tunnels and rural sites with no signal. This paper describes a design in which every inspection is written to the device first, as an append-only log, and reconciled with the server when a connection returns. It covers the data model, the rules for resolving two inspectors' changes to the same record, and the costs of the design: more local storage, and a small share of conflicts that need a person to decide. In a six-month deployment across 300 inspectors, no completed inspection was lost, and 0.4% of uploads needed manual review.
Why it works. A technical white paper earns trust the way a research paper does: problem, design, trade-offs, results. The abstract names its costs as plainly as its benefits and says what was measured. It reads as engineering, not marketing. If your paper explains software, the habits in technical writing apply line by line.
What to borrow from each
| Example | Borrow this | Where it goes in your paper |
|---|---|---|
| ExampleBitcoin | Borrow thisAnswer the obvious objections before the reader raises them | Where it goes in your paperThe approach |
| ExampleEthereum | Borrow thisA note on top, once the paper ages, saying what has changed | Where it goes in your paperThe first page |
| ExampleNIST CSF 2.0 | Borrow thisOne sentence per core idea, all in the same shape | Where it goes in your paperWhere you introduce your model |
| ExampleUK AI paper | Borrow thisShort, named principles the rest of the paper can refer to | Where it goes in your paperExecutive summary |
| ExampleProblem/solution | Borrow thisHeadings that state the argument | Where it goes in your paperContents |
| ExampleBackgrounder | Borrow thisA line on what the paper doesn't cover | Where it goes in your paperIntroduction |
| ExampleNumbered list | Borrow thisEach point ends in a test the reader can run | Where it goes in your paperBody |
| ExampleResearch report | Borrow thisMethod and limits before findings | Where it goes in your paperEvidence |
| ExamplePolicy paper | Borrow thisEach recommendation names the action, the owner and the cost | Where it goes in your paperConclusion |
| ExampleTechnical paper | Borrow thisCosts stated as plainly as benefits | Where it goes in your paperAbstract and discussion |
All ten persuade mainly through logos, evidence and reasoning. The problem/solution sample adds three habits worth copying: a summary that states the position early, headings that make claims, and one next step at the end. Date the first page too, as NIST and the UK government do. The executive summary may be the only page a busy reader finishes, so it is worth drafting on its own with the executive summary template.
Before a draft goes out, check every claim against its source. If you write in Strokes, attach your sources in the Strokes Assistant panel and ask it to review a section; it tells you which claims are unsupported and where the summary promises something the body doesn't deliver.
Where to find more white papers
- NIST's Cybersecurity White Paper series. Free, in the public domain, and a model of plain definitions. CSF 2.0 is CSWP 29.
- GOV.UK. Search the government's publications pages for “white paper.” The AI regulation paper above is filed there as a policy paper.
- AWS Whitepapers & Guides. Amazon's library of technical whitepapers, decision guides and reference material, good for seeing how a vendor writes for engineers.
- Trade associations and standards bodies in your own field, which often publish the papers your readers already cite.
Frequently asked questions
What does a white paper look like?
Usually a portrait PDF with a title page that names the problem and the reader, an executive summary, numbered sections with headings that make claims, charts or tables with captions, a conclusion with one next step, and a list of sources. Technical and government papers often add an abstract, appendices or consultation questions.
How long is a white paper?
It varies with the job. The Bitcoin paper is nine pages, and NIST's CSF 2.0 is about 30 including appendices. Commercial white papers often land in between, and government policy papers can run much longer. Write as long as the evidence requires, and keep the executive summary to a page so busy readers get the argument.
What is the difference between a white paper and a research paper?
A research paper reports findings and leaves the decision to the reader. A white paper uses evidence to argue for a decision: a policy, an approach or a product. Research white papers sit between the two, presenting original data with a method section and then saying what the findings mean for the reader.
Are white papers only for tech companies?
No. Governments publish them to set out policy, standards bodies use them for frameworks, nonprofits and think tanks use them to recommend change, and companies in every industry, from food distribution to law, use them to argue for an approach before a buyer talks to sales.
