I did not plan on pulling an all-nighter. It just happened. You know the drill: you tell yourself, “I’ll just look at Instagram for a few minutes before getting to work,” and six episodes of a show later, it’s 2:47 AM, your coffee is cold, and you are googling “case study examples for emotionally struggling business students.”
Anyway, for some reason, I turned that frantic night into a pretty massive case study, and now I sort of understand why professors assign so many. Okay, let’s now talk about what a case study actually is, how the structure of a case study works, and how to make sure that your case study does not sound like it was written by a dead-tired zombie.
What is a Case Study?
A Case Study is comparable to being a detective; however, instead of investigating a murder, you are investigating why a company’s marketing strategy failed or why a patient responded to a particular treatment, etc. You have a “case” (an individual, company, event, or condition) you are analyzing, you research the matter thoroughly, and then you fully analyze the case.
But it is not just telling a story. You are connecting things in the context, the hypothesis, your conclusion, etc. You are not just telling what happened; you are explaining why it happened and what can be learned from it.
It is like when you cut open a frog in biology class; it sounds gross, but once you go for it, it is pretty neat.
The Crash Course or Case Study
During my third cup of coffee and a tad bit of existential angst, I realized that the case study format is pretty much the same across the board. It's not so scary once you know what it looks like.
This is what worked for me:
● Overview – Building the context. Who or what are you studying? Why does it matter?
● Background – Setting the stage. Provide enough information to contextualize your assignment for your readers.
● Problem Statement – The issue you are actually addressing. I mean, be honest here, it’s the messy relative of your dissertation.
● Study/Conversation – Your meaty analysis. Use theory, frameworks, models, and what makes sense.
● Findings – What did you find? What were the themes or findings?
● Conclusion/ Recommendations – Synthesis of major points. Ideas and possible resolutions.
Simply: tell the story, study the story, improve the story.
The Actual Help You Need
After feeling in total disarray, I spent an hour exploring a few case study examples online. Most of the case studies were written by MBA students, who, I am sure, had their lives in order, which may not have everything to do with the quality of work they generated. But even at those times, it gave me a sense of how I should structure my work.
Some websites offer example case study reports that point to formatting for all elements, titles, text, citations, etc. Good examples simplify concepts by showing how data, analysis, and evidence come together in stories. It's similar to racking your own brain and looking at someone else's jigsaw. When you're finished, it doesn't give you the answer but leads you.
A best practice is not only to look at examples. Review them. Ask yourself,
- What is the central claim?
- How did they transition from context to analysis?
- How do they write, formal, informal, or academic?
You notice there are similarities, and once you notice that, your writing will similarly be clearer.
I wish I had Known This Earlier.
I'll try to help prevent you from making my mistakes:
● Start writing about something you care about. There's no point writing about a business you don't know anything about because you will bore yourself. Choose something with some degree of amazement.
● Be a person. While you're writing in an academic voice, your audience is still human. Don't drown your audience in the clinician's language.
● Visuals are underrepresented. Whatever you can do with a chart or diagram or a timeline, anything that might help with the wall of text is useful.
● Your conclusion may not be a conclusion. This is not a summation; this is your main point, your time to shine.
● Revise after a little sleep. There is little chance and/or skill in proofreading while sleepy, so make sure you do it one more time with a fresh mind.
If You Only Think and do not act, You Will Have no Peace.
If you’ve ever stared at the screen not knowing how to start a sample case study report, you’re not alone. We’ve all been there, tired, in thought, needing some rest. But once you start putting it together, there’s something satisfying about taking a messy situation and analyzing it neatly.
The next time your professor says, “Write a Case Study,” just remember, do not panic. Get a coffee, get some case study examples, and remember that even the worst all-nighters usually lead to at least one good lesson.
Just do not try it at 3 a.m. like I did. Unless chaos was the mode of your creation. In that case, sit comfortably in it, or well, you will always have the option of assignment help.