Case Study Outline
Below, I’ve sketched out an outline for you to follow in writing your case study, which is our final project for the class. I hope this helps!
When writing, as is common in APA style, you should include the section numbered section headings, like they are written here.
1 Introduction
In this section, you should condense and boil down your proposal. What themes from your LAB or interview did you explore in your research, and what questions did you have?
You should also include a preview of the research that answers the questions that you outline above.
This work can be done in the span of 1 or 2 shorter paragraphs.
2 Preliminary data
In this section you will briefly discuss how the data from your LAB or interview suggests the themes that you outline from your introduction.
If you’re using info from your interview, this is a chance to use some of the thick description that you wrote.
If you’re using info from your LAB this is a chance to use some of the descriptions of the concrete episodes that you wrote.
The goal of this section is to give your reader a general overview of the data you will be working with.
This work can be done in the span of 1 or 2 shorter paragraphs.
3 research
In this part of the project you will begin using ICET to discuss the research that you’ve found in the library/through the library website.
We can think of the “T” in ICET in a few other ways:
I: introduce
C: Cite, paraphrase (APA).
E: explain
T: Thesis or theme or transition.
In this new, so to speak, “T” you can relate your source-based paragraph back to the themes you discussed in your introduction or you can use the “T” to transition to the discussion of your next source.
By the end of this section, you should have presented your reader with a clear picture of the ideas that you discovered in the research process. You need to do this in order apply these ideas in your analysis/synthesis section.
4 Analysis/synthesis
In this section you will use both your primary data from your LAB or interview and the ideas from your research.
You will format this by using a “double” source-based paragraph, or the “club” quotation sandwich.
I: Introduce
C: Cite, paraphrase source # 1(APA).
E: explain.
T: transition
C: Cite, paraphrase source # 2 (APA).
E: explain.
T: Thesis.
5 Conclusion
In this section, you will describe the new ways in which you can view the data you collected in your LAB or interview.
You will answer the questions:
What did you learn from applying the ideas from your research to your data in your analysis/synthesis section?
What new questions came up for you in the process of writing this that would require further research?
