Having whitepapers and company studies edited

Reviewed by Benjamin Lohrer, editor at corrected.eu · Last updated: 28 July 2026

Separate factual substance from promotional intent

A whitepaper has a built-in conflict of aims: it should look scholarly and at the same time support an offer. Where the second intention becomes too obvious, the publication loses exactly the credibility it was created for. Expert readers spot this break reliably, and at a few typical places.

The break between survey and framing

Company studies are usually the joint responsibility of marketing and a specialist department. The specialist department supplies the data, marketing supplies the framing. Without coordination, you get a document in which a carefully worded survey collides with absolute statements.

Concretely, it looks like this: the methods section names 180 respondents from one industry, while the conclusion speaks of "companies in Germany". The survey shows a tendency, the press release a turning point. We mark every statement that goes beyond the data presented, without rewriting it.

What the methods section has to contain

A whitepaper that quotes figures needs a methods section, even a short one. Without it, the study is worthless to expert readers, regardless of the quality of the data.

We check for completeness: survey period, sample size, selection procedure, survey format and the base population to which percentages refer. The last point is the most common finding: a chart says "62 per cent", and it remains unclear whether this refers to all respondents or only to the subgroup that answered a filter question with yes.

Charts and sources

Every figure needs a number, a caption, a source and an introduction in the running text. We check whether the values mentioned in the text match the chart, and report deviations with their location.

For external sources we check the formal completeness of the reference, not the content of the claim. Strikingly often, the survey year is missing for cited studies, which makes a seven-year-old figure look like a current finding.

When several studies are set side by side, a second point comes in: the surveys must be comparable. Showing two percentages from different base populations in one chart is the most common way to create a false picture without a single false number. We flag such comparisons so that you can decide whether the presentation holds up.

English versions and translations

Many whitepapers appear in two languages. We edit the English version with native-speaker editors and, on request, check it against the German version: the same figures, the same qualifications, the same statements in the conclusion.

Qualifications in particular get lost in translation, because German often expresses them through modal particles and modal verbs that have no direct equivalent. A German "dürfte" (roughly "is likely to") then becomes a flat "will", and a supposition turns into an assertion. For a document that is meant to radiate credibility, this is the most expensive translation error there is.

Terms

Billing runs through a free business account: proofreading from €1.90, editing from €4.90 per standard page of 1,800 characters. From 100 standard pages per order, volume discounts apply automatically, billed by monthly collective invoice.

We do not check data collection and we do not recalculate analyses. Whether a methodology holds up is the responsibility of your specialist department.

Further reading: business terms at a glance and editing for agencies.