A case study is a particular type of research paper. A case can be a person, group, event or situation. Case studies are used as a learning tool in most fields including medicine, management and law. In order to write a case study, it is first of all important to understand the purpose of the study, whether the study is being made to report occurrences of certain phenomenon and their causes or whether the study is being made to identify existing challenges and seek their solutions. In the former type the focus is on analysis while the latter type the focus is on problem solving, a case study may be written keeping both the approaches in mind. In order to write a case study both secondary and primary research is required, some cases may be written purely on secondary information.
A case study generally has following parts:
Abstract: here the writer should specify the subject of study, its purpose and importance and methods used for conducting the study.
Observations: this part should clearly mention what the researcher has found out by his/her observations.
Interpretation: the researcher uses his/her knowledge to explain the observed phenomenon; if the study is analytical researcher can use causal methods to establish cause effect relationships. Researcher may also explain problems and their context in several dimensions.
Suggestions: in this section the researcher can suggest the solutions to the identified problems or relate the observed phenomenon with factors, the researcher may also give details regarding the method of applying the solutions so as to get the correct result.
Conclusion: in this section the researcher needs to summarize the main findings, suggest generalizations and scope for future study or applications.
References: in this section researcher needs to list down all the cited or quoted works in prescribed style.
Appendix: this section contains tables, graphs, charts etc., which could not be included in the main text so as to maintain its sequence or flow and avoid diversion.