General Instructions for Writing Cases Case studies are analyses of situations encountered by firms in the "real world". They used as a teaching tool that allows students to get "hands on" experience solving problems they are likely to encounter in the practice of business, using theoretical and analytical skills developed in the classroom. Although the situation may be somewhat simplified, the data and descriptions are highly correlated with actual events.
Your responses to the case assignments should be clearly and concisely written. Imagine yourself preparing an Executive Summary to be read by the Board of Directors at your company (i.e., do not write up your case like a "problem set" -- treat it as a short paper). Poorly written reports do not get serious consideration, and their authors do not get promoted, or worse, they eventually get dismissed. Of course, flawed analysis might also cost the firm lots of money. (Your paper should be double-spaced. As a guide for style for format of citations and references, use one of my papers, Long Memory in Commodity Futures...or Tracking Stocks or Risk Premia. You need not, however, include an abstract.)
The Board gets bored easily, so your reports should be no longer than 5 pages (maximum of 5 pages, not including bibliography, tables, appendices and graphs). In some cases, the report could be shorter. The Board is also not amused by reports that overwhelm with quantity at the expense of quality. It is the authors' job to conduct the analysis, filter the results in a manner proportional to their relevance, state the relevant assumptions, and present the results in a concise and innovative fashion.
Some groups will be present their case results. Non-presenting groups will participate by asking intelligent, insightful and probing questions.
You may use any written or electronic resource in the production of your report, except any solutions that may have previously been written by others. If you are not familiar with the proper format for organization, you should consider consulting a writing manual.
Hints for Presentations: Your presentations will be graded on:
- Powerpoint will be available in class for your presentations
- Use graphs when possible to illustrate your point. They are much easier to digest than tables and tables of numbers.
- Assume your audience has only some familiarity with the problem at hand. You won't want to go into excessive detail (e.g., so much detail that your audience stops listening) but you will want to give an good overview of the issues at hand, and detail the one or two portions of your solution that are tricky or controversial.
- Practice.
- Clarity of exposition
- Clarity of visual aids
- Pedagogy (or style)
- Content (content will weigh more heavily in the written portion).
Grading of Cases In the past, students, except for the occasional free-rider or overachiever, have enthusiastically reported that working in groups was a great experience. To identify whether there are strong outliers in your group, discuss the contributions of each member before you hand-in your case, and report the results on cover page of your case. I suspect that the majority of groups will probably find that each member puts forth enough effort to be counted fully.
Sample Title Page for Cases
Title of Case Study
Mary Joe McCoy__100%_ MCJimmy Bob Houston__100%_ JHTim Zabinski__75%__ TZJohn Elder__100%_ JE
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