How to Write a Good Case Study

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1.

Describe the problem or case question you want the reader to solve.

In a detective story, the crime happens right at the beginning and the detective

has to put together the information to solve it for the rest of the story. In a case,

you can start by raising a question. You can, for example, quote someone you

interviewed. For example, suppose you interviewed a tourist official and she

told you she thought more people should be interested in visiting, and she

can’t understand why they don’t come. Then you could write something like

this,

The historic town of XX is located in the mountains of country X. The

town tourism supervisor, Mrs. Joan Smith, said that she thought "many

more people should visit here, but they just don’t come. I don’t know why

– maybe we don't have the right kinds of places for them to eat or sleep

and it's too far to travel in one day from the nearest big city."

The case writers wondered what would have to happen in order to make

the town more attractive to tourists..

Because you are the authors, you and your fellow students, can write questions

like this and set the stage for the rest of your case story. What your introduction

does is give clues to the reader about what they should be thinking about.

Once you have told the reader what one person associated with the tourist area

thinks the problem is --

how to make the place more attractive --

you can give

them the information they need to come to their own conclusions

2.

Organize the sections of the case.

You will probably need to organize your

information under topics like the following:

a.

Introduction

to the problem

b.

Background on the place

-- where is it, how big, what climate, etc. -- this

part should be a brief, overall description. Think about having 2 pages of

written material, photos, or even a video, so that your readers can really

get a feel for what the place. looks like. Summarize the main features of

the place. What makes it special?...