Case Study

A successful case study analyses a real life situation. It should:

• Relate the theory to a practical situation, that is, apply the ideas and knowledge discussed in the coursework to the practical situation in the case.
• Identify the problems or the common issues  in the case.
• Select the major problems or issues in the case.
• Suggest solutions to these major problems, or explanations for the issues.
• Recommend the best solution to be implemented, or the most likely explanation for the issues.

The case is the real life situation, the case study is the analysis of this situation.

When an assignment is based on a case study, some students may have difficulty identifying the actual assignment task and recognising the most important information for guiding a relevant response. The cases that you can choose from for this assignment are:

1. Television Talent Programs.
2. Tattoos
3. Hip-hop
4. Facebook
5. Newcastle Style 


Having decided on a case to study, you need to select an aspect to focus on as you do not have the time to do an exhaustive study.  The questions given beside each case might help you decide on an approach to take, but you can follow a different line of investigation if you wish. Leave a comment below if you are taking a different angle, to make sure you are on the right track.


The case study can take one of two different approaches:

• In an analytical approach you will research a case and analyse it in order to demonstrate your understanding of the text, the situation or the practice, and your ability to apply published research to a real life situation.
• In an problem-solving approach you will research a case and identify problems within the situation and suggest solutions, usually narrowing down to an optimal solution.

If you are not sure which approach best suits the case you are interested in, leave a comment below.

Case Study Help Sheet from the University of Melbourne

Writing a Methods Section

The methods section of a research paper allows the reader to judge the validity of the information that you found. Therefore, it requires a clear and precise description of how you went about gathering information, whether it was a textual analysis, survey, interview, or observation, and why you chose that method. The methods section should describe what was done, including how you chose the number and type of texts, or interviewees, how you recorded the information, and how the results were analyzed.

Remember, the methods section is a description of how you went about the case study. Don't include any results or any discussion of what you found out.

Do include information on:

Participants - who (or which texts) was in your study, how many, and how were they selected.

Materials - what were you measuring (a.k.a. operational definitions) actions, attitudes, styles, situations ...

Procedure - what exactly did you do.

Get started by listing what you did, in the order you did it. Then expand on each point, using references to help explain the method or justify your decisions in designing your approach.

For example:

"Participants were a convenience sample (Experiment Resources.com) of fifteen students enrolled in FMCS2200, in accordance with ethical research guidelines. All students were in the 18 - 25 age group. Eleven were male and four were female.  ...." 


"... to measure the emphasis on stardom in X Factor three episodes were watched and each instance of a comment concerning star, stardom, celebrity, fans, or media attention was recorded, identifying whether the comment came from the participant or their family, the judges, or another source."


"Participants were given the web address of an online survey (van Selm, 2006), which asked them to select the response which most closely reflected their personal attitude."

Writing an Introduction

An introduction should generally have three sections:

1. The background or context of your research project or case study. This section is probably closest to the essays you will have done in high school, you read the available information on your topic and summarise it. So if your case study is on the current connotations of tattoos, you would read what is available on tattoos as identity markers, and social responses to tattoos, and write a concise statement on the changing meanings of tattoos. In a 2,000 word report 400 words would be sufficient.
2. State the problem that you investigated, or the question you set out to answer. Using the example of the tattoos case study, you might say something like "As a specific demographic group, University of Newcastle students may not share broader opinions on the meanings of tattoos." A line or two is sufficient for this section.
3. Outline what you set out to do to resolve the problem or answer the research question. Again only a line or two is required, you will go into more detail in the Method section of your paper. To continue the example, you might say "This study of UoN students with tattoos or piercings, asked them about their motivation for body modification and their perception of others' attitudes towards them."

Use these examples if you wish, or modify them as you see fit.

Despite what you may read in writing guides, you do not need to begin with a catchy sentence to grab my attention. I am obliged to read your paper, my attention is already grabbed. A sweeping generalisation with obvious overstatement detracts from your research. "Across the whole history of mankind tattoos have been both loved and loathed." is not a good beginning. The first sentence in Sweetmen's article is a better example to emulate. "The last 20 to 30 years have seen a considerable resurgence  in the popularity of tattooing and body piercing in the West ... (Armstrong 1991)"