Are you a student of a college of sociology, history, or medicine? Throughout your studies, you will have to deal with the case study. What does this academic assignment mean? A case study is a scientific paper where you need to discuss significant problems concerning your activity and find solutions. At the same time, case studies are actively used in advertising, media, and business.
Therefore, creating the correct structure of this paper will be helpful to you both in life and learning. And it is very important to be a proficient case study writer. To make things easier for you, we’ve put together five steps to help you create a well-thought-out case study and surprise your reader with clear writing.
Step 1: Write an Introduction
Case studies are very similar to writing essays in that they begin with an introduction that will serve as a roadmap for the reader to reveal the scope and purpose of your article. However, in addition to describing the research problem, you should tell the reader why you chose this particular question, how it relates to the solution, and how it will benefit society. In order not to get confused when creating an introduction, use the auxiliary questions:
- What is being investigated? Write about a research problem or case for which you want to find solutions. You can also add information about what materials you need to understand the issue.
- Why is this worth problem attention? Write down how meaningful the issue is to you and the other people. Explain why you need to find a solution to this problem.
- What did the world know about the problem before you did your research? This paragraph attracts the reader’s attention most of all because they want to understand if you could find new facts about the problem. For example, more than 9 in 10 of the world’s population (92%) live in areas where air pollution exceeds safe limits, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) research. Previously, this fact was unknown to people – in the same way, you must create an announcement of some scientific discovery that you have found, thereby forcing a person to read the article to the end.
- Could your article take the issue a few steps further?Tell the reader why your article is the starting point for search other facts about the problem.
Each of these questions implies an answer to several sentences. Please don’t make the introduction too long, as it can tire the reader. An exception is a topic that is too deep and requires careful analysis.
Step 2: Write a Literature Review
Let’s return once more to the usual essay paper. When writing this paper, you probably used the method of describing the books that you were inspired by when creating your essay. You can use the same principle when writing a study case. However, if you want to surprise the professor with more in-depth knowledge, we recommend you add here an analysis of these books – how they helped you solve problems. Here are some additional tips when creating a literature review:
- When describing similar studies, explain why they are essential. You will have to analyze many sources and embed them in the text by creating a scientific paper. However, people are not fond of reading the same facts – you need to prove that duplication of past research makes a big difference.For example, you can indicate that experiments in another study were conducted long ago, but this is a reasonable basis for finding new data.
- Look for conflicting facts in seemingly similar articles. If you disagree with some data, raise this issue. The reader will see that you are not copying other people’s ideas but are focusing on finding better solutions to the problem.
- Do not try to pass off other people’s ideas as your own. The literature review should not become a retelling of the content of already published works. You need to present the results of scientists in the context of the vector of your research.
When creating this section, try to avoid lengthy descriptions of the essence of the books. You need to indicate the topic, the idea of the source, how it is comparable to your research and how the book helped your discoveries.
Step 3: Describe the Research Method
This section is the most important, as it requires you to describe the importance of the problem you selected and the methods or strategies you used to address the issue. The research method depends on the type of the subject of analysis. Here are some tips for creating this item:
- Any event can be the subject of analysis. The purpose of the event investigation is to shed light on the secret sides that still raise questions. For example, three researchers conducted a case study to identify and evaluate a local sporting event’s direct and indirect economic benefits and costs in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. Their aim was to present a new understanding of the impact of a particular local sporting event. Based on this example, we identified three main points that the Methods section should include: when the event happened, what the problem was, what the consequences were and how you resolved the issue.
- Anyone can be an object of analysis. Here you must indicate why you chose this particular person and his problem. It would be appropriate to add a short story about the person to enable the reader to learn more about them. For example, the object can be a politician, and the problem lies in the low statistics of votes. Describing people’s problems is the most complicated part, so we suggest contacting a specialist in writing case studies so that you don’t hurt the feelings of the individual being analyzed.. The main aspects in the Methods section are what makes a person worthy of study, problems, ways of solving the situation.
- Any spot can become an item for analysis. When choosing a place as an object of research, make sure that it is unique, has a significant problem, and will become the beginning for solving issues with a similar history. Here, it would help if you did not only describe the place’s attributes but also prove that the place will highlight new issues that have not previously been explored. Also, do not forget to write down why this place is vital for analysis. A prime example is the problem of homeless people who find shelter in open parks. The key elements of the Methods section are why this spot is important to you, what problems it causes, and what techniques you used to deal with the situation.
We have described only three main objects that most often serve as research. However, you can analyze any phenomenon or behavior. Do not forget the chosen methods to be supported by evidence – it can be statistics, laboratory reports. Thanks to such arguments, no one doubts that you have selected the correct method leading to a positive result. If you are in doubt about choosing a method, you can ask an expert for help with a request to help write a research paper – this will save you from rewriting unconvincing paragraphs.
Step 4: Discuss Results
The discussion section is supposed to give a respond to the question, “What do your outcomes actually mean?” All of the research information you obtain after the study should refer to the problem stated in the introduction and should be described in the central part of the study. Add a description to make the results clear to the reader.
In a sense, the discussion of the results is a mirror image of the introduction. In the introduction, you indicate that the problem is essential. In discussing the results, you try to convey the meaning of the findings to the situation as a whole. Such comprehension involves comparing the data obtained with each other and with the relevant data of other authors. The purpose of the debate is to find out what has changed as a result of the work completed; whether you have met your goals.
Step 5: Write a Conclusion
The conclusion is a brief overview of the results you obtained in writing the case study. Here, you can discuss how your case study results differ from previous studies. You can also repeat the problem, its importance, and its solution. Remember that adding new information at the end is not allowed. This is how the structure of a simple study case looks like – you can add your sections if they carry essential information. We hope you get an A+!
