A white paper checklist serves two purposes: it prevents the common failures that produce weak white papers, and it creates a quality baseline you can apply consistently across every paper regardless of who wrote it. Use it as a gate at each production stage.
Pre-production checklist
- Core argument defined in one sentence — specific claim with a point of view, not a topic
- Target audience identified — role, industry, company size, specific situation
- Argument Lock completed — core claim, audience, word count, CTA, required claims, forbidden claims
- Evidence plan drafted — every major claim mapped to a specific, verifiable source
- Sources confirmed as credible and within the acceptable age window for your field
- Section structure defined with word count allocations (evidence section = minimum 30% of total)
- Draft order confirmed: Problem → Evidence → Solution → Takeaways → Background → Conclusion → Executive Summary
- Title candidate written and tested against the audience signal / specificity framework
During drafting checklist
- Problem statement establishes urgency — specific cost, cost of inaction, and what changed
- Evidence section meets 30%+ word count threshold
- Every claim in the evidence section is attributed to a real, named, dated source
- Claims without verified sources tagged [DATA NEEDED] — not left as unsourced assertions
- Solution section explains approach, not just features
- Each section opens with a stat, question, or claim — not “In this section...”
- Each section ends with a bridge to the next section
- Executive Summary drafted last — after all other sections exist
- Executive Summary contains: problem (1 sentence), why now (1 sentence), solution (2 sentences), 3 key findings, CTA
- CTA is specific and logically connected to the paper's argument
Post-draft quality checklist
- Structural review complete — argument holds from problem to solution with no logical gaps
- Evidence-claim alignment checked — each statistic actually supports the claim it accompanies
- Clarity pass done — jargon defined, sentences over 30 words broken up, hedging language removed
- Semantic repetition scan completed — no section paraphrases a point made in another section
- Beta reader review done — a person from the target audience has read and flagged credibility gaps
- All [DATA NEEDED] tags resolved — replaced with real evidence or claims removed
- References section complete and consistently formatted
- Title and subtitle tested against the target audience
Gate-ready checklist
- Landing page copy written — headline, one-sentence description, three bullet point preview of key findings
- Thank-you page includes download link and first follow-up email queued
- CRM tracking in place — form submissions flowing to CRM with paper title and source tags
- Follow-up email sequence drafted and scheduled
- Promotion plan confirmed — channels, schedule, budget
- Repurposing schedule set — blog post, social snippets, LinkedIn article
White Paper System's pipeline enforces this checklist automatically — gate conditions at each phase prevent advancement until quality criteria are met. Try it for $15