Case studies

Case studies vary between disciplines. Therefore, you need to read the task instructions, marking rubric, and questions carefully to understand what is expected.   

Some case study assignments require you to answer specific questions about the case. You might need to select and focus on particular issues from a provided list. In other cases, you may be given the choice to interpret the case and link it to your course content. 

To comprehend the case, you need to:  

• Read the case several times to get an understanding of the situation, case details and themes.  
• Identify:
• What happened? What are the key facts and issues? Are there any obstacles/limitations present? 
• What are the precipitating factors of the issue(s)? 
• What information do you need to gather to summarise the theme?
• Thorough analysis of a case study will require reading more than once.  
• Skimming: To gain a general idea of the content and structure of the case.
• Scanning: To pick up important key words, names and numbers (including dates).
• Deep reading: Slow and careful reading with an enquiring approach.

• Re-read for specific case details and issues. Identify the underlying cause (why does that issue exist?).   
• Identify the main problem(s) or decision(s) to be addressed.
• What is the primary issue or decision, and what are the secondary ones? 
• Why do the issues exist?  
• How do the issues impact those that are involved? 
• Who is responsible for the issues? 
• Organise case details into a logical order of analysis against relevant course knowledge, concepts, and theory, for instance timeline, strengths and limitations (problems/solutions), theory framework first, then break down to principles.

• Make connections and analysis between the concrete and the abstract: the case situation/person/event and the theory/learning/evidence.  
• Why are the identified themes considered issues? How and why did these become issues? What effects do theories/concepts and research suggest? 
• Identify the specific case details and make the links/connections of these elements to the concepts, terminologies and theories that can be used to explain and discuss the case details, based on the research.  
• Ask yourself: “Is there any evidence of X concept in the case?”  

This leads to good analysis rather than just describing the case with a lack of evaluation.   

• What knowledge/actions might provide reasoning and solutions to the issues and decisions? Prepare your list of alternatives in two stages. 
• First: prepare an initial list of all actions that you feel might be appropriate. Keep an open mind in generating ideas.  
• Second: begin refining the list by combining similar or related actions, eliminate those that are not feasible considering your on-hand resources (finance, productivity, and management).   
• Provide the reasons and solutions to support the critical thinking process of drawing conclusions by using good decision-making skills and reasoning abilities.  

As a part of writing the case study, you will need to refer to course knowledge and readings to: 

• Make sense of the situation, actual events, and people's behaviours.
• Justify how and why you have linked the situation with a particular theory, concept, or learning, for instance text readings, discussions, and lectures. 
• What is the organisational structure or environment? Who makes the decisions? Who should be involved in making the decisions/solutions?  

Recommendations: 

• Determine and discuss specific strategies to implement the proposed solutions and further action. The first part of the recommendations should address what specific actions should be taken as a priority and why. State the main reasons why you believe that your chosen course of action is best.  
• The second part of your recommendation addresses implementation. What should be done and who should be doing it? 
• This section will be written in third person and referenced appropriately. 

This video (13 min) from Nick Nash (2020) details the guidelines for an ethical case study analysis.