A white paper drawn from UN sustainable development goals
WHITE PAPER GUIDANCE
A White Paper is a report or statement regarding a specific subject that outlines related issues and proposes a path to solutions.
The term “white paper” comes from an old government practice of printing information on color-coded paper. White indicated that it was open and accessible to the public. The term is still used in government and business today. White papers generally outline the benefits of a particular methodology, discuss a specific technology and its benefits, or address the benefits of harnessing a technology in a certain sector.
DETAILS For the purposes of this class, your white paper should be around 2000 – 2500 words, plus notes and illustrations; please include notes or embed hyperlinks for [sources of] information that is not general knowledge.
Your sources may include materials from any publication that is on our readings lists: The Atlantic The Economist Harvard Business Review Harvard Magazine National Academies Press publications NY Times The New Yorker Science Magazine Technology Review (MIT) Wall Street Journal Government Reports (Quadrennial Tech Review, DoE, etc) Peer-Reviewed Journals (what are the “journals of record” for the topic you are exploring?) Conference Proceedings Topical Studies (Such as the Future of Work series, published by MIT, or Educate to Innovate and the Convergence study, published by the National Academies
The topic should be one of your choosing drawn from UN Sustainable Development Goals Links to an external site.. https://sdgs.un.org/goals The topics (also drawn from the UNSDG list) we’ll discuss in this class are:
Good Health & Well-Being
Education
Affordable & Clean Energy
Decent Work & Economic Growth
Life on Land & in Water
Responsible Consumption & Production
Climate Action
As with your opinion essay, you should bear in mind that in this class, you should demonstrate an “understanding of issues created by the complex interactions among science, technology, and society”. Therefore, your opinion essay should begin to manifest this understanding by your ability to “analyze, interpret, and employ aesthetic, ethical … and/or philosophical discourse” in relation to one of these topics.
Because these topics are quite broad, you should feel comfortable arguing a perspective regarding topics that can range from the decision between purchasing a new EV and continuing to drive your fossil-fuel vehicle, or challenges associated with privacy, security, and regulation of social media platforms, or competing interests in the context of land use.
CONSIDERATIONS White papers should:
target a specific audience
define a problem
present expert analysis (knowledge of the technology & its benefits to society)
make an argument that posits a solution
elucidate how the recommendations are solutions to problems outlined