A Guide to Case Study Writing

A Guide to Student-Written, Instructor-Facilitated Case Writing
by Paul Michael Swiercz, Ph.D. The George Washington University


Student-Written, Instructor-Facilitated (SWIF) case study writing is a powerful tool for helping both students and instructors redefine their roles. The guide is divided into two sections. The first section provides background information on the case-study-writing process and answers the most commonly asked questions about case study writing. The second section provides a guide to data resources and some tools for evaluating the case study. New library technologies and computerized databases offer an extraordinarily rich array of information resources. In fact, the resources are so rich and growing so rapidly that it is impossible to summarize them in a document of this size, so this second section is meant to be only a starting point. The guidelines provided and the resources identified will help the new case study writer prepare a clear, concise, and illustrative case study.

What is a Case Study ?