Informational Reports for Non-Expert Readers: A Basic Definition

What is the difference between an article, a white paper, and an informational report? Can the terms be used interchangeably? Can we envision them as sharing certain components?

Most of these terms we think of in conjunction with a specific field. Articles are usually associated with reporters, newspapers, magazines. White papers stem generally from government, technical, and business sources. Informational reports, on the other hand, spring from any number of fields, from education to technology to law to medicine, and more.

Whatever the form, though, articles, white papers, and reports share a common purpose.

In a brief introduction to the field, titled "What Is The Purpose of Journalism," Links to an external site. the American Press Institute writes that 

The purpose of journalism is thus to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.

A white paper Links to an external site. can be defined by one source as "an authoritative report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision."

In the popular textbook Technical Communication, Mike Markel and Stuart Selber define an informational report in this way:

Whether they are presented as memos, emails, reports, or web pages, informational reports share one goal: to describe something that has happened or is happening now. Their main purpose is to provide clear, accurate, specific information to an audience. Markel, Mike, and Stuart Selber. "Writing Informational Reports." Technical Communication. Twelfth Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2018. 449

All three genres share a single purpose: to inform an audience about a subject.