How to Write a Case Study

how to write a case study

Writing a case study at college can be challenging because it requires a lot of research and strong analytical thinking skills. When you are assigned to write a case study, you will need to investigate a real-life problem, examine alternative solutions, recommend the most effective solution, and support it by evidence. As you see, this process is rather arduous and time-consuming, so students typically face difficulties when working on such projects, and many of them even try to find the professional assistance at Customwritings.com to complete their papers.

If you are looking for ways to organize your work on a case study more effectively, read this quick how-to writing guide to learn about essential steps you should follow when writing a case study analysis.

Steps in Writing a Case Study

Actually, there are 2 approaches to case study writing:

  • The analytical approach requires that you should examine a case and try to understand what happened and why. You don’t need to identify problems or recommend a specific solution.
  • The problem-oriented method involves conducting analysis in order to identify existing problems and suggest solutions to them. This approach is more common in college, so we focus on it.

When writing a case study in any class, you will be required to include the following elements into your paper:

  • An explanation of the situation or the problem
  • A description of the possible solution and recommendations on how implement it
  • A brief summary of your findings and their analysis

Let’s discuss the basics steps in writing a case study.

Do Research

This type of academic paper is analytical in nature and requires in-depth research, which means doing a lot of work before you actually start writing. You need to have a good understanding of different aspects to tell a compelling story of your case from the beginning to the end.

So you should gather relevant information about the subject of your case study, underline several key problems, and try to determine why they exist. Think about several possible solutions to a major problem and choose the most appropriate ideas that should be implemented. Think about the advantages and disadvantages of the possible solution and find supporting evidence to prove that this solution is realistic.

Create an Outline

When you finish your basic cases study analysis, you should create an outline for your case study paper. The typical structure of the case study includes the following parts:

Introduction where you should identify the key problems, formulate the thesis statement, and summarize the key findings in 2-3 sentences.

  • Background – provide the context with relevant facts and describe the most important issues.
  • Alternatives – outline possible solutions and discuss their pros and cons.
  • Solution – explain the advantages of the proposed solution and support your choice with facts, relevant theoretical concepts, and the results of your research.
  • Recommendations – suggest specific strategies that can be used to implement your solution and briefly outline the implementation plan.

Draft the Case

Now you can start writing the first draft of your case study. Start your case study by summarizing the situation and provide an explanation of why it is important. Provide all the necessary information to help your readers understand why the situation required a solution.

You can present statistics and compare the specific situation to other similar situations. The good idea is to provide historical context.

Speak about the major problem, analyze their causes, and suggest alternative solutions. Sum up your findings and explain which of the alternative solutions should be adopted. Explain the reasons why you rejected the alternative solutions.

It’s important to be persuasive when justifying your choice so it would be appropriate to integrate some theory in your explanation.

Finally, you need to present an implementation plan and describe the key strategies that can help solve the major problem.

Revise and Edit

When you finish writing the first draft, you should read it through to determine if there are any gaps or inconsistencies in the structure or content. Make sure that your thesis statement is clear and highly specific and that you provide solid evidence to support it. Edit your case study by improving word choice and sentences structure, eliminate grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes if there are any, and proofread your case study to fix typos and minor errors. Check your citations to make sure that you cite all source material that you use in your paper – other case studies, books, articles. Create a bibliography page.

Make sure your case study is clear, accurate, and professional. Remember: you should be analytical, not descriptive. Don’t try to save your time on editing, proofreading, and formatting because they are important stages of the writing process that will have a great impact on the quality of your paper

 

Follow these steps when writing your case study, and you will easily cope with your task.

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