how to write a case study masters level

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How to use a case study in your masters dissertation

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Frequently asked questions.

Yes, in fact a case study is a very good option in your dissertation. There are multiple ways to implement a case study in your thesis. For instance, one main study which is in depth and complex or you could feature multiple case studies.

Case studies are a way to research a particular field, group, people and situation. The topic of research is studied deeply and thoroughly in order to solve a problem or uncover information. Case studies are a type of qualitative research.

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Prof Martyn Denscombe, author of “ The Good Research Guide, 6th edition ”, gives expert advice on how to use a case study in your masters dissertation. 

There are two main examples for how to use a case study in your masters dissertation, namely quantitative and qualitative case studies.

First, a case study provides a platform that allows you to study a situation in depth and produce the level of academic inquiry that is expected in a master’s degree. In the context of any master’s programme the dissertation operates as something of a showcase for a student’s abilities.

It can easily make the difference between getting a merit and a distinction in the final award of degree. It is important, therefore, to base the work on an approach that allows things to be explored in sufficient depth and detail to warrant a good grade.

Second, case studies can be useful in a practical sense. It is possible to complete a case study in a relatively short period of intense study and so it is the kind of research that is feasible in terms of the kind of time constraints that face master’s students as they enter the final stages of their programme of study.

Added to which a case study can also be a rather convenient form of research, avoiding the time and costs of travel to multiple research sites. The use of case studies, then, would appear to be an attractive proposition. But it is not an approach that should be used naively without consideration of its limitations or potential pitfalls.

To be a good case study the research needs to consider certain key issues. If they are not addressed it will considerably lower the value of the master’s degree. For instance, a good case study needs to:

• Be crystal clear about the purpose for which the research is being conducted
• Justify the selection of the particular case being studied
• Describe how the chosen case compares with others of its type
• Explain the basis on which any generalizations can be made from the findings

This is where The Good Research Guide, 6th edition becomes so valuable. It not only identifies the key points that need to be addressed in order to conduct a competent questionnaire survey.

It gets right to the heart of the matter with plenty of practical guidance on how to deal with issues. Using plain language, this bestselling book covers a range of alternative strategies and methods for conducting small-scale social research projects. It outlines some of the main ways in which the data can be analysed.

Read Prof Martyn Denscombe’s advice on using a questionnaire survey for your postgraduate dissertation

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• How to Write a Case Study

How to Write a Good Case Study: A Guide for Students

A case study is a paper that presents a deep analysis of a certain situation and gives the reader some possible ways of solving an issue. Students can find themselves faced with this type of paper in social sciences quite often, but also in fields as diverse as business and computer science. A case study is designed to help students to understand a problem, issue, or situation by exploring a specific example in detail. By examining these examples, students are able to draw broader conclusions. A case study is also an important way that students can demonstrate their ability to apply general principles, theories, or concepts to a specific situation.

There are two major divisions of case studies: descriptive and explanatory. In your academic experience, you can find yourself faced with numerous subsidiary types of writing such as illustrative, critical instance, cumulative, and narrative case studies. In general, the two types of case studies are divided by either being an examination of a specific instance in order to draw broader conclusions (descriptive), or an application of principles or theories to a specific instance (explanatory).

It goes without saying that it is fairly difficult to create a good case study writing guide that would suit each type of case study you might encounter in high school, college, or university. But today we are going to gather some effective general writing tips for a case study on any topic to help you perfect the art of the case study and solve your difficult case study problems.

Step One: Define the Main Problem

The very first step in creating a case study is identifying the case in question. In many cases, your instructor will provide you with the case you need to examine, but in others, you will identify a case yourself. To write a case study assignment, once you have selected the case that you intend to examine, you will need to break it down into a main idea and supporting ideas.

Sometimes when students are assigned a topic, they are not able to identify a main problem statement for their subject in order to prepare their project report. Whatever you write about – a famous person, historical event, a business decision, political troubles – every topic has a main issue and secondary issues. In order to write a good case study, you need to practice and define the main problem without any difficulties. If you write about a well-known case, you can read some other case studies or articles associated with this topic in a newspaper or online. These techniques will help you to perfect problem definition. Once you have done so, you will be able to create an abstract and structure your paper effectively.

Step Two: Gathering Information

After you develop your topic and have defined a great problem you will work on, the next steps involve starting to gather information to write a case study paper professionally. Thanks to the ease of finding material online, there are a lot of excellent sources that you are free to use for writing a case study. Use books, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and any other sources you are able to find. Your college or university library is a great resource for accessing scholarly sources without having to pay access fees. The more you find, the deeper the analysis you will be able to perform. For example, it would be really nice if writing about a case that happened about ten years ago you will be able to find a newspaper of that time with an article on your topic. While many newspapers provide access to a limited selection of articles from past years but will charge for full access to their complete archive, your university or college library likely subscribes to databases that can provide you with free access to newspaper and magazine archives. Providing a reader with a sample of the social attitudes of that time can make your paper much more interesting for the reader. It also will help you to contextualize your assignment and make it seem less dry.

Step Three: Cause and Effect

A good case study essay will typically use a cause-and-effect analysis. After all, the purpose of a case study is to examine what happened and why. By using a cause-and-effect analysis, you can begin to draw some conclusions about the case study, why events unfolded as they did, and what lessons we can learn from them. When you have enough information and understanding of an issue you can make the best possible cause and effect analysis. Brainstorm about what could cause this problem and why. Provide your reader with your personal point of view and the points of view of other authors and your sources. Give the reader a good background, starting with the introduction and ending with the conclusion, and support your analysis with reference to specific evidence and to relevant theories that help to explain what happened and why. Then show the effect of conflict and explain how it affects the future. By doing so, your cause and effect will provide structure for your paper and allow you to organize your material and your information in a way that will make it easier to develop your presentation without over-complicating your work.

Step Four: Additional Support

In order to make a case study paper more persuasive, students can use some additional supporting strategies. For example, you can find some statistical data and present it in a form of diagram or find some photos and include them in your case study. Or just find a similar situation in history and tell what types of solutions were found and what the effects of those solutions were. Present your own thoughts and points of view on the solutions for your selected issue. When writing a case study, do not forget that first of all, it is a research paper and not a piece of fiction, so use proper language style and avoid giving away too many personal feelings. Document all sources in a proper format such as APA, MLA, Chicago, or Turabian.

Step Five: Drawing Conclusions

To complete a case study, you need to tell the reader what it all means. You should end your case study with a discussion of the lessons that readers should take from the case study and how it answers the original question or concern posed in the assignment. By the time the audience has finished your paper, they should have a good understanding of why the case study is important and relevant. Try to finish with a compelling final thought to leave the reader with something to think about when the paper ends.

Write a case study with our writing guidelines for better academic results and see how easy paper writing can be! We hope our case study help is useful for you.

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All You Wanted to Know About How to Write a Case Study

What do you study in your college? If you are a psychology, sociology, or anthropology student, we bet you might be familiar with what a case study is. This research method is used to study a certain person, group, or situation. In this guide from our dissertation writing service , you will learn how to write a case study professionally, from researching to citing sources properly. Also, we will explore different types of case studies and show you examples — so that you won’t have any other questions left.

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is a subcategory of research design which investigates problems and offers solutions. Case studies can range from academic research studies to corporate promotional tools trying to sell an idea—their scope is quite vast.

What Is the Difference Between a Research Paper and a Case Study?

While research papers turn the reader’s attention to a certain problem, case studies go even further. Case study guidelines require students to pay attention to details, examining issues closely and in-depth using different research methods. For example, case studies may be used to examine court cases if you study Law, or a patient's health history if you study Medicine. Case studies are also used in Marketing, which are thorough, empirically supported analysis of a good or service's performance. Well-designed case studies can be valuable for prospective customers as they can identify and solve the potential customers pain point.

Case studies involve a lot of storytelling – they usually examine particular cases for a person or a group of people. This method of research is very helpful, as it is very practical and can give a lot of hands-on information. Most commonly, the length of the case study is about 500-900 words, which is much less than the length of an average research paper.

The structure of a case study is very similar to storytelling. It has a protagonist or main character, which in your case is actually a problem you are trying to solve. You can use the system of 3 Acts to make it a compelling story. It should have an introduction, rising action, a climax where transformation occurs, falling action, and a solution.

Here is a rough formula for you to use in your case study:

Problem (Act I): > Solution (Act II) > Result (Act III) > Conclusion.

Types of Case Studies

The purpose of a case study is to provide detailed reports on an event, an institution, a place, future customers, or pretty much anything. There are a few common types of case study, but the type depends on the topic. The following are the most common domains where case studies are needed:

• Historical case studies are great to learn from. Historical events have a multitude of source info offering different perspectives. There are always modern parallels where these perspectives can be applied, compared, and thoroughly analyzed.
• Problem-oriented case studies are usually used for solving problems. These are often assigned as theoretical situations where you need to immerse yourself in the situation to examine it. Imagine you’re working for a startup and you’ve just noticed a significant flaw in your product’s design. Before taking it to the senior manager, you want to do a comprehensive study on the issue and provide solutions. On a greater scale, problem-oriented case studies are a vital part of relevant socio-economic discussions.
• Cumulative case studies collect information and offer comparisons. In business, case studies are often used to tell people about the value of a product.
• Critical case studies explore the causes and effects of a certain case.
• Illustrative case studies describe certain events, investigating outcomes and lessons learned.

Need a compelling case study? EssayPro has got you covered. Our experts are ready to provide you with detailed, insightful case studies that capture the essence of real-world scenarios. Elevate your academic work with our professional assistance.

Case Study Format

The case study format is typically made up of eight parts:

• Executive Summary. Explain what you will examine in the case study. Write an overview of the field you’re researching. Make a thesis statement and sum up the results of your observation in a maximum of 2 sentences.
• Background. Provide background information and the most relevant facts. Isolate the issues.
• Case Evaluation. Isolate the sections of the study you want to focus on. In it, explain why something is working or is not working.
• Proposed Solutions. Offer realistic ways to solve what isn’t working or how to improve its current condition. Explain why these solutions work by offering testable evidence.
• Conclusion. Summarize the main points from the case evaluations and proposed solutions. 6. Recommendations. Talk about the strategy that you should choose. Explain why this choice is the most appropriate.
• Implementation. Explain how to put the specific strategies into action.
• References. Provide all the citations.

How to Write a Case Study

Let's discover how to write a case study.

Setting Up the Research

When writing a case study, remember that research should always come first. Reading many different sources and analyzing other points of view will help you come up with more creative solutions. You can also conduct an actual interview to thoroughly investigate the customer story that you'll need for your case study. Including all of the necessary research, writing a case study may take some time. The research process involves doing the following:

• Define your objective. Explain the reason why you’re presenting your subject. Figure out where you will feature your case study; whether it is written, on video, shown as an infographic, streamed as a podcast, etc.
• Determine who will be the right candidate for your case study. Get permission, quotes, and other features that will make your case study effective. Get in touch with your candidate to see if they approve of being part of your work. Study that candidate’s situation and note down what caused it.
• Identify which various consequences could result from the situation. Follow these guidelines on how to start a case study: surf the net to find some general information you might find useful.
• Make a list of credible sources and examine them. Seek out important facts and highlight problems. Always write down your ideas and make sure to brainstorm.
• Focus on several key issues – why they exist, and how they impact your research subject. Think of several unique solutions. Draw from class discussions, readings, and personal experience. When writing a case study, focus on the best solution and explore it in depth. After having all your research in place, writing a case study will be easy. You may first want to check the rubric and criteria of your assignment for the correct case study structure.

Read Also: ' WHAT IS A CREDIBLE SOURCES ?'

Although your instructor might be looking at slightly different criteria, every case study rubric essentially has the same standards. Your professor will want you to exhibit 8 different outcomes:

• Correctly identify the concepts, theories, and practices in the discipline.
• Identify the relevant theories and principles associated with the particular study.
• Evaluate legal and ethical principles and apply them to your decision-making.
• Recognize the global importance and contribution of your case.
• Construct a coherent summary and explanation of the study.
• Demonstrate analytical and critical-thinking skills.
• Explain the interrelationships between the environment and nature.
• Integrate theory and practice of the discipline within the analysis.

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Case Study Outline

Let's look at the structure of an outline based on the issue of the alcoholic addiction of 30 people.

Introduction

• Statement of the issue: Alcoholism is a disease rather than a weakness of character.
• Presentation of the problem: Alcoholism is affecting more than 14 million people in the USA, which makes it the third most common mental illness there.
• Explanation of the terms: In the past, alcoholism was commonly referred to as alcohol dependence or alcohol addiction. Alcoholism is now the more severe stage of this addiction in the disorder spectrum.
• Hypotheses: Drinking in excess can lead to the use of other drugs.
• Importance of your story: How the information you present can help people with their addictions.
• Background of the story: Include an explanation of why you chose this topic.
• Presentation of analysis and data: Describe the criteria for choosing 30 candidates, the structure of the interview, and the outcomes.
• Strong argument 1: ex. X% of candidates dealing with anxiety and depression...
• Strong argument 2: ex. X amount of people started drinking by their mid-teens.
• Strong argument 3: ex. X% of respondents’ parents had issues with alcohol.
• Concluding statement: I have researched if alcoholism is a disease and found out that…
• Recommendations: Ways and actions for preventing alcohol use.

Writing a Case Study Draft

After you’ve done your case study research and written the outline, it’s time to focus on the draft. In a draft, you have to develop and write your case study by using: the data which you collected throughout the research, interviews, and the analysis processes that were undertaken. Follow these rules for the draft:

• Your draft should contain at least 4 sections: an introduction; a body where you should include background information, an explanation of why you decided to do this case study, and a presentation of your main findings; a conclusion where you present data; and references.
• In the introduction, you should set the pace very clearly. You can even raise a question or quote someone you interviewed in the research phase. It must provide adequate background information on the topic. The background may include analyses of previous studies on your topic. Include the aim of your case here as well. Think of it as a thesis statement. The aim must describe the purpose of your work—presenting the issues that you want to tackle. Include background information, such as photos or videos you used when doing the research.
• Describe your unique research process, whether it was through interviews, observations, academic journals, etc. The next point includes providing the results of your research. Tell the audience what you found out. Why is this important, and what could be learned from it? Discuss the real implications of the problem and its significance in the world.
• Include quotes and data (such as findings, percentages, and awards). This will add a personal touch and better credibility to the case you present. Explain what results you find during your interviews in regards to the problem and how it developed. Also, write about solutions which have already been proposed by other people who have already written about this case.
• At the end of your case study, you should offer possible solutions, but don’t worry about solving them yourself.

Use Data to Illustrate Key Points in Your Case Study

Even though your case study is a story, it should be based on evidence. Use as much data as possible to illustrate your point. Without the right data, your case study may appear weak and the readers may not be able to relate to your issue as much as they should. Let's see the examples from essay writing service :

‍ With data: Alcoholism is affecting more than 14 million people in the USA, which makes it the third most common mental illness there. Without data: A lot of people suffer from alcoholism in the United States.

Try to include as many credible sources as possible. You may have terms or sources that could be hard for other cultures to understand. If this is the case, you should include them in the appendix or Notes for the Instructor or Professor.

Finalizing the Draft: Checklist

After you finish drafting your case study, polish it up by answering these ‘ask yourself’ questions and think about how to end your case study:

• Check that you follow the correct case study format, also in regards to text formatting.
• Check that your work is consistent with its referencing and citation style.
• Micro-editing — check for grammar and spelling issues.
• Macro-editing — does ‘the big picture’ come across to the reader? Is there enough raw data, such as real-life examples or personal experiences? Have you made your data collection process completely transparent? Does your analysis provide a clear conclusion, allowing for further research and practice?

Problems to avoid:

• Overgeneralization – Do not go into further research that deviates from the main problem.
• Failure to Document Limitations – Just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study, you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis.
• Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications – Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings.

How to Create a Title Page and Cite a Case Study

Let's see how to create an awesome title page.

Your title page depends on the prescribed citation format. The title page should include:

• A title that attracts some attention and describes your study
• The title should have the words “case study” in it
• The title should range between 5-9 words in length
• Your name and contact information
• Your finished paper should be only 500 to 1,500 words in length.With this type of assignment, write effectively and avoid fluff

Here is a template for the APA and MLA format title page:

There are some cases when you need to cite someone else's study in your own one – therefore, you need to master how to cite a case study. A case study is like a research paper when it comes to citations. You can cite it like you cite a book, depending on what style you need.

Citation Example in MLA ‍ Hill, Linda, Tarun Khanna, and Emily A. Stecker. HCL Technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing, 2008. Print.

Citation Example in APA ‍ Hill, L., Khanna, T., & Stecker, E. A. (2008). HCL Technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing.

Citation Example in Chicago Hill, Linda, Tarun Khanna, and Emily A. Stecker. HCL Technologies.

Case Study Examples

To give you an idea of a professional case study example, we gathered and linked some below.

Eastman Kodak Case Study

Case Study Example: Audi Trains Mexican Autoworkers in Germany

To conclude, a case study is one of the best methods of getting an overview of what happened to a person, a group, or a situation in practice. It allows you to have an in-depth glance at the real-life problems that businesses, healthcare industry, criminal justice, etc. may face. This insight helps us look at such situations in a different light. This is because we see scenarios that we otherwise would not, without necessarily being there. If you need custom essays , try our research paper writing services .

Get Help Form Qualified Writers

Crafting a case study is not easy. You might want to write one of high quality, but you don’t have the time or expertise. If you’re having trouble with your case study, help with essay request - we'll help. EssayPro writers have read and written countless case studies and are experts in endless disciplines. Request essay writing, editing, or proofreading assistance from our custom case study writing service , and all of your worries will be gone.

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Crafting a case study is not easy. You might want to write one of high quality, but you don’t have the time or expertise. Request ' write my case study ' assistance from our service.

What Is A Case Study?

How to cite a case study in apa, how to write a case study.

Daniel Parker

is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

Related Articles

Writing Case Studies

Case studies (all categories).

Please refer to the Advance HE Guidance on the Dimensions of Practice   and  Exemplars  resources alongside this guidance.

Purpose of the case study

The case study is a substantive part of your claim for fellowship and is complementary to the other elements of your submission. It is primarily intended to:

Elicit depth . The focus on a single project or initiative allows you to go into more depth in terms of rationale (particularly your evidence base and relevant scholarship), and evaluation (both in terms of impact but also reflectively – what did you learn? How did your practice change/evolve?)

Distinguish your practice . While many activities undertaken by academics are similar at the global level (teaching, assessing, researching) the case study allows you to give a real flavour of your own individual practice. Your teaching philosophy, your disciplinary interests and your personal style are more in evidence.

Demonstrate the Dimensions of Practice ( UKPSF ) . There is less emphasis on mapping the dimensions to your professional practice (for Associate and Fellow this is done in the practice examples) and more focus on how you understand them and use them. Each dimension should be signposted individually and explicitly within the text and should provide a clear example.  Do not simply provide a list (A4, K2, K3, V1) – this references the dimensions but does not demonstrate them!

Demonstrate the descriptor ( UKPSF ) . The case studies should reflect the level of fellowship you are applying for. Ensure your case study reflects appropriate:

• Scope eg own practice; practice of others; policy/strategy)
• Scale eg a few students (AFHEA); a few modules or courses (FHEA); faculty/institution (SFHEA); national/international (PFHEA)
• Impact eg improve individual student learning/experience; improve course or programme outcomes; improve subject or professional outcomes

Subject of the case study

You can interpret this quite flexibly; just make sure you are able to demonstrate the above requirements.

Examples of suitable case studies include:

• A response to a perceived problem (eg retention; lack of firsts; lack of real-world experience)
• A major curriculum innovation or change (eg new professional requirements; distance mode; internationalising content; embedding placements)
• A planned project (introducing peer assessment/online marking; redesigning a learning space; funded pedagogical research)
• A pedagogical approach (values-based education; enquiry based learning; peer-assisted learning)
• A development experience (how researching/being a student/making a mistake/change of role etc. has impacted your practice)
• A theme (developing employability/digital literacy/inclusivity in the curriculum; this may draw together several different, smaller initiatives)

You may want to mix up the type of case studies you use – it is up to you, provided you demonstrate the UKPSF effectively. At our support workshops  and  writing retreats  the facilitator will help you to identify suitable case studies.

Writing your case study

The case study should focus primarily on pedagogical aspects. Resources, logistical and other pragmatic elements should only be mentioned where they contribute to the context or constraints and should be kept brief.

Avoid general statements which could apply to any course or teaching situation and be specific (eg: ‘taking into account learners’ needs I…’ versus ‘because the learners were particularly time-poor due to demands of work I….’).

Use the first person and the active voice. (NOT ‘it was decided’ but ‘I decided’)

There are many ways of structuring a case study but common elements are likely to include:

• Context: What was the situation of challenge? Relevant objectives and/or constraints.
• Activity: What did you decide to do and why? (focus on the latter in order to avoid excessive description). What evidence and/or theory did you use? Why did you choose a particular approach or course of action? Rationale is the most important factor the panel will look for.
• Outcome: Was this a product (such as a new course, assessment or resource)? An approach (eg pedagogical, curricular, policy)? Or an effect (eg on engagement; participation; attainment).
• Impact: What difference did it make? To whom? How do you know? (Evaluation? Evidence? Change?)

There is no need to use these headings but try to ensure that you have addressed these questions somehow in your narrative. These are essentially where the panel will focus.

Case Studies – Senior Fellow (D3) only

Your should aim to use the two case studies to address different aspects of Descriptor 3, with a focus on your organisation, leadership and/or management of specific aspects of learning and teaching provision which:

• have had a significant impact upon the co-ordination, support, supervision, management and/or mentoring of others (whether individuals and/or teams), in relation to learning and teaching;
• demonstrate your sustained effectiveness in relation to learning and teaching that meets Descriptor D3.
• have an impact on students who are not taught by you directly.

You might include informal activities, whether individual, collaborative or team-based, that have had a significant impact on your academic practice and/or on the practice of others. You should clearly demonstrate an integrated and reflective approach to academic practice that incorporates research, scholarship and/or professional practice.

You might focus on particular aspects of your work such as (note that these aspects are for guidance only and not intended to be prescriptive):

Developing quality enhancement

• Ways you interact with others to ensure appropriate alignment of teaching, learning and assessment practices;
• How you ensure that student learning within the context of your responsibilities is enriched by disciplinary and pedagogic research, scholarship and professional practice (your own and that of others);
• Ways you have fostered dynamic approaches to learning and teaching through creativity and innovation.

Supporting other colleagues

• How you have supported other colleagues to enhance their practice;
• Specific examples of how you have enhanced academic practice through co-ordinating/managing others;
• Your roles in learning and teaching projects and initiatives at departmental, institutional level or in the wider HE context;
• Course and programme development, review and revalidation.

Sustained engagement with educational and staff development

• Staff development activities you have facilitated (informal and formal) that enhance your colleagues’ abilities to meet the dimensions of the UKPSF ;
• How your contributions have promoted the student learning experience through professional development of staff under your influence and guidance e.g. through informal or formal mentoring arrangements;
• How you have disseminated your knowledge and skills in teaching and supporting learning to audiences both within and external to your institution.

Evaluation of academic practice

• Steps you have taken to develop your own practice and how you have used your own experience to enable others to reflect on and critique their own practice;
• How you support, encourage and implement evaluation processes designed to enhance the student learning experience.

Professional Recognition

Case Studies: Researching/Writing Case Studies

• Finding Case Studies
• Researching/Writing Case Studies
• Business Resources for Students - Case Studies , is written to help students become successful learners using the case method. It includes essays on what is case study analysis, how to analyze and write a case study report and the role of financial analysis.

Guide to Case Analysis , From the publisher McGraw Hill. Includes sections on objectives of case analysis, preparing a case for class discussion, preparing a written case analysis and the Ten Commandments of Case Analysis.

Provides detailed instructions on writing good case studies across the curriculum. Essays include What Makes a Good Case? and The Way of Flesch: The Art of Writing Readable Cases

NACRA is a collaborative organization of hundreds of case writers and teachers, mostly in the business disciplines, who support each other's research and writing efforts. Its annual conference helps to develop the cases which will appear in the Case Research Journal, other journals, and textbooks. Cases, case-related papers, and proposals are invited from all fields that use cases as part of their teaching methodologies. Decision-oriented, field-researched cases are especially welcome.

Books on Case Studies

• Learning and researching with case studies : a student companion for business and management research

• << Previous: Finding Case Studies
• Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 2:01 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.fsu.edu/casestudies

© 2022 Florida State University Libraries | 116 Honors Way | Tallahassee, FL 32306 | (850) 644-2706

Thesis Guide

How to Write a Case Study

Most good empirical software engineering papers that contain a study follow the same structure for its presentation. As far as I know, this structure was not invented by a single researcher, but developed gradually over the course of many publications.

Professional readers expect your case study to follow this structure, too. The audience that really matters for your publication—your thesis supervisor, his PhD advisor or program committee members—all are professional readers.

The goal of this article is to describe this structure: the basic building blocks of thesis chapters or paper sections that make up case study presentations. It is meant as an introduction and thus necessarily skips details. For further reading, this article contains links at the end.

Basic Anatomy

The typical structure comprises these sections:

• Research questions

Study Objects

Study design.

Study Procedure

Results & Interpretation

Threats to Validity.

As a reader, I expect each section to answer a specific set of questions. In the following, I describe the gist of each section, its set of questions and common mistakes.

To make the sections more tangible, I use part of a study from one of our papers . The study investigates inconsistencies in code clones.

Research Questions

This section states the questions that the study aims to answer and their rationale. It should contain:

• What the questions are. In my paper, RQ 1 is Are clones changed inconsistently? .

Why the research questions are relevant.

A frequent mistake is missing rationale. In such papers, the motivation behind the research question often remains unclear or unconvincing.

Some background on the example paper: code clones are duplicated pieces of source code in a software systems. Clones are typically created by copy & paste. They hinder software maintenance, since changes must often be made to all clone instances. If a clone gets forgotten during such a change, the code becomes inconsistent. This inconsistency can be a bug.

What I wanted to investigate with my study, was how big of a problem this is in practice. One the one hand, I had seen some instances of inconsistent clones that suspiciously looked like bugs. On the other hand, I had no idea how frequently this occurred, and if this really was problematic in practice. My study goal was to quantify this by analyzing clones (and their inconsistencies) in real systems.

The rationale of the first research question was to understand if inconsistent changes to clones happen at all, and how often. If they are very rare, they probably do not deserve further investigation (which is performed by the later research questions in the paper).

This section outlines the study objects (e.g. software systems), which the study analyzes to answer its research questions. It should contain:

• The names of the study objects and their characteristics (those properties that are relevant for the study). In the example, the study objects were the 5 systems that I searched for clones. The relevant characteristics comprise programming language, size, age, number of developers and a short description of their functionality.

Why (and maybe how) those objects were chosen. This is relevant, since choice can influence study result validity. For the example, a large number of study objects (and ideally their random selection from a large pool of potential study objects), would increase the generalizability of the study results.

In the clone paper, however, I needed to do interviews with the system’s developers for later questions. I thus had to rely on our industry contacts to get hold of these developers. This limited my choices and thus potentially affects generalizability of the results (which is mentioned in the threats to validity section).

A frequent mistake is to not mention why those objects were chosen and what the consequences of the choice are. As a reader, this makes me wonder if the selection was manipulated to better produce the answers the author was looking for.

If a study involves data from industry, the study object names are often anonymized (e.g. replaced by A , B , C , …). As a reader, I don’t care about this, since the names of proprietary industrial systems are meaningless to me anyway. For the authors, however, it makes it much easier to get clearance to publish these results.

This section describes how the study, using the information from the study objects, attempts to answer the research questions.

For the clone study, I computed the percentage of inconsistent clones among all clones. For this, I defined two sets:

• C : The set C of consistent clones. The clones in each clone group are consistent (i.e. contain no differences or only small ones, like renamed variables).

IC : Set of inconsistent clones , i.e. clone groups with substantial differences between clones, such as missing statements.

As the answer to the research question, I computed the inconsistent clone ratio as |C| / |IC|. Intuitively, it denotes the probability that a clone group in the system contains at least one inconsistency.

A common mistake is to interleave study design, procedure and implementation details.

This section describes the nitty gritty details required to implement the study design in reality. In principle, they could also be included directly in the description of the study design. However, it is easier for the reader to first understand the general idea, and then the details.

For the clone study, this section states detection parameters (like minimal clone length and number of allowed differences between clones). It also treats handling of false positives, generated code and overlapping clone groups.

This section describes the results and interprets them with respect to the research questions. Since there is often a lot of data, this section should guide the reader through the results. In studies with large amounts of data, it is often easier to read to separate description of the data from its interpretation.

In the example, the paper presents the results for each study object and then the aggregated ratio. On average, 52% of the clone groups contained inconsistencies. The paper thus answers the question positively: yes, clones are changed inconsistently.

A common mistake is to mix the results with the discussion. This makes it harder for the reader to separate backed-up results from speculation.

Interpretation of the results that go further than the research questions. This can, e.g., contain implications for software development.

The clone paper (based on the above presented and further questions) concludes, that clones are a threat to program correctness, implying that their proper management deserves more attention.

Threats to Validity

This section lists all threats, i.e. reasons why the study results could be wrong. Ideally, it then treats every single threat and describes what you did to make sure that this threat does not invalidate your study results.

Threats to validity are often classified into internal and external threats.

Internal threats are reasons why the results could be invalid for your study objects. In the example, the parameter values of the clone detector have a strong impact on the detected clones. The section states that we mitigated the threat through a pre-study we performed in order to validate the chosen parameter values.

(To be honest, this is a weak mitigation. What it really says is that we tinkered with the values until they felt good and then did the study. A stronger mitigation would be to also perform the study with different parameter values and investigate whether the general results still hold. Since this distracts from the main study, such back-up studies are often only described in a much abbreviated fashion in the threats section itself.)

External threats are reasons why the results encountered for the study objects might not be transferable to other objects. In the example, the way we chose the study objects (through our personal network) might bias our results. To mitigate this threat, we at least chose systems that had different characteristics, such as programming language, development contractor and age.

The most common mistake is to ignore threats entirely. Much better (but still improvable) is to state a threat without giving a mitigation or an estimation of its severity.

Variation Points

The case study structure described in this article can be used in two different decomposition styles. The most common one is described in this article. It orders by section first and by research question second:

• Research questions 1.1: RQ 1 … 1.2: RQ 2 …

Study Objects 2.1 For RQ 1: … 2.2 For RQ 2: …

Study Design 2.1 For RQ 1: … 2.2 For RQ 2: …

Is most frequent alternative, however, is to order by research question first and by section second:

• RQ 1 1.1 Research question 1 … 1.2 Study Objects for RQ 1 … 1.3 Study Design for RQ 1… …

RQ 2 2.1 Research question 2 … 2.2 Study Object for RQ 2 … 2.3 Study Design for RQ 2 … …

Both decomposition styles have advantages and drawbacks. I use these heuristics to select the decomposition level:

This is the case in the clone paper example. Research questions two and three ask whether the inconsistencies between clones are unintentional, and if so, whether they represent a fault. RQ n thus builds upon the results of RQ n-1 . Since the study sections share so much, describing them in isolation would create a lot of redundancy. They are thus easier to read all at once. Decomposition by study section facilitates this.

By research questions : when each study has its own study objects, design and procedure.

In this paper we wrote , the study objects, design and procedure of research questions one and three have nothing in common. Since there is little synergy between them, it is easier to read a complete study—from question to results interpretation—before reading the next one.

Apart from the above examples, there are mixed cases as well (where some RQs share objects and design, but others in the same paper don’t). For them, simply choose the decomposition style that feels right, but stick to it for the entire study description. Don’t mix decomposition styles, since this confuses the reader.

From my experience, you only really get to feel if a style feels right, once you write it down, often two times, once in each decomposition style. This is tedious, but pays off, since a suitable decomposition style strongly increases the readability of your study.

Further reading:

• Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research in software engineering by Per Runeson & Martin Höst.

Case Study Research. Design and Methods by Robert K. Yin.

Thanks to Rainer Koschke and Stefan Wagner for literature suggestions and to Daniela Steidl for reading drafts of this.

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Published by elmarjuergens.

Informatiker, Software-Analyst, Sprecher, Wein- und Biertrinker. View all posts by ElmarJuergens

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