Sixteen weeks of case studies?!?!?! That's exactly what Public Relations Cases class is. Some of these cases are old...I'd prefer to think of them as classic. Some of them involve PR disasters. Some of them you'll have a tough time finding anything to improve upon. You can learn from all of them, however.

The case study assignment is very often used because it allows students to show their understanding of and ability to apply theories in practical situations. This is clearly a good preparation for their future careers. However, for whatever reasons, some students do have particular problems with case studies.

The typical case study will either give you a scenario or require you to draw on your experience and invent one. Regardless, the common element is that it will contain a problem or is a case of how a person or institution dealt with a problem and your task is either to propose a solution, recommend a course of action or to assess the success of previous attempts to solve the problem. You have to bring your practical and theoretical knowledge to bear on both the analysis of the case and the solutions you propose.

The most important thing is to make it clear to yourself what you are supposed to do. For example, are you to diagnose a problem, make recommendations, or investigate alternative solutions/interventions and justify a final choice?

The best way of approaching this is to put yourself in the role of the specialist or the consultant and imagine you are advising a client about an actual situation (and this, indeed, is what some case study assignments ask you to imagine). Doing this forces you to focus on what is truly relevant and to fully justify what you do.

The first step necessarily is to analyze the case. Initially, read it through quickly to get some idea of what it is about and to identify the main problem or broad issue.

Then closely re-read or reconsider the case in the light of the theoretical knowledge you have. If appropriate, use any standard tools in your field of knowledge that could help you to analyze the situation. Analyzing the case thoroughly will allow you to re-represent the problem to yourself in the terms of your discipline. You do this really because you need to understand it from the point of view of a practicing professional. Unless you can see it like this, you will never move beyond the common sense solutions or beyond repeating information learned in the course instead of knowing what is relevant when applying it to a particular situation.

You then have to come up with your ideas, you formulate your opinions or solutions or whatever you were asked to do, and you need to have evidence (from both the case itself and the theory) to justify these. You now need to decide what format will allow you to present this best. Please develop the habit of thinking rationally/factually and not emotionally/irrationally. If you find yourself saying, “I feel…” about the case you’re not thinking factually. Make yourself say, “I think,” or more meaningfully, “The facts indicate that…”

A common problem is for some students to be hung up on the form of the case study and any report associated with it. They are searching for an absolute formula, rather than exploiting the parts to fit their needs and material. So, the written report will often have innumerable parts but these may not ever come together to form a coherent whole or to be used to support a recommendation. For example, we occasionally see students who have gone through the steps of a SWOT analysis--Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats--but then seem to ignore what it has shown. Therefore, the various parts just read like obligatory steps to be gone through without the realization of the purpose of doing this. A format can be useful, but each section needs to earn its place.

Think logically about the story you need to tell. For example, there is a problem which has to be explained to the reader, the analysis of the problem has to show you have a good understanding of it, and you have to convince your reader you are well-placed to propose and justify recommendations for its solution. Think of it as an argument, tell it to yourself a few times and see how it flow… and the format will follow from this.

In many disciplines you are required to have a summary, an abstract or an executive summary. Even if such a summary is not a requirement for the assignment, it is nevertheless still a good idea to write this for yourself before you write the full paper. It gives you the opportunity to put the whole ‘in a nutshell’ and this will help you decide how to structure your paper. It is easier to try out ideas, structuring and restructuring a one-page summary than a 2,000-word assignment.

In the whole process of analyzing and writing, you have to come back to the particulars of the case to ground your discussion. The basic evidence is in the case, and the literature supports your reasoning. There are two pathologies in case study writing:

• One is concentrating exclusively on the theoretical knowledge and never showing how it relates to the case at hand, and

• The other is discussing the case without ever bringing in theories to show how you’ve interpreted the problem and to justify your solution.

The whole purpose of the case study is to examine how some person or organization dealt with a situation, what they did correctly and incorrectly, what you would recommend in a future similar situation and, in short, what this case taught you.

Pretty simple, huh?

Position Papers...

Case studies provide an excellent opportunity to examine a set of  theoretical concepts and principles in action, things actually being used in a "real-world" environment. Position papers, on the other hand, offer an opportunity for examination of one of those concepts in-depth. Case studies examine situations; position papers examine issues.

Issue papers play an important role in understanding controversial business/other subjects. The purpose of a position paper is to persuade individuals and/or a division of a company (or even a government entity) to agree with a certain point of view. A position paper outlines where you stand on an issue after research, evaluation, reaching conclusions, and development of recommendations.

The first step in writing a position paper is to state the issue to be examined in-depth.  Describe the issue fairly and honestly. Don't take a position on the issue--yet. 

The person reading your position paper must understand the circumstances involved in order to understand the issue itself . Background information provides the setting for discussion of the issue.  Give enough background to provide context and to help your reader understand why the subject being discussed is an important issue.

Consider both sides. Although you will be taking a position on the issue, don't ignore the opposing arguments.

Develop and outline your conclusions about the issue. They should flow smoothly from the statement of the issue, background information, various points of view and supportive facts and figures.

State your conclusions persuasively. Your conclusions should lead to a point of view as to how others should view this issue in the future, or how they could use this information in their own lives, work environments.

The paper itself should be about two to five typewritten pages, double-spaced, one side of the paper only. As is customary for reports today, the writer should use 12 point type and a traditional font like New Times Roman.

Here's a checklist that should help in the development of a position paper:

• Find a topic.  Choose a topic that interests you and on which you are able to find relevant information.

• Focus your topic. Is this a business issue?  A more specifically focused, issue such as marketing- or finance-related? Is it a legislative issue? To whom will you be directing your paper? What action would you like them to take or what opinion do you want them to share as a result of your paper? Develop your paper with that audience and intended result in mind.

• Research the topic, getting as deeply into it as you can. Use the background referred to earlier, printed material, the Internet,  audio-visual materials that might be available. Will you need to talk to authorities on the subject? Seek as many different opinions as you can find.

• Summarize the main points of the different opinions. Discover not only where they disagree, but also where they agree. Why is this an issue at all?

• Evaluate these opinions. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?

• Analyze your own position on this issue. Why do you hold the opinion that you do? Under what circumstances would you hold a different opinion? What constituencies would benefit from the policy that you advocate? What constituencies would suffer? Who "pays"? How do you justify this cost fairly?

• Draft your paper, beginning with a description of the controversy, outlining the major positions, identifying who has the power or authority to implement policy or initiate action, and concluding with a specific description of your position, the reasons underlying it, and the specific action you'd like to see taken by the appropriate party or parties identified.

• Revise your paper at least once, paying particular attention to places where you seem to make unexplained assumptions. How knowledgeable about the subject does your reader have to be to understand the issue? What haven't you said? Why? What have you over-explained? Why? Ask two or three other people for their responses. It's helpful to find someone who holds a different opinion from yours.

• Write an executive summary including your recommendations, paying attention to tone and voice. In our short papers, a paragraph should be enough.

• Write a list of references if you are drawing on someone else's" intellectual property."

• Edit everything to conform to correct grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation, etc.