help in writing a case study

How to write a case study — examples, templates, and tools

It’s a marketer’s job to communicate the effectiveness of a product or service to potential and current customers to convince them to buy and keep business moving. One of the best methods for doing this is to share success stories that are relatable to prospects and customers based on their pain points, experiences, and overall needs.

That’s where case studies come in. Case studies are an essential part of a content marketing plan. These in-depth stories of customer experiences are some of the most effective at demonstrating the value of a product or service. Yet many marketers don’t use them, whether because of their regimented formats or the process of customer involvement and approval.

A case study is a powerful tool for showcasing your hard work and the success your customer achieved. But writing a great case study can be difficult if you’ve never done it before or if it’s been a while. This guide will show you how to write an effective case study and provide real-world examples and templates that will keep readers engaged and support your business.

In this article, you’ll learn:

What is a case study?

How to write a case study, case study templates, case study examples, case study tools.

A case study is the detailed story of a customer’s experience with a product or service that demonstrates their success and often includes measurable outcomes. Case studies are used in a range of fields and for various reasons, from business to academic research. They’re especially impactful in marketing as brands work to convince and convert consumers with relatable, real-world stories of actual customer experiences.

The best case studies tell the story of a customer’s success, including the steps they took, the results they achieved, and the support they received from a brand along the way. To write a great case study, you need to:

• Celebrate the customer and make them — not a product or service — the star of the story.
• Craft the story with specific audiences or target segments in mind so that the story of one customer will be viewed as relatable and actionable for another customer.
• Write copy that is easy to read and engaging so that readers will gain the insights and messages intended.
• Follow a standardized format that includes all of the essentials a potential customer would find interesting and useful.
• Support all of the claims for success made in the story with data in the forms of hard numbers and customer statements.

Case studies are a type of review but more in depth, aiming to show — rather than just tell — the positive experiences that customers have with a brand. Notably, 89% of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy, and 79% view case study content as part of their purchasing process. When it comes to B2B sales, 52% of buyers rank case studies as an important part of their evaluation process.

Telling a brand story through the experience of a tried-and-true customer matters. The story is relatable to potential new customers as they imagine themselves in the shoes of the company or individual featured in the case study. Showcasing previous customers can help new ones see themselves engaging with your brand in the ways that are most meaningful to them.

Besides sharing the perspective of another customer, case studies stand out from other content marketing forms because they are based on evidence. Whether pulling from client testimonials or data-driven results, case studies tend to have more impact on new business because the story contains information that is both objective (data) and subjective (customer experience) — and the brand doesn’t sound too self-promotional.

Case studies are unique in that there’s a fairly standardized format for telling a customer’s story. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creativity. It’s all about making sure that teams are clear on the goals for the case study — along with strategies for supporting content and channels — and understanding how the story fits within the framework of the company’s overall marketing goals.

Here are the basic steps to writing a good case study.

1. Identify your goal

Start by defining exactly who your case study will be designed to help. Case studies are about specific instances where a company works with a customer to achieve a goal. Identify which customers are likely to have these goals, as well as other needs the story should cover to appeal to them.

The answer is often found in one of the buyer personas that have been constructed as part of your larger marketing strategy. This can include anything from new leads generated by the marketing team to long-term customers that are being pressed for cross-sell opportunities. In all of these cases, demonstrating value through a relatable customer success story can be part of the solution to conversion.

2. Choose your client or subject

Who you highlight matters. Case studies tie brands together that might otherwise not cross paths. A writer will want to ensure that the highlighted customer aligns with their own company’s brand identity and offerings. Look for a customer with positive name recognition who has had great success with a product or service and is willing to be an advocate.

The client should also match up with the identified target audience. Whichever company or individual is selected should be a reflection of other potential customers who can see themselves in similar circumstances, having the same problems and possible solutions.

Some of the most compelling case studies feature customers who:

• Switch from one product or service to another while naming competitors that missed the mark.
• Experience measurable results that are relatable to others in a specific industry.
• Represent well-known brands and recognizable names that are likely to compel action.
• Advocate for a product or service as a champion and are well-versed in its advantages.

Whoever or whatever customer is selected, marketers must ensure they have the permission of the company involved before getting started. Some brands have strict review and approval procedures for any official marketing or promotional materials that include their name. Acquiring those approvals in advance will prevent any miscommunication or wasted effort if there is an issue with their legal or compliance teams.

3. Conduct research and compile data

Substantiating the claims made in a case study — either by the marketing team or customers themselves — adds validity to the story. To do this, include data and feedback from the client that defines what success looks like. This can be anything from demonstrating return on investment (ROI) to a specific metric the customer was striving to improve. Case studies should prove how an outcome was achieved and show tangible results that indicate to the customer that your solution is the right one.

This step could also include customer interviews. Make sure that the people being interviewed are key stakeholders in the purchase decision or deployment and use of the product or service that is being highlighted. Content writers should work off a set list of questions prepared in advance. It can be helpful to share these with the interviewees beforehand so they have time to consider and craft their responses. One of the best interview tactics to keep in mind is to ask questions where yes and no are not natural answers. This way, your subject will provide more open-ended responses that produce more meaningful content.

4. Choose the right format

There are a number of different ways to format a case study. Depending on what you hope to achieve, one style will be better than another. However, there are some common elements to include, such as:

• An engaging headline
• A subject and customer introduction
• The unique challenge or challenges the customer faced
• The solution the customer used to solve the problem
• The results achieved
• Data and statistics to back up claims of success
• A strong call to action (CTA) to engage with the vendor

It’s also important to note that while case studies are traditionally written as stories, they don’t have to be in a written format. Some companies choose to get more creative with their case studies and produce multimedia content, depending on their audience and objectives. Case study formats can include traditional print stories, interactive web or social content, data-heavy infographics, professionally shot videos, podcasts, and more.

5. Write your case study

We’ll go into more detail later about how exactly to write a case study, including templates and examples. Generally speaking, though, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing your case study.

• Be clear and concise. Readers want to get to the point of the story quickly and easily, and they’ll be looking to see themselves reflected in the story right from the start.
• Provide a big picture. Always make sure to explain who the client is, their goals, and how they achieved success in a short introduction to engage the reader.
• Construct a clear narrative. Stick to the story from the perspective of the customer and what they needed to solve instead of just listing product features or benefits.
• Leverage graphics. Incorporating infographics, charts, and sidebars can be a more engaging and eye-catching way to share key statistics and data in readable ways.
• Offer the right amount of detail. Most case studies are one or two pages with clear sections that a reader can skim to find the information most important to them.
• Include data to support claims. Show real results — both facts and figures and customer quotes — to demonstrate credibility and prove the solution works.

6. Promote your story

Marketers have a number of options for distribution of a freshly minted case study. Many brands choose to publish case studies on their website and post them on social media. This can help support SEO and organic content strategies while also boosting company credibility and trust as visitors see that other businesses have used the product or service.

Marketers are always looking for quality content they can use for lead generation. Consider offering a case study as gated content behind a form on a landing page or as an offer in an email message. One great way to do this is to summarize the content and tease the full story available for download after the user takes an action.

Sales teams can also leverage case studies, so be sure they are aware that the assets exist once they’re published. Especially when it comes to larger B2B sales, companies often ask for examples of similar customer challenges that have been solved.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about case studies and what they should include, you may be wondering how to start creating great customer story content. Here are a couple of templates you can use to structure your case study.

Template 1 — Challenge-solution-result format

• Start with an engaging title. This should be fewer than 70 characters long for SEO best practices. One of the best ways to approach the title is to include the customer’s name and a hint at the challenge they overcame in the end.
• Create an introduction. Lead with an explanation as to who the customer is, the need they had, and the opportunity they found with a specific product or solution. Writers can also suggest the success the customer experienced with the solution they chose.
• Present the challenge. This should be several paragraphs long and explain the problem the customer faced and the issues they were trying to solve. Details should tie into the company’s products and services naturally. This section needs to be the most relatable to the reader so they can picture themselves in a similar situation.
• Share the solution. Explain which product or service offered was the ideal fit for the customer and why. Feel free to delve into their experience setting up, purchasing, and onboarding the solution.
• Explain the results. Demonstrate the impact of the solution they chose by backing up their positive experience with data. Fill in with customer quotes and tangible, measurable results that show the effect of their choice.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that invites readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to nurture them further in the marketing pipeline. What you ask of the reader should tie directly into the goals that were established for the case study in the first place.

Template 2 — Data-driven format

• Start with an engaging title. Be sure to include a statistic or data point in the first 70 characters. Again, it’s best to include the customer’s name as part of the title.
• Create an overview. Share the customer’s background and a short version of the challenge they faced. Present the reason a particular product or service was chosen, and feel free to include quotes from the customer about their selection process.
• Present data point 1. Isolate the first metric that the customer used to define success and explain how the product or solution helped to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 2. Isolate the second metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 3. Isolate the final metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Summarize the results. Reiterate the fact that the customer was able to achieve success thanks to a specific product or service. Include quotes and statements that reflect customer satisfaction and suggest they plan to continue using the solution.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that asks readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to further nurture them in the marketing pipeline. Again, remember that this is where marketers can look to convert their content into action with the customer.

While templates are helpful, seeing a case study in action can also be a great way to learn. Here are some examples of how Adobe customers have experienced success.

Juniper Networks

One example is the Adobe and Juniper Networks case study , which puts the reader in the customer’s shoes. The beginning of the story quickly orients the reader so that they know exactly who the article is about and what they were trying to achieve. Solutions are outlined in a way that shows Adobe Experience Manager is the best choice and a natural fit for the customer. Along the way, quotes from the client are incorporated to help add validity to the statements. The results in the case study are conveyed with clear evidence of scale and volume using tangible data.

The story of Lenovo’s journey with Adobe is one that spans years of planning, implementation, and rollout. The Lenovo case study does a great job of consolidating all of this into a relatable journey that other enterprise organizations can see themselves taking, despite the project size. This case study also features descriptive headers and compelling visual elements that engage the reader and strengthen the content.

Tata Consulting

When it comes to using data to show customer results, this case study does an excellent job of conveying details and numbers in an easy-to-digest manner. Bullet points at the start break up the content while also helping the reader understand exactly what the case study will be about. Tata Consulting used Adobe to deliver elevated, engaging content experiences for a large telecommunications client of its own — an objective that’s relatable for a lot of companies.

Case studies are a vital tool for any marketing team as they enable you to demonstrate the value of your company’s products and services to others. They help marketers do their job and add credibility to a brand trying to promote its solutions by using the experiences and stories of real customers.

When you’re ready to get started with a case study:

• Think about a few goals you’d like to accomplish with your content.
• Make a list of successful clients that would be strong candidates for a case study.
• Reach out to the client to get their approval and conduct an interview.
• Gather the data to present an engaging and effective customer story.

Adobe can help

There are several Adobe products that can help you craft compelling case studies. Adobe Experience Platform helps you collect data and deliver great customer experiences across every channel. Once you’ve created your case studies, Experience Platform will help you deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time for maximum impact.

To learn more, watch the Adobe Experience Platform story .

Keep in mind that the best case studies are backed by data. That’s where Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and Adobe Analytics come into play. With Real-Time CDP, you can gather the data you need to build a great case study and target specific customers to deliver the content to the right audience at the perfect moment.

Watch the Real-Time CDP overview video to learn more.

Finally, Adobe Analytics turns real-time data into real-time insights. It helps your business collect and synthesize data from multiple platforms to make more informed decisions and create the best case study possible.

Request a demo to learn more about Adobe Analytics.

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/b2b-ecommerce-10-case-studies-inspire-you

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/business-case

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-real-time-analytics

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How to Write a Case Study with Examples By John Wood for AWAI

The 9-step formula detailed below will teach you how to write a winning business case study. And we’ll walk through the process using real case study examples. You'll find all the information you need to write a polished case study that will generate leads and help close sales.

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When you can write an effective case study, you’re creating a powerful sales tool for your business or client. That’s because a case study is a compelling, real-world, “before and after” story that shows how a customer solved a problem by using a company’s product or service.

The customer (not the company’s sales team) is the credible source telling a story that’s relevant and valuable to the prospect.

Businesses love case studies, because they’re a huge step beyond a simple testimonial. They help give a prospect an understanding of how a customer accomplished their goals by using their product.

In a competitive marketplace, case studies are an effective way for businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

If you’re in business, starting a business, or writing for a business … knowing how to write a case study is a valuable skill that will help you generate a pipeline of leads and close sales. And if you’re a marketer, it’s another profitable skill to have in your marketing arsenal.

Let’s look at the specific steps for writing an effective case study, along with a few other tips that will help make your case study a success.

How to write a case study in 9 easy steps

Writing a case study is quite simple, as long as you know the proven formula business writers generally follow. The nine main components of writing a case study are …

A news-like headline — The most effective case study headlines focus on one idea that communicates relevant benefits to your target audience in a compelling way. You don’t need to be clever or adopt a sales tone with your headline. Your goal is to be objective and straightforward. For your headline to have the most impact, you should include tangible figures.

Here are a couple of examples:

The Wilson Group Increases Throughput by 312% Using Mason Douglas

Noble Corporation Helps ABC Medical Increase Production Output by 37% in Six Months

The above examples are focused on one idea only and state the main benefit or result received. You could also tack on how the result was achieved using a “cause and effect” headline format, like this:

The Wilson Group Increases Throughput by 312% by Streamlining Their Assembly Line with Mason Douglas

The cause is the streamlining of the assembly line; the effect is the 312% increase in throughput.

Headline Tips:

• Focus on one big idea.
• State it almost like a newspaper headline and make sure it will appeal to the prospect and what they’re trying to solve or achieve.

Customer background — In this section, you’ll describe the business customer in three to six sentences. This should total 50 to 100 words. Here is some of the customer-related information you may want to include:

• Where the customer’s business is headquartered
• What the company manufactures or sells or delivers
• What types of customers they target
• How long they’ve been around or when they were founded
• The number of employees
• Their number of locations
• Their main product lines or service offerings
• What makes the company and their products or services different

It may be difficult to include all seven of these points within the targeted word count. Your mission is to pick the most relevant information based on your target audience and the story you’re telling in your case study.

Two places to look for information about the customer’s company are in the “About Us” section of a recent press release and the “About Us” page of their website. You can also fill in any information missing from your research during the interview with the customer.

The challenges — Here you want to introduce and expand on the main challenges the customer was facing as related to the product or service featured in your case study.

The key here is to create a compelling story. Don’t just list the challenges; go a little deeper into the impact the challenges were having on their overall business.

Explain why it was important to solve them, why and how they were impacting the customer, and to what degree. Do this with two or three key challenges, as long as they tell a specific story related to the solution.

Your goal is to make your reader feel these challenges are too important and too meaningful to be ignored, and that a solution must be found to overcome them. Remember, the prospect is likely facing the same challenges as the customer in your case study, so the more descriptive you are, the better.

• The journey — In this section, document the journey to the solution and the results. You’ll talk about the research the customer did in search of a solution. You’ll outline the pros and cons of the options they considered and why they ultimately chose to go with the featured company’s product or service. This section adds depth and credibility to your story, as a prospect considering the same solution usually goes through a similar process.
• The solution — This is where you showcase the product or service as the answer to the customer’s challenges. Your goal here is to introduce the product or service in an educational, non-salesy way.

The implementation — Next, explain how the product or service was implemented. The key to this section is to paint an accurate picture.

It’s rare for an implementation to go 100% perfectly. So, to boost the authenticity of this section, document how the implementation went — warts and all — and then how the company overcame it. This will make your story more believable and compelling.

The results — This is where you detail how well the product or service solved the customer’s challenges. Focus on results metrics (tables, charts, increases in production, efficiency, revenue, etc.) that are both specific and relevant to the target audience. Tell them what was achieved and how.

Explain why the results are important to the customer and the impact they’ve had, both specific to the department the results were achieved in and the impact on the overall business.

Tip : BE SPECIFIC! Include facts, numbers, and charts. Use tangible and detailed figures. For instance, “increased sales by 17.5%” is much better than just “increased sales.”

• Sidebar with summary points — To help busy executives who want to get the gist of the story without reading the entire case study, include a sidebar with a summary of the story and its main points. Write these so compellingly they instantly grab your reader’s attention.
• Pull-out quotes — You’ll want to pick one or two strong, relatively short customer quotes about solving the problem to use as a pull-out or featured quote. These quotes will add visual interest to your case study and will grab the attention of people who are simply scanning the content.

If you’ve been wondering how to write a case study, you can’t go wrong with the above formula. It’s been proven to work and is an extremely safe bet.

Case study examples

Case study example #1 — avoxi integrated solutions.

The first case study example is a business-to-business (B2B) case study showcasing AVOXI Integrated Solutions and their client, Grace Bay Resorts

A News-like headline (#1)

Grace Bay Resorts Cuts Phone Costs by 75-85% while Enhancing Guest Services.

This headline tells the reader what potential benefits they’ll experience, a reduction in costs and an improved guest experience. The writer increases the headline’s impact by making it very specific (75-85% cost reduction).

The subhead, Resort Gains Flexibility, Reliability with AVOXI Integrated Solutions , adds two more benefits and then names the solution.

The Customer Background (#2)

The first paragraph (44 words) gives a quick overview of the company:

With a focus on handmade experiences, Grace Bay Resorts has earned hundreds of awards and accolades since opening in 1993. Their award-winning flagship property Grace Bay Club in Turks & Caicos offers beachfront destinations in three distinct settings: hotel, villas and beachfront villa homes.

It answers three more questions potential buyers have: When they opened, where they are located, and what they offer.

The Challenges (#3)

In the second paragraph, the writer transitions into challenges Grace Bay faced. He starts by stressing how vital effective communication services are to Grace Bay’s results. The challenge is finding a provider who offers the latest technology at an affordable cost:

Grace Bay aims to treat every guest and prospective guest as a VIP. To do so, it relies heavily on its communication solutions to field hundreds of calls every month, and to keep guests connected during their stays. The ability to operate seamlessly during customer calls is essential to the resort’s business model and hands-on reputation.

In the past, the company lacked a contact center solution with modern features such as automated greetings, call recording and call center metrics. And, it paid heavy long-distance costs with a local carrier.

The Journey (#4)

In this case study, the copy describing the journey is short and concise. The IT Manager was sold on the AVOXI solution instantly when he heard about it:

When Leo Lumacang heard about AVOXI cloud solutions, the business case was clear. “When I presented to management that we would save thousands and thousands of dollars by switching to AVOXI, it was an easy sell,” says Lumacang, IT Manager at Grace Bay. “We cut out costs by probably 75-85 percent immediately.”

The Solution (#5)

The majority of the 2 nd page of the case study focuses on the solution including this excerpt that lists the AVOXI solutions that were implemented.

Grace Bay deployed a set of integrated cloud solutions from AVOXI, including a cloud-based phone system, virtual contact center software, a VoIP gateway and international toll-free numbers—all solutions that enhance the guest experience, and reduce costs and management hassles for the resort.

They go on to describe the features of the virtual contact center software and how it was used by the reservation center to improve their service levels.

The Implementation (#6)

The implementation phase of the product or service is a section that is not always documented in case studies. The reason for this is simple. There is nothing notable that came out of the implementation. In this case study, the writer focuses more on what was implemented (the solution) than on how it was implemented.

The Results (#7)

The results are detailed in the last three sections. The AVOXI solution resulted in significant improvements in Grace Bay’s reservation center operations. It also helped improve the guest experience by allowing the resort to provide free international toll-free calls. And finally, they highlight the reliability of the system and the efficiency and effectiveness of AVOXI’s customer support.

A Sidebar with summary points (#8)

In the left column on the second page, the writer adds a brief summary of the case study, listing the four components that make up the solution and three bullet points of the results experienced.

Pull-out quote (#9)

Pull-out quotes are used on pages 1 and 3 and focus on the improvements in service levels, one of the biggest concerns for the customer.

Case Study Example #2 — AWAI

The second case study example is a business-to-consumer (B2C) case study showcasing American Writers & Artists (AWAI) and one of their customers, Candice Lazar.

Florida Attorney Finds Fulfillment — and Financial Gain — in Copywriting Career Shift.

The headline is straightforward and reads very much like a news headline. The message of a successful career change to copywriting is aimed at prospects who may have similar goals.

The Customer background (#2)

The first few paragraphs give information about the Candice’s background by talking about her experiences and attitude towards risk-taking.

Her main challenge is revealed under the sub-head “A Simple, Self-Starting Business.” She “felt something was missing” in her job as an attorney. According to a recent Gallup study, 51 percent of Americans aren’t engaged in their work and another 16 percent are “actively disengaged,” so it’s an issue many people relate to.

Her journey starts when a former boss tells her he needs copywriting help. She spots a banner from AWAI which gets her thinking that writing might be a good career for her as it’s something she’s always enjoyed.

Candice’s goal is to learn as much about copywriting as she can. The solution is a variety of AWAI products.

Candice first joins the Barefoot Writer Club, she consumes The Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting. She also takes How to Make Money as a Social Media Marketing Expert and takes part in Joshua Boswell’s How to Launch Your Writer’s Life in a Day .

Under the subhead “Candice’s Niche Switch” it talks about how Candice originally chose small hotels and hotel chains as her copywriting focus. She soon realized that they don’t require a lot of marketing material. Acknowledging a setback or addressing a challenge is important because it adds to the credibility of Candace’s story.

The third page of the case study talks about Candice’s copywriting successes including the growth of her business which has allowed her to cut back to part time hours on her less fulfilling legal work.

There is a sidebar that gives basic information about Candice and the AWAI products that helped her launch her writing career.

Pull-out quotes (#9)

The first page contains a pull-out quote from Candice that focuses on her results … a copywriting business that is more than just a source of income. It's enjoyable and rewarding work.

The “feature article” case study format

The main difference between the traditional case study format and the feature article format is how the case study starts. The traditional format starts out with some basic information about the customer. The feature article format starts out with an interesting, engaging lead that usually talks about the challenge the customer was facing.

Then it goes to the information about the customer, followed by more information about the customer’s challenge.

After that, it follows the same format as outlined above for a traditional case study.

The other difference is that a feature article uses more descriptive subheads to draw the reader in, versus the traditional format’s somewhat straightforward subheads (Customer Background, The Challenges, etc.).

The feature article format works well when you want to make the story engaging right from the start. Plus, it tends to be better suited for people who want to understand the gist of the case study quickly by merely skimming the pages.

Case study success tips

Use this as a handy checklist when writing your next case study.

• Don’t make the results seem better than they are. Obviously, you want the results to be good, but they also have to be typical. If you have an anomaly, where a customer received much better than average results, they might not be the best subject for your case study. Your goal should be to make sure whatever results are achieved by the customer you feature are also achievable by the prospect reading your case study.
• Report all the results. Don’t just highlight the best results. Focus on any average results the customer experienced, too. This makes your case study more credible and believable.
• Use the best quotes directly from the customer. You can edit them for clarity or for grammar, but words directly from the customer’s mouth are better than making up a quote and asking them to sign off on it.
• Solve a problem your target audience will, more likely than not, experience. Focus on a problem you know will be relevant to your target audience.
• Include all the products and services that were required for the solution. Be thorough with your description of the solution. You don’t want new customers to be surprised with additional costs or labor fees, once they start using the product or service.
• Use “before and after” metrics. It’s important to have a statistical snapshot of the customer’s situation before they started using the featured product or service, and then contrast it to the results achieved after using it. This will make the results more tangible.
• Show them real numbers. Don’t just say, “Production was increased 48%.” Make it more relatable. Say, “The production line went from producing 210 units an hour to 310 units per hour.”
• Be specific. Look for areas that could benefit from more specific details. Don’t just say, “Adjustments made to their website saw their subscriber list go from 5,234 to 11,345 in less than two months.” Tell them what adjustments you made. You positioned the subscriber box higher up on the page, offered a bonus more of interest to the target audience, and so on.
• Provide proof for every claim. This is standard copywriting stuff, but make sure every claim you make is backed up with solid proof.
• Update your case study down the road. To drive home the long-term benefits and continuing impact on the featured customer, update the case study at an appropriate time down the road.
• Use the “Power of One.” One of the most powerful copywriting principles is the “Power of One,” which is to focus on one story in the case study — one challenge, one solution, one “big wow” impact on how it made a difference.

Ed Gandia , author of Writing Case Studies , says it’s important to keep the “Power of One” top of mind when writing your case study …

Ed Gandia “The plot of a good success story often has multiple themes or ideas. When writing a case study, it’s very tempting to highlight all of them in order to dramatize the story. Doing so, however, can confuse the reader and rob the story of its one key theme. So, stick to one theme — one big idea. Your draft will be much stronger as a result.”

Read Mark Ford’s article, “The Power of One — One Big Idea” for more information about this important copywriting principle.

BONUS: How to promote your case study

A great case study can be the foundation for additional content-marketing opportunities. Try the following clever ways to promote your case study and generate loads of leads for your business:

• Newsletter — Write a story that covers the key details of the case study and include it in your newsletter with a link to access it.
• Webinar — Present a webinar that focuses only on the case study or features it as proof of the claims made about a product or service.
• White paper — Present a case study in a sidebar of a white paper or feature it as part of the narrative within the body copy.
• Sales presentation — Feature a case study in a sales presentation to add credibility to the benefits promised.
• Article or blog post — The problem/solution story that’s at the heart of your case study makes an interesting and informative article topic or blog post.
• Event handout — A case study is an ideal handout at an industry event or a speaking engagement.
• Email signature — Add a sentence or two to your email signature, such as, “Click here to see how company ABC improved their profits by X% in less than six months.”
• Press release — Announce to the world that one of your customers or clients has solved a problem or is operating more efficiently, thanks to one of your products or services.
• LinkedIn — Promote your case study on LinkedIn by posting an article and linking it to a blog post or article. Plus, join groups made up of your target audience and subtly promote your case study within the group.
• Video — Some prospects prefer watching a video over reading two to four pages of copy. If it’s in the budget, create a video based on your case study.
• Social media — Tweet about it, post pictures related to it on Pinterest, or post a video/webinar on YouTube.
• Dedicated case study page — Provide a summary of the case study (Customer’s Company Name, Headline, Problem, Solution, Results) and a link for readers to download the complete case study as a PDF.
• Your homepage — If the case study is hot off the press, a great way to attract attention to it is to mention it on your homepage.
• Product or service sales page — A real-life customer experience just might be the push a prospect needs to become a customer.
• SlideShare presentation — Turn your case study into a detailed presentation, post it on LinkedIn’s SlideShare website, and take advantage of their 60-million-strong audience.

Tip: Several of the above marketing options also give a business an opportunity to capture a prospect’s email address in exchange for giving them access to the case study.

Want to dive deeper into learning how to write case studies?

If you enjoy writing stories, prefer shorter projects over longer assignments, and love the challenge of taking a straightforward story and finding the “hook” or “angle” that will make it more compelling to bring in business leads and sales … writing case studies might be of interest to you.

Ed’s program, Writing Case Studies , may be the fastest, easiest way to get started writing case studies that will “wow” your clients. Here’s what you’ll discover…

• An overview of case studies — What they are, what they’re used for, who reads them, and why they’re effective.
• How to write an effective case study — What elements to include and what purpose each element serves. You’ll know the exact formula to follow to write an effective and compelling case study.
• The planning of your case study — From the initial discovery call to obtaining a personal commitment from the customer (the interviewee), you’ll know the necessary steps to take to ensure your case study project goes smoothly.
• How to conduct a tightly focused interview — If done right, you should be able to get all the information you need in about 30 minutes. Ed details how to get the information you need to write the most powerful story possible.
• How to write your case study draft — The actual step-by-step process you should use to get your draft down in a document and what you can do to make the flow of copy as effective and persuasive as possible.
• Everything you need to know about how to market yourself as a case study writer — What questions to ask before you provide a quote … how to price your projects profitably … and how to increase your chances of landing the work.
• And, much more …

To find out more information about how to become an expert case study writer, click here.

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13 Responses to “How to Write a Case Study with Examples - AWAI’s 9-Step Process”

This is just So Great... I love AWAI. Thank you. But If I submmit a Written Case study today, how long will it take me to get a feedback from AWAI? Thank You.

Guest (Abraham) – over a year ago

This was great! All the information was well presented. I'm sure to use this in the field.

Corance – over a year ago

I want to practice, so I will do one on Barefoot, and others. Can I turn these in for comments?

Musick – over a year ago

Excellent article and how to, what to include and what to expect on writing Case Studies. This is one of my niches and I have several companies in the town I live in that I can approach on the successful implementation of their products to solve problems. Thanks.

Guest (Scott T) – over a year ago

Very well written post. It will be useful to anybody who uses it, as well as myself. Keep doing what you are doing – looking forward to more posts.

Guest (Kunal Vaghasiya) – over a year ago

Thanks a lot! I have read out a number of website but could not get complete information only and only this website is complete how to write a proper blog post.

Guest (Willie Rodger) – over a year ago

I want to learn how to do case studies.

Ola – over a year ago

I greatly appreciated this article on Case Studies. I had to write my first one today. I wasn’t going to tell the client I hadn’t written one before, because I knew exactly where I could go to find out everything I would need to know (AWAI archives and resources!). After reading it I felt confident in producing the project. Thank you for the thorough explanation and examples, as well as the “extras” that will definitely put my piece a cut above in the client’s eyes. So grateful for AWAI. Thank you for your wealth of information and education. It’s all useful and relevant!

Kelli B – over a year ago

The Case Study I have found to develop sharp decision making skills - My former roles as a BRAND MANAGER - WITH UNILEVER all the team members - were MBA's from the best Universities of the U.S. our curiculas of Case Studies - was the building block and Common Denominator to build profitable brands from every division.

AAALLWOOD - 32216 – over a year ago

Great post! I feel like I have a solid foundation to at least get started with writing case studies now. Thank you!

Guest (Jason K) – over a year ago

Awesome post, great information, hoping to do case studies on legal documents. Great start to my career as a copywriter. Can't wait to get started. Thank you!

Writing for A Purpose – over a year ago

John Wood's article is very informative and Ed Gandia's video provided a great example that he deftly broke down for a beginner. I got what I was looking for out of them both!

AWAI always provides the answers to my questions and shows me the way to build my writing skills! Thanks!

the writers block – over a year ago

Not only did the article whet my appetite for writing case studies, it was packed with information to help me understand how case studies are written. So that my now diamond in the rough knowledge of case studies is further polished and shiny, I'll take the course. Thanks for the very informative article!

Guest (Erika) – over a year ago

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How to Write a Case Study: The Compelling Step-by-Step Guide

Is there a poignant pain point that needs to be addressed in your company or industry? Do you have a possible solution but want to test your theory? Why not turn this drive into a transformative learning experience and an opportunity to produce a high-quality business case study? However, before that occurs, you may wonder how to write a case study.

You may also be thinking about why you should produce one at all. Did you know that case studies are impactful and the fifth most used type of content in marketing , despite being more resource-intensive to produce?

Below, we’ll delve into what a case study is, its benefits, and how to approach business case study writing:

Definition of a Written case study and its Purpose

A case study is a research method that involves a detailed and comprehensive examination of a specific real-life situation. It’s often used in various fields, including business, education, economics, and sociology, to understand a complex issue better. 

It typically includes an in-depth analysis of the subject and an examination of its context and background information, incorporating data from multiple sources, such as interviews, observations, and existing literature. 

The ultimate aim is to provide a rich and detailed account of a situation to identify patterns and relationships, generate new insights and understanding, illustrate theories, or test hypotheses.

Importance of Business Case Study Writing

As such an in-depth exploration into a subject with potentially far-reaching consequences, a case study has benefits to offer various stakeholders in the organisation leading it.

• Business Founders: Use business case study writing to highlight real-life examples of companies or individuals who have benefited from their products or services, providing potential customers with a tangible demonstration of the value their business can bring. It can be effective for attracting new clients or investors by showcasing thought leadership and building trust and credibility.
• Marketers through case studies and encourage them to take action: Marketers use a case studies writer to showcase the success of a particular product, service, or marketing campaign. They can use persuasive storytelling to engage the reader, whether it’s consumers, clients, or potential partners.
• Researchers: They allow researchers to gain insight into real-world scenarios, explore a variety of perspectives, and develop a nuanced understanding of the factors that contribute to success or failure. Additionally, case studies provide practical business recommendations and help build a body of knowledge in a particular field.

How to Write a Case Study – The Key Elements 

Considering how to write a case study can seem overwhelming at first. However, looking at it in terms of its constituent parts will help you to get started, focus on the key issue(s), and execute it efficiently and effectively.

Problem or Challenge Statement

A problem statement concisely describes a specific issue or problem that a written case study aims to address. It sets the stage for the rest of the case study and provides context for the reader. 

Here are some steps to help you write a case study problem statement:

• Identify the problem or issue that the case study will focus on.
• Research the problem to better understand its context, causes, and effects.
• Define the problem clearly and concisely. Be specific and avoid generalisations.
• State the significance of the problem: Explain why the issue is worth solving. Consider the impact it has on the individual, organisation, or industry.
• Provide background information that will help the reader understand the context of the problem.
• Keep it concise: A problem statement should be brief and to the point. Avoid going into too much detail – leave this for the body of the case study!

Here is an example of a problem statement for a case study:

“ The XYZ Company is facing a problem with declining sales and increasing customer complaints. Despite improving the customer experience, the company has yet to reverse the trend . This case study will examine the causes of the problem and propose solutions to improve sales and customer satisfaction. “

Solutions and interventions

Business case study writing provides a solution or intervention that identifies the best course of action to address the problem or issue described in the problem statement. 

Here are some steps to help you write a case study solution or intervention:

• Identify the objective , which should be directly related to the problem statement.
• Analyse the data, which could include data from interviews, observations, and existing literature.
• Evaluate alternatives that have been proposed or implemented in similar situations, considering their strengths, weaknesses, and impact.
• Choose the best solution based on the objective and data analysis. Remember to consider factors such as feasibility, cost, and potential impact.
• Justify the solution by explaining how it addresses the problem and why it’s the best solution with supportive evidence.
• Provide a detailed, step-by-step plan of action that considers the resources required, timeline, and expected outcomes.

Example of a solution or intervention for a case study:

“ To address the problem of declining sales and increasing customer complaints at the XYZ Company, we propose a comprehensive customer experience improvement program. “

“ This program will involve the following steps:

• Conducting customer surveys to gather feedback and identify areas for improvement
• Implementing training programs for employees to improve customer service skills
• Revising the company’s product offerings to meet customer needs better
• Implementing a customer loyalty program to encourage repeat business “

“ These steps will improve customer satisfaction and increase sales. We expect a 10% increase in sales within the first year of implementation, based on similar programs implemented by other companies in the industry. “

Possible Results and outcomes

Writing case study results and outcomes involves presenting the impact of the proposed solution or intervention. 

Here are some steps to help you write case study results and outcomes:

• Evaluate the solution by measuring its effectiveness in addressing the problem statement. That could involve collecting data, conducting surveys, or monitoring key performance indicators.
• Present the results clearly and concisely, using graphs, charts, and tables to represent the data where applicable visually. Be sure to include both quantitative and qualitative results.
• Compare the results to the expectations set in the solution or intervention section. Explain any discrepancies and why they occurred.
• Discuss the outcomes and impact of the solution, considering the benefits and drawbacks and what lessons can be learned.
• Provide recommendations for future action based on the results. For example, what changes should be made to improve the solution, or what additional steps should be taken?

Example of results and outcomes for a case study:

“ The customer experience improvement program implemented at the XYZ Company was successful. We found significant improvement in employee health and productivity. The program, which included on-site exercise classes and healthy food options, led to a 25% decrease in employee absenteeism and a 15% increase in productivity . “

“ Employee satisfaction with the program was high, with 90% reporting an improved work-life balance. Despite initial costs, the program proved to be cost-effective in the long run, with decreased healthcare costs and increased employee retention. The company plans to continue the program and explore expanding it to other offices .”

Case Study Key takeaways

Key takeaways are the most important and relevant insights and lessons that can be drawn from a case study. Key takeaways can help readers understand the most significant outcomes and impacts of the solution or intervention. 

Here are some steps to help you write case study key takeaways:

• Summarise the problem that was addressed and the solution that was proposed.
• Highlight the most significant results from the case study.
• Identify the key insights and lessons , including what makes the case study unique and relevant to others.
• Consider the broader implications of the outcomes for the industry or field.
• Present the key takeaways clearly and concisely , using bullet points or a list format to make the information easy to understand.

Example of key takeaways for a case study:

• The customer experience improvement program at XYZ Company successfully increased customer satisfaction and sales.
• Employee training and product development were critical components of the program’s success.
• The program resulted in a 20% increase in repeat business, demonstrating the value of a customer loyalty program.
• Despite some initial challenges, the program proved cost-effective in the long run.
• The case study results demonstrate the importance of investing in customer experience to improve business outcomes.

Steps for a Case Study Writer to Follow

If you still feel lost, the good news is as a case studies writer; there is a blueprint you can follow to complete your work. It may be helpful at first to proceed step-by-step and let your research and analysis guide the process:

• Select a suitable case study subject: Ask yourself what the purpose of the business case study is. Is it to illustrate a specific problem and solution, showcase a success story, or demonstrate best practices in a particular field? Based on this, you can select a suitable subject by researching and evaluating various options.
• Research and gather information: We have already covered this in detail above. However, always ensure all data is relevant, valid, and comes from credible sources. Research is the crux of your written case study, and you can’t compromise on its quality.
• Develop a clear and concise problem statement: Follow the guide above, and don’t rush to finalise it. It will set the tone and lay the foundation for the entire study.
• Detail the solution or intervention: Follow the steps above to detail your proposed solution or intervention.
• Present the results and outcomes: Remember that a case study is an unbiased test of how effectively a particular solution addresses an issue. Not all case studies are meant to end in a resounding success. You can often learn more from a loss than a win.
• Include key takeaways and conclusions: Follow the steps above to detail your proposed business case study solution or intervention.

Tips for How to Write a Case Study

Here are some bonus tips for how to write a case study. These tips will help improve the quality of your work and the impact it will have on readers:

• Use a storytelling format: Just because a case study is research-based doesn’t mean it has to be boring and detached. Telling a story will engage readers and help them better identify with the problem statement and see the value in the outcomes. Framing it as a narrative in a real-world context will make it more relatable and memorable.
• Include quotes and testimonials from stakeholders: This will add credibility and depth to your written case study. It also helps improve engagement and will give your written work an emotional impact.
• Use visuals and graphics to support your narrative: Humans are better at processing visually presented data than endless walls of black-on-white text. Visual aids will make it easier to grasp key concepts and make your case study more engaging and enjoyable. It breaks up the text and allows readers to identify key findings and highlights quickly.
• Edit and revise your case study for clarity and impact: As a long and involved project, it can be easy to lose your narrative while in the midst of it. Multiple rounds of editing are vital to ensure your narrative holds, that your message gets across, and that your spelling and grammar are correct, of course!

Our Final Thoughts

A written case study can be a powerful tool in your writing arsenal. It’s a great way to showcase your knowledge in a particular business vertical, industry, or situation. Not only is it an effective way to build authority and engage an audience, but also to explore an important problem and the possible solutions to it. It’s a win-win, even if the proposed solution doesn’t have the outcome you expect. So now that you know more about how to write a case study, try it or talk to us for further guidance.

Are you ready to write your own case study?

Begin by bookmarking this article, so you can come back to it. And for more writing advice and support, read our resource guides  and  blog content . If you are unsure, please reach out with questions, and we will provide the answers or assistance you need.

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

• Annotated Bibliography
• Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
• Group Presentations
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

A case study research paper examines a person, place, event, condition, phenomenon, or other type of subject of analysis in order to extrapolate  key themes and results that help predict future trends, illuminate previously hidden issues that can be applied to practice, and/or provide a means for understanding an important research problem with greater clarity. A case study research paper usually examines a single subject of analysis, but case study papers can also be designed as a comparative investigation that shows relationships between two or more subjects. The methods used to study a case can rest within a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method investigative paradigm.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010 ; “What is a Case Study?” In Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London: SAGE, 2010.

How to Approach Writing a Case Study Research Paper

General information about how to choose a topic to investigate can be found under the " Choosing a Research Problem " tab in the Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper writing guide. Review this page because it may help you identify a subject of analysis that can be investigated using a case study design.

However, identifying a case to investigate involves more than choosing the research problem . A case study encompasses a problem contextualized around the application of in-depth analysis, interpretation, and discussion, often resulting in specific recommendations for action or for improving existing conditions. As Seawright and Gerring note, practical considerations such as time and access to information can influence case selection, but these issues should not be the sole factors used in describing the methodological justification for identifying a particular case to study. Given this, selecting a case includes considering the following:

• The case represents an unusual or atypical example of a research problem that requires more in-depth analysis? Cases often represent a topic that rests on the fringes of prior investigations because the case may provide new ways of understanding the research problem. For example, if the research problem is to identify strategies to improve policies that support girl's access to secondary education in predominantly Muslim nations, you could consider using Azerbaijan as a case study rather than selecting a more obvious nation in the Middle East. Doing so may reveal important new insights into recommending how governments in other predominantly Muslim nations can formulate policies that support improved access to education for girls.
• The case provides important insight or illuminate a previously hidden problem? In-depth analysis of a case can be based on the hypothesis that the case study will reveal trends or issues that have not been exposed in prior research or will reveal new and important implications for practice. For example, anecdotal evidence may suggest drug use among homeless veterans is related to their patterns of travel throughout the day. Assuming prior studies have not looked at individual travel choices as a way to study access to illicit drug use, a case study that observes a homeless veteran could reveal how issues of personal mobility choices facilitate regular access to illicit drugs. Note that it is important to conduct a thorough literature review to ensure that your assumption about the need to reveal new insights or previously hidden problems is valid and evidence-based.
• The case challenges and offers a counter-point to prevailing assumptions? Over time, research on any given topic can fall into a trap of developing assumptions based on outdated studies that are still applied to new or changing conditions or the idea that something should simply be accepted as "common sense," even though the issue has not been thoroughly tested in current practice. A case study analysis may offer an opportunity to gather evidence that challenges prevailing assumptions about a research problem and provide a new set of recommendations applied to practice that have not been tested previously. For example, perhaps there has been a long practice among scholars to apply a particular theory in explaining the relationship between two subjects of analysis. Your case could challenge this assumption by applying an innovative theoretical framework [perhaps borrowed from another discipline] to explore whether this approach offers new ways of understanding the research problem. Taking a contrarian stance is one of the most important ways that new knowledge and understanding develops from existing literature.
• The case provides an opportunity to pursue action leading to the resolution of a problem? Another way to think about choosing a case to study is to consider how the results from investigating a particular case may result in findings that reveal ways in which to resolve an existing or emerging problem. For example, studying the case of an unforeseen incident, such as a fatal accident at a railroad crossing, can reveal hidden issues that could be applied to preventative measures that contribute to reducing the chance of accidents in the future. In this example, a case study investigating the accident could lead to a better understanding of where to strategically locate additional signals at other railroad crossings so as to better warn drivers of an approaching train, particularly when visibility is hindered by heavy rain, fog, or at night.
• The case offers a new direction in future research? A case study can be used as a tool for an exploratory investigation that highlights the need for further research about the problem. A case can be used when there are few studies that help predict an outcome or that establish a clear understanding about how best to proceed in addressing a problem. For example, after conducting a thorough literature review [very important!], you discover that little research exists showing the ways in which women contribute to promoting water conservation in rural communities of east central Africa. A case study of how women contribute to saving water in a rural village of Uganda can lay the foundation for understanding the need for more thorough research that documents how women in their roles as cooks and family caregivers think about water as a valuable resource within their community. This example of a case study could also point to the need for scholars to build new theoretical frameworks around the topic [e.g., applying feminist theories of work and family to the issue of water conservation].

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. “Building Theories from Case Study Research.” Academy of Management Review 14 (October 1989): 532-550; Emmel, Nick. Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research: A Realist Approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2013; Gerring, John. “What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?” American Political Science Review 98 (May 2004): 341-354; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Seawright, Jason and John Gerring. "Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research." Political Research Quarterly 61 (June 2008): 294-308.

Structure and Writing Style

The purpose of a paper in the social sciences designed around a case study is to thoroughly investigate a subject of analysis in order to reveal a new understanding about the research problem and, in so doing, contributing new knowledge to what is already known from previous studies. In applied social sciences disciplines [e.g., education, social work, public administration, etc.], case studies may also be used to reveal best practices, highlight key programs, or investigate interesting aspects of professional work.

In general, the structure of a case study research paper is not all that different from a standard college-level research paper. However, there are subtle differences you should be aware of. Here are the key elements to organizing and writing a case study research paper.

I.  Introduction

As with any research paper, your introduction should serve as a roadmap for your readers to ascertain the scope and purpose of your study . The introduction to a case study research paper, however, should not only describe the research problem and its significance, but you should also succinctly describe why the case is being used and how it relates to addressing the problem. The two elements should be linked. With this in mind, a good introduction answers these four questions:

• What is being studied? Describe the research problem and describe the subject of analysis [the case] you have chosen to address the problem. Explain how they are linked and what elements of the case will help to expand knowledge and understanding about the problem.
• Why is this topic important to investigate? Describe the significance of the research problem and state why a case study design and the subject of analysis that the paper is designed around is appropriate in addressing the problem.
• What did we know about this topic before I did this study? Provide background that helps lead the reader into the more in-depth literature review to follow. If applicable, summarize prior case study research applied to the research problem and why it fails to adequately address the problem. Describe why your case will be useful. If no prior case studies have been used to address the research problem, explain why you have selected this subject of analysis.
• How will this study advance new knowledge or new ways of understanding? Explain why your case study will be suitable in helping to expand knowledge and understanding about the research problem.

Each of these questions should be addressed in no more than a few paragraphs. Exceptions to this can be when you are addressing a complex research problem or subject of analysis that requires more in-depth background information.

II.  Literature Review

The literature review for a case study research paper is generally structured the same as it is for any college-level research paper. The difference, however, is that the literature review is focused on providing background information and  enabling historical interpretation of the subject of analysis in relation to the research problem the case is intended to address . This includes synthesizing studies that help to:

• Place relevant works in the context of their contribution to understanding the case study being investigated . This would involve summarizing studies that have used a similar subject of analysis to investigate the research problem. If there is literature using the same or a very similar case to study, you need to explain why duplicating past research is important [e.g., conditions have changed; prior studies were conducted long ago, etc.].
• Describe the relationship each work has to the others under consideration that informs the reader why this case is applicable . Your literature review should include a description of any works that support using the case to investigate the research problem and the underlying research questions.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research using the case study . If applicable, review any research that has examined the research problem using a different research design. Explain how your use of a case study design may reveal new knowledge or a new perspective or that can redirect research in an important new direction.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies . This refers to synthesizing any literature that points to unresolved issues of concern about the research problem and describing how the subject of analysis that forms the case study can help resolve these existing contradictions.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research . Your review should examine any literature that lays a foundation for understanding why your case study design and the subject of analysis around which you have designed your study may reveal a new way of approaching the research problem or offer a perspective that points to the need for additional research.
• Expose any gaps that exist in the literature that the case study could help to fill . Summarize any literature that not only shows how your subject of analysis contributes to understanding the research problem, but how your case contributes to a new way of understanding the problem that prior research has failed to do.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important!] . Collectively, your literature review should always place your case study within the larger domain of prior research about the problem. The overarching purpose of reviewing pertinent literature in a case study paper is to demonstrate that you have thoroughly identified and synthesized prior studies in relation to explaining the relevance of the case in addressing the research problem.

III.  Method

In this section, you explain why you selected a particular case [i.e., subject of analysis] and the strategy you used to identify and ultimately decide that your case was appropriate in addressing the research problem. The way you describe the methods used varies depending on the type of subject of analysis that constitutes your case study.

If your subject of analysis is an incident or event . In the social and behavioral sciences, the event or incident that represents the case to be studied is usually bounded by time and place, with a clear beginning and end and with an identifiable location or position relative to its surroundings. The subject of analysis can be a rare or critical event or it can focus on a typical or regular event. The purpose of studying a rare event is to illuminate new ways of thinking about the broader research problem or to test a hypothesis. Critical incident case studies must describe the method by which you identified the event and explain the process by which you determined the validity of this case to inform broader perspectives about the research problem or to reveal new findings. However, the event does not have to be a rare or uniquely significant to support new thinking about the research problem or to challenge an existing hypothesis. For example, Walo, Bull, and Breen conducted a case study to identify and evaluate the direct and indirect economic benefits and costs of a local sports event in the City of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of their study was to provide new insights from measuring the impact of a typical local sports event that prior studies could not measure well because they focused on large "mega-events." Whether the event is rare or not, the methods section should include an explanation of the following characteristics of the event: a) when did it take place; b) what were the underlying circumstances leading to the event; and, c) what were the consequences of the event in relation to the research problem.

If your subject of analysis is a person. Explain why you selected this particular individual to be studied and describe what experiences they have had that provide an opportunity to advance new understandings about the research problem. Mention any background about this person which might help the reader understand the significance of their experiences that make them worthy of study. This includes describing the relationships this person has had with other people, institutions, and/or events that support using them as the subject for a case study research paper. It is particularly important to differentiate the person as the subject of analysis from others and to succinctly explain how the person relates to examining the research problem [e.g., why is one politician in a particular local election used to show an increase in voter turnout from any other candidate running in the election]. Note that these issues apply to a specific group of people used as a case study unit of analysis [e.g., a classroom of students].

If your subject of analysis is a place. In general, a case study that investigates a place suggests a subject of analysis that is unique or special in some way and that this uniqueness can be used to build new understanding or knowledge about the research problem. A case study of a place must not only describe its various attributes relevant to the research problem [e.g., physical, social, historical, cultural, economic, political], but you must state the method by which you determined that this place will illuminate new understandings about the research problem. It is also important to articulate why a particular place as the case for study is being used if similar places also exist [i.e., if you are studying patterns of homeless encampments of veterans in open spaces, explain why you are studying Echo Park in Los Angeles rather than Griffith Park?]. If applicable, describe what type of human activity involving this place makes it a good choice to study [e.g., prior research suggests Echo Park has more homeless veterans].

If your subject of analysis is a phenomenon. A phenomenon refers to a fact, occurrence, or circumstance that can be studied or observed but with the cause or explanation to be in question. In this sense, a phenomenon that forms your subject of analysis can encompass anything that can be observed or presumed to exist but is not fully understood. In the social and behavioral sciences, the case usually focuses on human interaction within a complex physical, social, economic, cultural, or political system. For example, the phenomenon could be the observation that many vehicles used by ISIS fighters are small trucks with English language advertisements on them. The research problem could be that ISIS fighters are difficult to combat because they are highly mobile. The research questions could be how and by what means are these vehicles used by ISIS being supplied to the militants and how might supply lines to these vehicles be cut off? How might knowing the suppliers of these trucks reveal larger networks of collaborators and financial support? A case study of a phenomenon most often encompasses an in-depth analysis of a cause and effect that is grounded in an interactive relationship between people and their environment in some way.

NOTE:   The choice of the case or set of cases to study cannot appear random. Evidence that supports the method by which you identified and chose your subject of analysis should clearly support investigation of the research problem and linked to key findings from your literature review. Be sure to cite any studies that helped you determine that the case you chose was appropriate for examining the problem.

IV.  Discussion

The main elements of your discussion section are generally the same as any research paper, but centered around interpreting and drawing conclusions about the key findings from your analysis of the case study. Note that a general social sciences research paper may contain a separate section to report findings. However, in a paper designed around a case study, it is common to combine a description of the results with the discussion about their implications. The objectives of your discussion section should include the following:

Reiterate the Research Problem/State the Major Findings Briefly reiterate the research problem you are investigating and explain why the subject of analysis around which you designed the case study were used. You should then describe the findings revealed from your study of the case using direct, declarative, and succinct proclamation of the study results. Highlight any findings that were unexpected or especially profound.

Explain the Meaning of the Findings and Why They are Important Systematically explain the meaning of your case study findings and why you believe they are important. Begin this part of the section by repeating what you consider to be your most important or surprising finding first, then systematically review each finding. Be sure to thoroughly extrapolate what your analysis of the case can tell the reader about situations or conditions beyond the actual case that was studied while, at the same time, being careful not to misconstrue or conflate a finding that undermines the external validity of your conclusions.

Relate the Findings to Similar Studies No study in the social sciences is so novel or possesses such a restricted focus that it has absolutely no relation to previously published research. The discussion section should relate your case study results to those found in other studies, particularly if questions raised from prior studies served as the motivation for choosing your subject of analysis. This is important because comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies helps support the overall importance of your results and it highlights how and in what ways your case study design and the subject of analysis differs from prior research about the topic.

Consider Alternative Explanations of the Findings Remember that the purpose of social science research is to discover and not to prove. When writing the discussion section, you should carefully consider all possible explanations revealed by the case study results, rather than just those that fit your hypothesis or prior assumptions and biases. Be alert to what the in-depth analysis of the case may reveal about the research problem, including offering a contrarian perspective to what scholars have stated in prior research if that is how the findings can be interpreted from your case.

Acknowledge the Study's Limitations You can state the study's limitations in the conclusion section of your paper but describing the limitations of your subject of analysis in the discussion section provides an opportunity to identify the limitations and explain why they are not significant. This part of the discussion section should also note any unanswered questions or issues your case study could not address. More detailed information about how to document any limitations to your research can be found here .

Suggest Areas for Further Research Although your case study may offer important insights about the research problem, there are likely additional questions related to the problem that remain unanswered or findings that unexpectedly revealed themselves as a result of your in-depth analysis of the case. Be sure that the recommendations for further research are linked to the research problem and that you explain why your recommendations are valid in other contexts and based on the original assumptions of your study.

V.  Conclusion

As with any research paper, you should summarize your conclusion in clear, simple language; emphasize how the findings from your case study differs from or supports prior research and why. Do not simply reiterate the discussion section. Provide a synthesis of key findings presented in the paper to show how these converge to address the research problem. If you haven't already done so in the discussion section, be sure to document the limitations of your case study and any need for further research.

The function of your paper's conclusion is to: 1) reiterate the main argument supported by the findings from your case study; 2) state clearly the context, background, and necessity of pursuing the research problem using a case study design in relation to an issue, controversy, or a gap found from reviewing the literature; and, 3) provide a place to persuasively and succinctly restate the significance of your research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with in-depth information about the topic.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:

• If the argument or purpose of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize these points for your reader.
• If prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the conclusion of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration of the case study's findings that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from your case study findings.

Note that, depending on the discipline you are writing in or the preferences of your professor, the concluding paragraph may contain your final reflections on the evidence presented as it applies to practice or on the essay's central research problem. However, the nature of being introspective about the subject of analysis you have investigated will depend on whether you are explicitly asked to express your observations in this way.

Problems to Avoid

Overgeneralization One of the goals of a case study is to lay a foundation for understanding broader trends and issues applied to similar circumstances. However, be careful when drawing conclusions from your case study. They must be evidence-based and grounded in the results of the study; otherwise, it is merely speculation. Looking at a prior example, it would be incorrect to state that a factor in improving girls access to education in Azerbaijan and the policy implications this may have for improving access in other Muslim nations is due to girls access to social media if there is no documentary evidence from your case study to indicate this. There may be anecdotal evidence that retention rates were better for girls who were engaged with social media, but this observation would only point to the need for further research and would not be a definitive finding if this was not a part of your original research agenda.

Failure to Document Limitations No case is going to reveal all that needs to be understood about a research problem. Therefore, just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study , you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis. For example, the case of studying how women conceptualize the need for water conservation in a village in Uganda could have limited application in other cultural contexts or in areas where fresh water from rivers or lakes is plentiful and, therefore, conservation is understood more in terms of managing access rather than preserving access to a scarce resource.

Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings. If you do not, your reader may question the validity of your analysis, particularly if you failed to document an obvious outcome from your case study research. For example, in the case of studying the accident at the railroad crossing to evaluate where and what types of warning signals should be located, you failed to take into consideration speed limit signage as well as warning signals. When designing your case study, be sure you have thoroughly addressed all aspects of the problem and do not leave gaps in your analysis that leave the reader questioning the results.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Gerring, John. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007; Merriam, Sharan B. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education . Rev. ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998; Miller, Lisa L. “The Use of Case Studies in Law and Social Science Research.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14 (2018): TBD; Mills, Albert J., Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Putney, LeAnn Grogan. "Case Study." In Encyclopedia of Research Design , Neil J. Salkind, editor. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010), pp. 116-120; Simons, Helen. Case Study Research in Practice . London: SAGE Publications, 2009;  Kratochwill,  Thomas R. and Joel R. Levin, editors. Single-Case Research Design and Analysis: New Development for Psychology and Education .  Hilldsale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992; Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London : SAGE, 2010; Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods . 6th edition. Los Angeles, CA, SAGE Publications, 2014; Walo, Maree, Adrian Bull, and Helen Breen. “Achieving Economic Benefits at Local Events: A Case Study of a Local Sports Event.” Festival Management and Event Tourism 4 (1996): 95-106.

Writing Tip

At Least Five Misconceptions about Case Study Research

Social science case studies are often perceived as limited in their ability to create new knowledge because they are not randomly selected and findings cannot be generalized to larger populations. Flyvbjerg examines five misunderstandings about case study research and systematically "corrects" each one. To quote, these are:

Misunderstanding 1 :  General, theoretical [context-independent] knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical [context-dependent] knowledge. Misunderstanding 2 :  One cannot generalize on the basis of an individual case; therefore, the case study cannot contribute to scientific development. Misunderstanding 3 :  The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses; that is, in the first stage of a total research process, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building. Misunderstanding 4 :  The case study contains a bias toward verification, that is, a tendency to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions. Misunderstanding 5 :  It is often difficult to summarize and develop general propositions and theories on the basis of specific case studies [p. 221].

While writing your paper, think introspectively about how you addressed these misconceptions because to do so can help you strengthen the validity and reliability of your research by clarifying issues of case selection, the testing and challenging of existing assumptions, the interpretation of key findings, and the summation of case outcomes. Think of a case study research paper as a complete, in-depth narrative about the specific properties and key characteristics of your subject of analysis applied to the research problem.

Flyvbjerg, Bent. “Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research.” Qualitative Inquiry 12 (April 2006): 219-245.

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Your Step-By-Step Guide To Writing a Case Study

Creating a case study is both an art and a science. It requires making an in-depth exploration of your chosen subject in order to extract meaningful insights and understand the dynamics that more general surveys or statistical research might not uncover. At the same time, your case study also needs to be a compelling read to ensure those insights get attention from other people!

Unsurprisingly, the prospect of crafting an effective case study can be daunting. It calls for strategic planning, careful organization, and clear communication, all of which can be challenging even for experienced researchers. That's why we've created this step-by-step guide, which breaks the process down into manageable steps, demystifying the journey from defining your research question to sharing your findings. Whether you're a seasoned researcher or a first-timer, this guide aims to equip you with the necessary tools and tips to create a case study that's not just informative, but also engaging and impactful.

Are you ready to unlock the potential of case studies? Let's dive in!

What is a case study?

First, it's important to understand what a case study is – and what it isn't.

A case study is a thorough exploration of a specific subject or event over a certain time frame. Case studies are utilized in numerous fields, including sociology, psychology, education, anthropology, business, and the health sciences, and employ various research techniques to shed light on complex issues.

A case study does not provide absolute proof or conclusions that can be universally applied. Because it concentrates on one particular case or just a few cases, the findings might not apply to different contexts or subjects. Case studies also aren't ideal for determining cause-and-effect relationships as they do not use controlled conditions to separate and measure the impacts of different factors. Lastly, it must be said that a case study isn't just a random assortment of facts or observations; it necessitates a clear research question, a methodical approach to data collection and analysis, and a thoughtful interpretation of the results.

Getting started

Now that we've established the definition and purpose of a case study, let's explore the process by which one is created. You can produce a case study by following these nine steps:

1. Define the purpose of your case study

Before you start writing a case study, you need to define its purpose clearly. Ask yourself: What is the research question or problem you aim to solve? What insights are you looking to uncover? Your goals will guide your research design and influence your choice of case. This initial stage of introspection and clarification is crucial as it acts as a roadmap for your study.

2. Select the case to study

Once you've defined your research objective, the next step is to choose a suitable case that can help answer your research question. This might be a unique, critical, or representative instance. Unique cases offer the opportunity to observe and analyze a situation that is unusual or not well-understood. In contrast, a representative or typical case is often chosen because it represents other cases or a broader phenomenon.

In any case, be sure to justify your choice. Explain why the case is of interest and how it can contribute to the knowledge or understanding of the issue at hand. For instance, if you're studying the effects of corporate restructuring on employee morale, you might choose to focus on a company that recently underwent a significant restructure.

3. Conduct a thorough literature review

Performing a literature review involves a careful examination of relevant scholarly articles, books, and other sources related to your research question or problem. In the process, you identify gaps in the current knowledge and determine how your case study can address them. By critically examining existing research, you will not only gain a comprehensive understanding of your chosen topic but also be able to refine your research question or hypothesis, if necessary.

4. Choose a methodological approach

The methodological approach used in your case study will depend on your research objectives and the nature of the case. Methodologies that can be employed in case studies include qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods .

Qualitative methods are often used when the goal is to explore, understand, or interpret certain phenomena. These involve approaches like interviews, focus groups, or ethnography. Quantitative methods, on the other hand, are used when the goal is to test hypotheses or examine relationships between variables. Quantitative approaches often include experiments. Also, surveys may be either qualitative or quantitative depending on the question design.

You may choose to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods (mixed methods) if it suits your research objectives.

5. Collect and organize your data

Data collection should be systematic and organized to maintain the integrity and reliability of your research. You need to plan how you will record and store your data to ensure that it's accessible and usable.

If you're conducting interviews or observations, consider using recording devices (with participant consent) to capture the data accurately. In addition, you may want to transcribe the recorded material for easier analysis. If you're using documents or archival records, develop a system for coding and categorizing the data.

6. Analyze the data

Analysis involves interpreting your data to draw out meaningful insights; it is in this stage that your findings start to take shape. Depending on the nature of your data and your research question, you might use any of a variety of analysis methods. For qualitative data, you might employ thematic analysis to identify key themes or grounded theory to generate a new theoretical framework. For quantitative data, you might use statistical analysis to identify patterns or correlations.

Always be open to unexpected findings. Your initial hypotheses might not be supported, or you might uncover new insights that you hadn't initially considered. Remember that all data, whether they fit neatly into your analysis or not, provide valuable insights and contribute to the holistic understanding of your case.

7. Write the case study report

After analyzing the data, it's finally time to compose your case study. In terms of structure, a typical case study might consist of an introduction, background information, the collected data (results), analysis of that data, and the conclusion. Here's a brief breakdown of each section:

• Introduction: The introduction should be brief but engaging, providing a clear statement of the research question or problem, explaining why the case was chosen, and outlining what the case study will cover.
• Background: The background provides the context for your case. Describe the case, its history, and any relevant information that will help readers understand the situation.
• Results: This section should provide a comprehensive account of what you found, without interpretation or opinion. Present your findings in a clear, organized manner. Use visuals such as charts or graphs if they aid comprehension.
• Analysis: This section should provide your interpretations and arguments. Discuss the patterns, themes, or relationships you've identified in your data. Explain what these findings mean in relation to your research question.
• Conclusion: Finally, summarize the key insights from your case study along with their implications. Discuss the limitations of your study and propose avenues for future research.

8. Review and revise

The process of writing a case study doesn't actually end when the report is written; you also need to review your writing for coherence, clarity, and correctness. Don't underestimate the importance of this step! Make sure the information flows logically and that your arguments are well-supported. Check for any grammar or spelling errors. Having a peer or mentor review your work can be incredibly helpful as they provide a fresh perspective and can catch mistakes you might have missed.

9. Get approval if required

If your case study involves human subjects, you may need to obtain approval from an ethical review board. You'll also need to obtain informed consent from your subjects and ensure you respect their privacy and confidentiality throughout the research process. Always follow your institution's ethical guidelines and any other relevant legislation .

Practical tips for writing a compelling case study

Getting through all those steps can feel like a formidable challenge, but here are some practical tips to make the process more manageable:

Be systematic and organized

Given the importance of detail in case studies, it's vital to be systematic and organized from the get-go. This means keeping meticulous records of your data, your sources, and any changes to your research design. A good practice is to maintain a research journal or log where you can record your process, thoughts, and reflections.

In addition, use technology to your advantage. Digital tools like citation managers can help you keep track of your sources and make formatting references a breeze, while spreadsheet or database software can assist in managing and organizing your data. Developing a consistent system for labeling and storing information at the outset will save you time and effort later when you need to retrieve data for analysis.

Stay focused

One common pitfall in research and writing is loss of focus: getting sidetracked by interesting but ultimately irrelevant digressions, which can be very easy, especially when you're dealing with a rich and complex case. Always remember your research question and objectives, and let these guide your study at every step. It's perfectly acceptable – and in fact advisable – to delineate what your study will not cover. Setting clear boundaries can help you stay focused and manage the scope of your study effectively.

Use visual aids

Visual aids such as charts, diagrams, or photographs can greatly enhance your case study. They provide readers with a break from the monotony of text and can communicate complex data or relationships more easily. For instance, if you're presenting a lot of numerical data, consider using a chart or graph. If you're describing a process or sequence of events, portraying it in a flowchart or timeline might be useful. Remember, the goal is to aid comprehension, so make sure your visual aids are clear, well-labeled, and integrated into the text.

Include direct quotes

If your case study involves interviews, including direct quotes can add depth and a sense of the personal to your findings. They provide readers with a firsthand perspective and make your case study more engaging.

When using quotes, be sure to integrate them smoothly into your text. Provide enough context so readers understand the quote's relevance. Also, remember to adhere to ethical guidelines– always respect confidentiality and anonymity agreements.

Maintain ethical standards

Ethics is a fundamental consideration in all research, including case studies. Ensure you have proper consent from participants, respect their privacy, and accurately present your findings without manipulation.

Misrepresenting data or failing to respect participants' rights can lead to serious ethical violations. Always follow your institution's ethical guidelines and any other relevant legislation. If in doubt, seek advice from a supervisor or your institution's ethics committee.

Acknowledge limitations

Every research study has limitations, which could relate to the research design, data collection methods, or other aspects of the study. Being transparent about the limitations of your study can enhance its credibility; moreover, not only does identifying limitations demonstrate your critical thinking and honesty, but it also helps readers accurately interpret your findings.

Finally, acknowledging the limitations of your work helps to set the stage for further research. By identifying aspects that your study couldn't address, you provide other researchers with avenues for building on your findings.

Learn from examples

Before you start writing your case study, it can be helpful to review some published case studies in your field. Different fields may have different conventions, and familiarizing yourself with case studies in your own field can help guide your writing. Look at the structure, tone, and style. Pay attention to how the authors present and analyze data, and how they link their findings back to the research question. You can also learn a lot from the strengths and weaknesses of previously published works. However, remember to develop your own unique voice and perspective – don't just mimic what others have done.

Design for triangulation

Triangulation involves using multiple data sources or methods to gain a more comprehensive and balanced understanding of your research topic. By coming at your research question from multiple directions, such as by examining different datasets or using different methods, you can increase the validity of your results and gain more nuanced insights.

For example, if you're studying the impact of a new teaching method in a school, you might observe classes, interview teachers, and also survey students. Each method will provide a slightly different perspective, and together, they allow you to develop a more complete picture of the teaching method's impact.

Practice reflexivity

Reflexivity involves reflecting on how your assumptions, values, or experiences might influence your research process and interpretations. As a researcher, it's essential to be aware of your potential biases and how they might shape your study.

Consider keeping a reflexivity journal where you can note your thoughts, feelings, and reflections throughout the research process. This practice can help you stay aware of your biases and ensure your research is as objective and balanced as possible.

Write for your audience

Always make sure that your writing is on target for your intended audience. If you're writing for an academic audience, for example, you'll likely use a more formal tone and include more detailed methodological information. If you're writing for practitioners or a general audience, you might use a more accessible language and focus more on practical implications.

Remember to define any technical terms or jargon, and provide sufficient context so your readers can understand your research. The goal is to communicate your findings effectively, regardless of who your readers are.

Seek feedback

Feedback is valuable for improving your case study. Consider sharing drafts with your peers, mentors, or supervisors and asking for their input. Fresh eyes can provide different perspectives, catch errors, or suggest ways to strengthen your arguments.

Remember, feedback is not personal; it's about improving your work. Be open to critique and willing to revise your work based on the feedback you receive.

Writing a case study is a meticulous process that requires clear purpose, careful planning, systematic data collection, and thoughtful analysis. Although it can be time-consuming, the rich, detailed insights a well-executed case study can provide make this study design an invaluable tool in research.

By following this guide and adopting its practical tips, you will be well on your way to crafting a compelling case study that contributes meaningful insights to your chosen field. Good luck with your research journey!

Header image by Kateryna Hliznitsova .

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• Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on 5 May 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 30 January 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organisation, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating, and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

Table of contents

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyse the case.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

Unlike quantitative or experimental research, a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

If you find yourself aiming to simultaneously investigate and solve an issue, consider conducting action research . As its name suggests, action research conducts research and takes action at the same time, and is highly iterative and flexible. 

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience, or phenomenon.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews, observations, and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data .

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis, with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results , and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyse its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

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How to Write a Case Study: Step-by-Step Guide with Examples

• October 7, 2022

Content Manager at SocialBee

Why is learning how to write a case study so important?

Well, because it provides your customers with social proof and supporting evidence of how effective your products and services are. Moreover, it eliminates the doubt that usually makes clients give up on their next purchase.

That is why today we are going to talk about the step-by-step process of writing a case study . We prepared five business case study examples guaranteed to inspire you throughout the process.

Let’s get started!

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is a piece of content that focuses on a case from your business history. It describes the problems your client faced and the solutions you used to help them succeed.

The goal of a writing case study is to promote your business , so your aim should be to put together a compelling story with evidence that backs up all your claims.

Case studies use real-life examples to show your clients the quality and effectiveness of your products and services. It’s a marketing tool that provides credibility and it helps your potential clients gain confidence in your brand.

Case studies can be structured in different formats:

• A written document
• An infographic
• A blog post
• A landing page

Case Study Benefits

A great case study makes your potential customers want to benefit from the products and services that helped your client overcome their challenges. 

Here are the benefits of writing a case study:

• It is an affordable marketing practice
• It decreases the perceived risk of your potential clients
• It provides transparency
• It builds trust and credibility among prospective customers
• It makes your potential clients relate to the problem
• It provides your potential clients with a solution for their problems

How to Write a Case Study

Now that you know what a case study is, let’s get into the real reason why you are here — learning how to write an in-depth study.

Here is the step-by-step process of writing a case study:

• Identify the topic of your case study
• Start collaborating with a client
• Prepare questions for the interview
• Conduct the case study interview
• Structure your case study 
• Make it visual

Step 1: Identify the Topic of Your Case Study

A case study starts with a strategy. Choosing what you want to write about should be closely related to your business needs. More specifically, what service or product do you want to promote through your case study?

Because case studies focus on client challenges, business solutions, and results, you have to carefully pick the case that your potential clients will relate to the most. 

To communicate the benefits of your business, you should focus on a customer story that appeals to a specific segment of your audience . Consequently, you will target clients that relate to your customer example while providing a solution for their needs and pain points — your products and services.

Start by focusing all your research methods on identifying your customers’ main pain points. Then find examples of how your products or services have helped them overcome their challenges and achieve their goals .

Furthermore, to make sure you choose the best case study topic for your buyer persona , you should have a meeting with your sales/customer service team. Because they are in close contact with your customers, they will be able to tell you:

• The main challenges your clients face 
• The services/products that bring them the best results 

These are the main two pieces of information you want your case study to focus on.

Step 2: Start Collaborating with a Client

With a clear topic in mind, you have to find the best fit for your case study. 

However, that is not all. First, you must obtain the client’s permission. After all, your business story is theirs too.

So, craft an email to provide your client with an overview of the case study. This will help them make a decision. 

Your message should include:

• The case study format (video, written, etc.) and where it will be published (blog, landing page , etc.)
• The topic of the document
• The timeline of the process
• The information that will be included
• The benefits they get as a result of this collaboration (brand exposure, backlinks)

Additionally, you can offer to schedule a call or a meeting to answer all their questions and curiosities and provide a means for clear and open communication.

Once you receive a positive response from your client, you can continue with the next step of the process: the actual interview.

PRO TIP: A great way to ensure a smooth and safe collaboration between you and your client is to sign a legal release form before writing the case study. This will allow you to use their information and protect you from issues that may occur in the future. Moreover, if the client is not comfortable with revealing their identity, you can always offer them anonymity.

Step 3: Prepare Questions for the Interview

Now that you have the subject for your case study, it’s time to write and organize your interview in several sets of questions.

Don’t forget that the whole structure of your case study is based on the information you get from your customer interview.

So pay attention to the way you phrase the questions. After all, your goal is to gather all the data you need to avoid creating a back-and-forth process that will consume your client’s time and energy.

To help you create the best questionnaire, we created a set of case study questions and organized them into different categories. 

Here are the five main sections your case study interview should contain:

• The client’s background information
• The problem
• The start of the collaboration
• The solution
• The results

A. The Client’s Background Information

This part of the case study interview must give a comprehensive look into your customer’s business and allow your readers to get to know them better.

Here are some question ideas:

B. The Problem

Now it’s time to get into the reason your client came to you for assistance, the initial challenge that triggered your collaboration.

In this part of the interview process, you want to find out what made them ask for help and what was their situation before working with you.

You can ask your client the following case study questions:

C. The Start of the Collaboration

This part of the case study interview will focus on the process that made your collaboration possible. More specifically, how did your client research possible collaboration opportunities, and why they chose your business? 

This information will not only be informative for your future customers but will also give you a behind-the-scenes look into their decision-making process.

D. The Solution

It’s time to get into one of the most significant parts of the case study interview — the solution. Here you should discuss how your services have helped their business recover from the problems mentioned before.

Make sure you ask the right questions so you can really paint the picture of a satisfied customer.

Have a look at these question examples:

E. The Results

The best proof you can give to your customers is through your results. And this is the perfect opportunity to let your actions speak for themselves.

Unlike the other marketing strategies you use to promote your business, the content is provided by your customer, not by your team. As a result, you end up with a project that is on another level of reliability.

Here is how you can ask your client about their results:

Step 4: Conduct the Case Study Interview

Now that you have a great set of case study questions, it’s time to put them to good use.

Decide on the type of interview you want to conduct: face-to-face, video call , or phone call. Then, consult with your client and set up a date and a time when you are both available. 

It should be noted that during the interview it’s best to use a recording device for accuracy. Maybe you don’t have time to write down all the information, and you forget important details. Or maybe you want to be focused more on the conversational aspect of the interview, and you don’t want to write anything down while it’s happening.

Step 5: Structure Your Case Study 

The hard part is over. Now it’s time to organize all the information you gathered in an appealing format. Let’s have a look at what your case study should contain.

Here are the components of a case study:

• Engaging title
• Executive summary
• Client description 
• Introduction to the problem
• The problem-solving process
• Progress and results

A. Engaging Title

Putting that much work into a project, it would be a shame not to do your best to attract more readers. So, take into consideration that you only have a few seconds to catch your audience’s attention. 

You can also use a headline analyzer to evaluate the performance of your title.

The best case study titles contain:

• Relevant keywords
• Customer pain points
• Clear result

Case study example :

B. Executive Summary

Your executive summary should include a thesis statement that sums up the main points of your case study. Therefore, it must be clear and concise. Moreover, to make your audience curious, you can add a statistic or a relevant piece of data that they might be interested in.

Here is what you should include in your executive summary:

• The business you are writing about (only if the clients wants to make themselves known)
• Relevant statistics

C. Client Description 

Here is where you start to include the information you gained from your interview. Provide your readers with a clear picture of your client and create a context for your case study.

Take your client’s answers from the “Client Background” section of the interview and present them in a more appealing format.

D. Introduction to the Problem

In this section, use your client’s interview answers to write about the problem they were experiencing before working with you.

Remember to be specific because you want your audience to fully understand the situation and relate to it. At the end of the day, the goal of the case study is to show your potential customers why they should buy your services/products.

E. The Problem-Solving Process

Next, explain how your service/product helped your client overcome their problems. Moreover, let your readers know how and why your service/product worked in their case.

In this part of the case study, you should summarize: 

• The strategy used to solve the problem of your customer 
• The process of implementing the solution 

F. Progress and Results

Tell your readers about what you and your client have achieved during your collaboration. Here you can include:

• Graphics about your progress
• Business objectives they have achieved
• Relevant metrics 

Step 6: Make It Visual

To elevate the information you have written for your audience, you must make sure it’s appealing and easy to read. And a great way to achieve that is to use visuals that add value to your case study.

Here are some design elements that will make emphasize your text:

• Graphic symbols that guide the eye (arrows, bullet points, checkmarks, etc.)
• Charts, graphics, tables 
• Relevant screenshots from business reports
• The colors and fonts of your brand
• Your client’s logo

Platforms like Canva can really come in handy while designing your case study. It’s easy to use and it has multiple free slide templates and graphics that save you time and money.

PRO TIP: Share Your Case Study Across All Marketing Channels

A case study is a perfect example of evergreen content that can be reshared endlessly on your social media channels .

Aside from helping you maintain a consistent posting schedule with ease, case study-related posts will increase your credibility and push leads toward the bottom of your marketing funnel . Other examples of social proof evergreen content are reviews, testimonials, and positive social media mentions.

To keep track of all your evergreen posts and have them scheduled on a continuous loop, use a social media tool like SocialBee.

Create evergreen content categories where all your posts get reposted regularly on your social media channels. 

Start your 14-day trial today and start using SocialBee for free!

Aside from promoting your case study on social media, you can also feature it in your newsletter that you can create using email newsletter software , include it as a pop-up on your website, and even create a separate landing page dedicated to your customer study.

Share Your Case Study on Social Media with SocialBee!

Get to writing your own case study.

What do you think? Is writing a case study easier than you thought? We sure hope so.

Learning how to write a case study is a simple process once you understand the logical steps that go into it. So make sure you go over the guide a couple of times before you start documenting your customer success stories.

And remember that the goal of your case study is to attract more leads . Therefore you need to include tangible results and valuable details that will compel your audience to invest in your products and services.

Article written by

Content writer at SocialBee

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All You Wanted to Know About How to Write a Case Study

What do you study in your college? If you are a psychology, sociology, or anthropology student, we bet you might be familiar with what a case study is. This research method is used to study a certain person, group, or situation. In this guide from our dissertation writing service , you will learn how to write a case study professionally, from researching to citing sources properly. Also, we will explore different types of case studies and show you examples — so that you won’t have any other questions left.

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is a subcategory of research design which investigates problems and offers solutions. Case studies can range from academic research studies to corporate promotional tools trying to sell an idea—their scope is quite vast.

What Is the Difference Between a Research Paper and a Case Study?

While research papers turn the reader’s attention to a certain problem, case studies go even further. Case study guidelines require students to pay attention to details, examining issues closely and in-depth using different research methods. For example, case studies may be used to examine court cases if you study Law, or a patient's health history if you study Medicine. Case studies are also used in Marketing, which are thorough, empirically supported analysis of a good or service's performance. Well-designed case studies can be valuable for prospective customers as they can identify and solve the potential customers pain point.

Case studies involve a lot of storytelling – they usually examine particular cases for a person or a group of people. This method of research is very helpful, as it is very practical and can give a lot of hands-on information. Most commonly, the length of the case study is about 500-900 words, which is much less than the length of an average research paper.

The structure of a case study is very similar to storytelling. It has a protagonist or main character, which in your case is actually a problem you are trying to solve. You can use the system of 3 Acts to make it a compelling story. It should have an introduction, rising action, a climax where transformation occurs, falling action, and a solution.

Here is a rough formula for you to use in your case study:

Problem (Act I): > Solution (Act II) > Result (Act III) > Conclusion.

Types of Case Studies

The purpose of a case study is to provide detailed reports on an event, an institution, a place, future customers, or pretty much anything. There are a few common types of case study, but the type depends on the topic. The following are the most common domains where case studies are needed:

• Historical case studies are great to learn from. Historical events have a multitude of source info offering different perspectives. There are always modern parallels where these perspectives can be applied, compared, and thoroughly analyzed.
• Problem-oriented case studies are usually used for solving problems. These are often assigned as theoretical situations where you need to immerse yourself in the situation to examine it. Imagine you’re working for a startup and you’ve just noticed a significant flaw in your product’s design. Before taking it to the senior manager, you want to do a comprehensive study on the issue and provide solutions. On a greater scale, problem-oriented case studies are a vital part of relevant socio-economic discussions.
• Cumulative case studies collect information and offer comparisons. In business, case studies are often used to tell people about the value of a product.
• Critical case studies explore the causes and effects of a certain case.
• Illustrative case studies describe certain events, investigating outcomes and lessons learned.

Need a compelling case study? EssayPro has got you covered. Our experts are ready to provide you with detailed, insightful case studies that capture the essence of real-world scenarios. Elevate your academic work with our professional assistance.

Case Study Format

The case study format is typically made up of eight parts:

• Executive Summary. Explain what you will examine in the case study. Write an overview of the field you’re researching. Make a thesis statement and sum up the results of your observation in a maximum of 2 sentences.
• Background. Provide background information and the most relevant facts. Isolate the issues.
• Case Evaluation. Isolate the sections of the study you want to focus on. In it, explain why something is working or is not working.
• Proposed Solutions. Offer realistic ways to solve what isn’t working or how to improve its current condition. Explain why these solutions work by offering testable evidence.
• Conclusion. Summarize the main points from the case evaluations and proposed solutions. 6. Recommendations. Talk about the strategy that you should choose. Explain why this choice is the most appropriate.
• Implementation. Explain how to put the specific strategies into action.
• References. Provide all the citations.

How to Write a Case Study

Let's discover how to write a case study.

Setting Up the Research

When writing a case study, remember that research should always come first. Reading many different sources and analyzing other points of view will help you come up with more creative solutions. You can also conduct an actual interview to thoroughly investigate the customer story that you'll need for your case study. Including all of the necessary research, writing a case study may take some time. The research process involves doing the following:

• Define your objective. Explain the reason why you’re presenting your subject. Figure out where you will feature your case study; whether it is written, on video, shown as an infographic, streamed as a podcast, etc.
• Determine who will be the right candidate for your case study. Get permission, quotes, and other features that will make your case study effective. Get in touch with your candidate to see if they approve of being part of your work. Study that candidate’s situation and note down what caused it.
• Identify which various consequences could result from the situation. Follow these guidelines on how to start a case study: surf the net to find some general information you might find useful.
• Make a list of credible sources and examine them. Seek out important facts and highlight problems. Always write down your ideas and make sure to brainstorm.
• Focus on several key issues – why they exist, and how they impact your research subject. Think of several unique solutions. Draw from class discussions, readings, and personal experience. When writing a case study, focus on the best solution and explore it in depth. After having all your research in place, writing a case study will be easy. You may first want to check the rubric and criteria of your assignment for the correct case study structure.

Read Also: ' WHAT IS A CREDIBLE SOURCES ?'

Although your instructor might be looking at slightly different criteria, every case study rubric essentially has the same standards. Your professor will want you to exhibit 8 different outcomes:

• Correctly identify the concepts, theories, and practices in the discipline.
• Identify the relevant theories and principles associated with the particular study.
• Evaluate legal and ethical principles and apply them to your decision-making.
• Recognize the global importance and contribution of your case.
• Construct a coherent summary and explanation of the study.
• Demonstrate analytical and critical-thinking skills.
• Explain the interrelationships between the environment and nature.
• Integrate theory and practice of the discipline within the analysis.

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Case Study Outline

Let's look at the structure of an outline based on the issue of the alcoholic addiction of 30 people.

Introduction

• Statement of the issue: Alcoholism is a disease rather than a weakness of character.
• Presentation of the problem: Alcoholism is affecting more than 14 million people in the USA, which makes it the third most common mental illness there.
• Explanation of the terms: In the past, alcoholism was commonly referred to as alcohol dependence or alcohol addiction. Alcoholism is now the more severe stage of this addiction in the disorder spectrum.
• Hypotheses: Drinking in excess can lead to the use of other drugs.
• Importance of your story: How the information you present can help people with their addictions.
• Background of the story: Include an explanation of why you chose this topic.
• Presentation of analysis and data: Describe the criteria for choosing 30 candidates, the structure of the interview, and the outcomes.
• Strong argument 1: ex. X% of candidates dealing with anxiety and depression...
• Strong argument 2: ex. X amount of people started drinking by their mid-teens.
• Strong argument 3: ex. X% of respondents’ parents had issues with alcohol.
• Concluding statement: I have researched if alcoholism is a disease and found out that…
• Recommendations: Ways and actions for preventing alcohol use.

Writing a Case Study Draft

After you’ve done your case study research and written the outline, it’s time to focus on the draft. In a draft, you have to develop and write your case study by using: the data which you collected throughout the research, interviews, and the analysis processes that were undertaken. Follow these rules for the draft:

• Your draft should contain at least 4 sections: an introduction; a body where you should include background information, an explanation of why you decided to do this case study, and a presentation of your main findings; a conclusion where you present data; and references.
• In the introduction, you should set the pace very clearly. You can even raise a question or quote someone you interviewed in the research phase. It must provide adequate background information on the topic. The background may include analyses of previous studies on your topic. Include the aim of your case here as well. Think of it as a thesis statement. The aim must describe the purpose of your work—presenting the issues that you want to tackle. Include background information, such as photos or videos you used when doing the research.
• Describe your unique research process, whether it was through interviews, observations, academic journals, etc. The next point includes providing the results of your research. Tell the audience what you found out. Why is this important, and what could be learned from it? Discuss the real implications of the problem and its significance in the world.
• Include quotes and data (such as findings, percentages, and awards). This will add a personal touch and better credibility to the case you present. Explain what results you find during your interviews in regards to the problem and how it developed. Also, write about solutions which have already been proposed by other people who have already written about this case.
• At the end of your case study, you should offer possible solutions, but don’t worry about solving them yourself.

Use Data to Illustrate Key Points in Your Case Study

Even though your case study is a story, it should be based on evidence. Use as much data as possible to illustrate your point. Without the right data, your case study may appear weak and the readers may not be able to relate to your issue as much as they should. Let's see the examples from essay writing service :

‍ With data: Alcoholism is affecting more than 14 million people in the USA, which makes it the third most common mental illness there. Without data: A lot of people suffer from alcoholism in the United States.

Try to include as many credible sources as possible. You may have terms or sources that could be hard for other cultures to understand. If this is the case, you should include them in the appendix or Notes for the Instructor or Professor.

Finalizing the Draft: Checklist

After you finish drafting your case study, polish it up by answering these ‘ask yourself’ questions and think about how to end your case study:

• Check that you follow the correct case study format, also in regards to text formatting.
• Check that your work is consistent with its referencing and citation style.
• Micro-editing — check for grammar and spelling issues.
• Macro-editing — does ‘the big picture’ come across to the reader? Is there enough raw data, such as real-life examples or personal experiences? Have you made your data collection process completely transparent? Does your analysis provide a clear conclusion, allowing for further research and practice?

Problems to avoid:

• Overgeneralization – Do not go into further research that deviates from the main problem.
• Failure to Document Limitations – Just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study, you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis.
• Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications – Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings.

How to Create a Title Page and Cite a Case Study

Let's see how to create an awesome title page.

Your title page depends on the prescribed citation format. The title page should include:

• A title that attracts some attention and describes your study
• The title should have the words “case study” in it
• The title should range between 5-9 words in length
• Your name and contact information
• Your finished paper should be only 500 to 1,500 words in length.With this type of assignment, write effectively and avoid fluff

Here is a template for the APA and MLA format title page:

There are some cases when you need to cite someone else's study in your own one – therefore, you need to master how to cite a case study. A case study is like a research paper when it comes to citations. You can cite it like you cite a book, depending on what style you need.

Citation Example in MLA ‍ Hill, Linda, Tarun Khanna, and Emily A. Stecker. HCL Technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing, 2008. Print.

Citation Example in APA ‍ Hill, L., Khanna, T., & Stecker, E. A. (2008). HCL Technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing.

Citation Example in Chicago Hill, Linda, Tarun Khanna, and Emily A. Stecker. HCL Technologies.

Case Study Examples

To give you an idea of a professional case study example, we gathered and linked some below.

Eastman Kodak Case Study

Case Study Example: Audi Trains Mexican Autoworkers in Germany

To conclude, a case study is one of the best methods of getting an overview of what happened to a person, a group, or a situation in practice. It allows you to have an in-depth glance at the real-life problems that businesses, healthcare industry, criminal justice, etc. may face. This insight helps us look at such situations in a different light. This is because we see scenarios that we otherwise would not, without necessarily being there. If you need custom essays , try our research paper writing services .

Get Help Form Qualified Writers

Crafting a case study is not easy. You might want to write one of high quality, but you don’t have the time or expertise. If you’re having trouble with your case study, help with essay request - we'll help. EssayPro writers have read and written countless case studies and are experts in endless disciplines. Request essay writing, editing, or proofreading assistance from our custom case study writing service , and all of your worries will be gone.

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What Is A Case Study?

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How to Write a Case Study: Definition, Outline, Steps & Examples

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A case study is a research method that involves an in-depth examination of a particular subject, often a person, group, event, or organization. It's used to explore complex issues in real-world contexts. A case study can provide insights that might not be achieved with other research methods.

Are you struggling with writing a case study and don't know where to begin? You are not alone. Most students involved in the Psychology or Sociology field often find this task challenging. Especially if they are new to this research method. However, with the right structure and preparation, creating a case study paper will be a piece of cake. 

After reading this article, you will be armed with all essential details including:

• Definition 
• Case study types
• Basic structure
• Steps on how to write a case study
• Examples that worked.

Let’s dive right in!

What Is a Case Study: Definition

A case study is a research method that involves examining a specific instance to let researchers learn more about an individual, event, organization or concept. It is like a magnifying glass for studying real-life situations. By looking at a single example, we can learn more about complex issues and understand patterns. 

Case studies are used in the fields like Psychology, Business, Statistics or Nursing. As a rule, students apply this research method when writing a dissertation or thesis . 

Depending on the research question and the data needed to address a problem, case studies can involve various research methods.

Research Methods Applied in Case Studies

Case Study Example

A researcher is interested in studying the effects of a newly implemented teaching method on student performance. To find out, they observe a class of 30 students over one semester. The researcher compares the test scores from before and after the method was used, documenting its effectiveness.  The study results showed that academic performance had improved by 11.5% since the new teaching method was implemented. The researcher concluded that this approach works well and can be generalized to a broader population.

Let's recap the main points. 

What Is the Purpose of a Case Study?

The primary purpose of a case study is to gain insight into the real-world situations through the investigation and analysis of a single instance. This research design is often applied to meet such goals: 

• Develop a better understanding of complex issues or phenomena 
• Identify patterns and relationships
• Test hypotheses and theories in natural settings
• Provide practical solutions
• Illustrate best practices or successful strategies.

Every case study writer can customize their work to fit the needs of a specific discipline, as shown below.

Use of Case Studies 

Looking for expert case study help ? Don't hesitate to contact our academic writers today to get the assistance you need. Our team of experts is ready to provide you with top-notch writings to help you achieve your academic or professional goals

Types of Case Studies

There are different types of case studies that scholars or students can bring into play. Each approach has its own focus and is chosen based on research objectives. 

• Descriptive case studies This approach involves a detailed examination of a particular situation or phenomenon to understand it better. Here, researchers see the context, events, and processes that led to a particular outcome, and get a comprehensive picture of the situation.
• Explanatory case studies Explanatory method allows us to understand the "why" and “how” behind a particular event or phenomenon. As the name suggests, this type of case study seeks to test and explain the causal relationship between independent and dependent variables . 
• Exploratory case studies Imagine being a detective and investigating a mystery or problem in its early stages. This is the main idea of an exploratory investigation. It helps to recognize key questions, potential patterns, and areas for further research. It's like peeling back the layers of an onion, revealing new insights and uncovering possible solutions. 
• Intrinsic case studies  Unlike other case study methods, an intrinsic approach is used to explore a unique instance. Here, researchers focus on a particular scenario in its own right, rather than trying to apply the outcomes to a broader population.  
• Instrumental case studies This type of study examines one instance to shed light on a larger group or phenomenon. Instrumental technique is a good choice if you want to develop theoretical frameworks and obtain generalizable findings.
• Cumulative case studies  While conducting cumulative research, students compile and synthesize information from multiple similar instances. Here, you combine the results of multiple studies to draw more generalized conclusions.
• Collective case reports Think of several individual instances being studied together to provide a broader understanding of a specific phenomenon. These instances are often connected by a common theme. This enables researchers to compare and contrast cases and uncover tendencies. 
• Critical case studies Researchers use this method to explore exceptional instances that are particularly interesting or thought-provoking. Critical approach helps to analyze why a specific situation occurred and what could have been done differently.

Case Study Structure: Main Parts

When investigating any phenomenon, it’s important to organize your sections in a logical manner. A structure of a case study usually includes such components:

• Introduction This section is a place to present a case. Provide a brief overview of your instance, introduce your key research objectives and prepare the readers for further analysis.
• Problem identification By laying out a problem, you will be able to show the scope and significance of your topic. Identify the main issue that will be examined and build a clear statement of the problem.
• Background A properly established context sets the stage for research and lays a foundation for case evaluation. Offer relevant background information on the instance. This can be a historical, geographical or cultural context.
• Methodology Describe your  methodology in research  – approach, data collection methods and analysis techniques used in your investigation.
• Solution  Now is the time to determine potential solutions to address the problem, and evaluate the pros and cons of each resolution. Make sure solutions are realistic.
• Results  Once a case study is conducted, you should share your key findings. Mention any data or evidence that was collected and analyzed.
• Discussion This part of a case study is a perfect opportunity for analysis. Discuss the implications of your outcomes and draw conclusions
• Conclusion Summarize your main points, restate a problem and solutions, and offer final recommendations or next steps.

Case Study Outline

Before you create a case study, it’s a good idea to prepare an outline. It serves as a skeleton of your project. A well-structured outline of a case study helps organize your thoughts in a logical manner.

Below you can see an example of a basic template. Feel free to use it for inspiration. 

General Outline  

• Brief subject introduction
• Research purpose and objectives
• Necessary context
• Problem/issue
• Problem significance
• Subject/idea history
• Setting or environment description
• Key challenges, opportunities, or turning points
• Research methods used to gather information
• Data analysis methods
• Possible strategies
• Assessment of solutions
• Recommended solvents
• Major discoveries from the data analysis
• Implications
• Limitations/challenges
• Summary of key points
• Restatement of the problem and solution
• Final suggestions or next steps

Based on the sample template shown above, arrange your key ideas and highlight critical information. You may change the blocks to meet your assignment’s unique requirements.

Before You Start Writing a Case Study

Preparation  is the key to success. To make your case study flawless, you need to establish your goal and plan. This will lay the foundation of the whole process before you begin writing.

Ensure you follow these 3 crucial steps before moving further. 

1. Carefully Read the Instructions 

Your professor may provide you with special requirements, case study rubric or exemplary works. The instructions may include details on preferred format, structure, word count, writing style or analysis techniques. Read given material attentively and make sure you fully understand the guidelines. 

Get expertly crafted works to meet your academic needs. Buy case study from certified professionals and ace your assignments with ease.

2. Conduct Research

Researching is the most time-consuming part of writing a case study. Review relevant studies on the research topic to gain a deeper understanding of your subject. You may want to go through different sources and identify their strengths and limitations. Strive to build a bridge between your case study report and existing gaps. 

Make sure to jot down all your ideas, opinions, notes or questions related to your research. This approach will help you build an outline and write a case study accordingly.  

3. Gather Data

Now you are all set for the data collection process. Identify the most relevant type of information pertinent to your research question.

Consider using primary sources such as interviews, surveys or questionnaires. Secondary resources may include books, articles, case studies and public documents. 

Your data must be accurate and reliable so double-check your research results before integrating them into your project.

How to Write a Case Study in 7 Steps?

Now that you are familiar with the preparation stages, it's time to dive into the writing process. Writing case studies can be challenging. But by following a structured approach, you can produce a clear and engaging work. 

To create a strong project, it's important to carefully plan and execute each step of your flow, from identifying the research question to presenting your conclusions. Below we have prepared detailed guidelines on how to write a case study paper. 

1. Introduce a Case Study

Start your case study introduction by presenting your subject and providing a brief overview of the research objectives. It's important to highlight the significance of your case and explain why it warrants examination. One way to do this is to focus on innovative aspects, such as a novel approach to a problem or a new technology. You can also emphasize the broader implications. 

You should also preview a structure. This will give readers an idea of what to expect. Briefly describe your main points or provide a rough outline. 

Case Study Introduction Example

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition that can arise in individuals who have experienced a traumatic event. In this case study, we examine the experiences of a patient who was diagnosed with PTSD following a car accident. Our analysis focuses on the patient's symptoms, including intrusive thoughts, hyperarousal, and avoidance behaviors. We also explore the treatments employed to manage these symptoms. By analyzing this case, we aim to provide insights into the challenges of treating PTSD and offer recommendations for improving therapeutic interventions for individuals suffering from this condition.

2. Describe a Problem

Before you get to the problem, provide context that explains the issue at hand. Identify the scope and impact of this problem. One efficient strategy of creating case studies that trigger attention is integrating examples or statistics. This helps to understand how severe this situation is. 

Additionally, you may want to highlight any challenges or obstacles that have prevented a problem from being solved. 

Example of Problem Description in a Case Study

John is a 28-year-old man who was involved in a serious car accident three months ago. Since then, he has been experiencing PTSD symptoms, including recurring nightmares, flashbacks, and feelings of anxiety. These symptoms have affected his work performance and relationships with family and friends. Despite seeking help from his primary care physician and attending therapy sessions, John has not experienced significant improvement. The challenge is to identify effective treatments that can help John manage his PTSD and improve his quality of life.

>> Read more: How to Write a Problem Statement

3. Discuss Research Methods 

Research methods you apply will define how to make a case study. There are multiple ways to collect data. So your primary task here is to figure out what kind of information you want to obtain. 

Your research strategy should align with your objectives. For instance, interviews can help capture detailed information from a small sample of people. On the other hand, surveys involve large groups of individuals. If you are using interviews or surveys, provide a list of questions participants were asked. 

You can also do experiments to test out different theories or conduct document analysis to identify trends. 

>> Learn more: What Is Experimental Design  

Example of How to Describe Research Methods 

In this research, both quantitative and qualitative data were utilized. 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who had experienced PTSD symptoms following a traumatic event. Additionally, data was collected from a survey of 253 individuals who had not been diagnosed with PTSD. We inquired about their experiences with trauma and the types of coping strategies they used to manage stress. Medical records from John's primary care physician were analyzed to track his progress over time. The combination of quantitative and qualitative data allowed for a comprehensive understanding of John's unique experiences with PTSD.

4. Offer Solutions to the Problem 

The next stage involves coming up with potential solutions. Explain what strategies could be used to address the problem.

For example, if you write a case study on a business-related problem, solutions may involve implementing procedures to improve efficiency. Alternatively, in a healthcare niche, you will offer a new medication or therapy.

Be sure to provide evidence from your research or expert opinions to support your suggestions.

Here’s how to do a case study solutions section. 

Example of Solution

One potential solution for addressing John's PTSD symptoms is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). According to a study by Bisson and colleagues (2013), CBT has been found to be effective in reducing symptoms of PTSD in individuals who have experienced traumatic events. The therapist can work with John to identify and challenge negative thought patterns related to his traumatic experience and teach him coping skills to manage his anxiety and stress.

5. Present Your Key Results

Most scholars judge case study reports by research outcomes. You need to show that your solution works. Analyze collected data and share your most significant findings in your results section . This can be an increase in profits or a patient's health improvement. 

When you write your case study outcomes, it is important to organize the information in a clear and concise manner. Use tables, graphs and charts to illustrate your data visually. 

Provide a short summary of your results and their implications. But don’t just tell. You need to back up your research with evidence. If you used interviews, be sure to include any statistical analysis done for those results. 

Example of Case Study Research Results

Our analysis showed that participants who received cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) reported a significant decrease in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as compared to those who received no therapy. Specifically, the group who received CBT experienced a 35% reduction in symptoms. Meanwhile, the control group experienced no significant change. These findings suggest that CBT may be an effective treatment option for individuals with PTSD.

6. Conclude with Recommendations

A conclusion of a case study is where you wrap everything up and provide recommendations for further research. Sum up your key points and explain how they could be used to solve similar problems. You can also highlight any unexpected findings or insights that emerged during the study. Don’t forget to discuss any ethical considerations or limitations. 

You need to create a lasting impression. For this, end a case study with a thought-provoking statement or call to action. 

Case Study Conclusion Example

Our research highlighted the significant impact of PTSD on individuals who have experienced a traumatic event. The results suggested that cognitive-behavioral therapy and reprocessing therapy are effective treatments for PTSD. However, more research is needed to determine the long-term effects of these treatments. Additionally, the stigma surrounding mental health and seeking treatment remains a significant barrier to access to care. It is crucial for healthcare professionals and policymakers to address this issue and increase access to mental health services.

7. Proofread Your Case Study

Once you are done with writing a case study, you need to carefully review it. Keep an eye on these things when checking your work: 

• Grammar mistakes Proofread your writing for typos and grammar errors. Feel free to use our  Grammar Checker  to make sure you got everything right.
• Clarity Check whether your work is readable and concise. Avoid long sentences and complex structures.
• Sources accuracy Make sure to check all sources for accuracy. It is also important to ensure that all reported data is up-to-date.
• Citations Ascertain whether all sources are properly cited and the same style is used consistently throughout your paper.

Case Study Format

Besides the content, it is also important to stick to a specific case study paper format. The layout of your paper should follow guidelines of the chosen citation style.

There are different ways to format a case study. Commonly used styles include APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard. Each format  presents specific requirements for formatting your text and references. 

Check out our detailed guides listed below to learn more about each style. 

>>  How to Write a Paper in APA Format?

>>  How to Do MLA Format?  

>>  How to Write a Chicago Style Paper?

Case Study Examples

Getting actual examples of case studies can be a great way to learn and understand how to write one. To help you out, we have collected several sample case study paper examples for different disciplines. Feel free to use these samples as inspiration when writing your own paper.

Case Study Writing Tips

With the right approach, your effort will reward you with an A+. In this section, we will list some actionable tips on how to write a good case study: 

• Planning your work ahead Planning your work ahead Make sure to create an outline before you start writing and stick to it throughout the entire process.
• Arranging your data logically Break down complex information into chunks and use visual elements (tables, graphs, diagrams) to present it.
• Structuring your writing Use headings and subheadings to organize your content and make key points easy to access.
• Keeping your text simple Write your case study in an easy-to-read language and refrain from complex sentence structures.
• Remaining impartial Be objective in your analysis and avoid personal biases.

Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Case Study

Even a small mistake can undermine your whole work. Here are some common pitfalls students fail to account for in their case studies:

• Focusing too much on the background Provide enough space for analysis of your problem and solution.
• Stuffing with direct quotes Quotes can be used as evidence in your paper. But relying on them too much will make it sound overly repetitive.
• Not referring to all sources Always cite your sources correctly and use only reliable data in your paper.
• Being vague Avoid general statements and be more specific while discussing your results and solutions.
• Failing to mention possible gaps Always consider ethical considerations or limitations.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Case Study

Using a case study approach as your research method has its own pros and cons. On one hand, it is an effective way to explore a particular issue in detail. On the other, there are certain limitations that come with this approach. Below we will cover both strengths and limitations of case studies.

Benefits of Case Study

A case study is like a seed that can grow into a fruitful tree, providing resolutions to intricate problems. Here are the biggest case study benefits you can use to your advantage:

• In-depth analysis Researchers can gather a lot of information on a specific topic or issue.
• Insights into elaborate issues Allows researchers to examine complex issues in a controlled manner.
• Real-life situations You are able to test theories or hypotheses in real-world settings.
• Comprehensive approach Researchers can collect both quantitative and qualitative data.
• Unique revelations This method can enlight on previously unexplored or understudied areas.

Limitations of Case Study

As with any research method, case studies have their fair share of drawbacks. Let's take a closer look at some of the most prevalent issues that can arise when using this approach.

• Limited generalizability Due to the small sample size and unique nature of each case, it can be difficult to generalize findings to a larger population.
• Observer bias Researchers may bring their own biases and perspectives, which can influence their results and interpretations.
• Time-consuming and expensive This approach requires significant time and resources to conduct, making it less feasible for some research questions.
• Lack of control In contrast to experimental research, case studies lack control over extraneous variables. This can make it difficult to establish cause-and-effect relationships.
• Subjectivity Collected data is often subjective and open to interpretation, which can introduce potential errors.

Case Study Paper Writing Checklist

Before you write a case study assignment, make sure to recap all the information you have learnt today. Refer to this checklist to ensure you are on the right track. 

• checkbox I thoroughly researched my topic and gathered relevant information.
• checkbox A problem/issue is clearly defined. 
• checkbox My case study structure is well-organized. 
• checkbox I used appropriate research methods to gather data.
• checkbox My findings are well-supported by analysis and evidence. 
• checkbox I discussed possible limitations and ethical considerations. 
• checkbox The work offers recommendations for further research.
• checkbox My paper adheres to formatting guidelines required by my instructor.

Bottom Line on How to Write a Case Study

Writing a case study can be an incredibly challenging task for any student. However, with the right approach and tips, you can easily turn this daunting task into a pleasant experience. 

We hope this article helped you understand how to write a case study. Remember to focus on the practical part and avoid overgeneralizing or cherry-picking data.

Our paper writing service is your best choice. We have helped thousands of students with their projects and would be glad to assist you, too. Our team of skilled writers is ready to help you complete your work upon ‘ write my case study ’ request.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. what is a case study in research.

A case study is a research method that involves an in-depth analysis of a particular subject. This approach most often focuses on a single event, person or group. It provides insight into the context of a problem and can be used to explore solutions to intricate issues.

2. What is the difference between a case study and a research paper?

The main difference between a case study and a research paper is in their scope. A case study explores a limited number of subjects, while research papers investigate multiple variables and/or draw conclusions from larger data sets. While both works contain evidence-based information, the focus and approach taken are quite different. Research papers are more general in nature, while case studies focus on narrow problems.

3. How long should a case study be?

The length of a case study varies depending on the type of assignment. Case studies intended for scholarly articles range from 3,000 to 4,0000 words or more. Meanwhile, if it’s a separate chapter in your MA or PhD dissertation, you will need to keep it between 8,000-15,000 words. Follow specific guidelines provided by your professor or institution. 

4. Why is a case study important?

Case studies are an important research tool, as they provide detailed information on a particular issue. By exploring a single instance from multiple angles, researchers can uncover solutions to complicated problems that may not be immediately apparent. Using this method, scientists also test hypotheses and generate new theories.

5. What makes a good case study?

A good case study should be organized, well-researched, and contain evidence. Some characteristics of a case study include:

• Precise subject overview
• Thorough analysis that goes beyond surface-level information
• Examination of a single scenario from various perspectives
• Fact-based arguments
• Validated findings.

6. How to start a case study?

To start a case study, begin by carefully reading requirements and identifying the main problem to be addressed. Don't jump to conclusions or make assumptions – take it one step at a time. Once you have a clear understanding of your goal, gather relevant data. This includes doing research, interviewing people, and analyzing relevant documents.

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How to Improve the Explanatory Power of an Intelligent Textbook: a Case Study in Legal Writing

• Open access
• Published: 06 May 2024

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

• Francesco Sovrano   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6285-1041 1 , 2 ,
• Kevin Ashley 3 ,
• Peter Leonid Brusilovsky 4 &
• Fabio Vitali 1  

Explanatory processes are at the core of scientific investigation, legal reasoning, and education. However, effectively explaining complex or large amounts of information, such as that contained in a textbook or library, in an intuitive, user-centered way is still an open challenge. Indeed, different people may search for and request different types of information, even though texts typically have a predefined exposition and content. With this paper, we investigate how explanatory AI can better exploit the full potential of the vast and rich content library at our disposal. Based on a recent theory of explanations from Ordinary Language Philosophy, which frames the explanation process as illocutionary question-answering, we have developed a new type of interactive and adaptive textbook. Using the latest question-answering technology, our e-book software (YAI4Edu, for short) generates on-demand, expandable explanations that can help readers effectively explore teaching materials in a pedagogically productive way. It does this by extracting a specialized knowledge graph from a collection of books or other resources that helps identify the most relevant questions to be answered for a satisfactory explanation. We tested our technology with excerpts from a textbook that teaches how to write legal memoranda in the U.S. legal system. Then, to see whether YAI4Edu-enhanced textbooks are better than random and existing, general-purpose explanatory tools, we conducted a within-subjects user study with more than 100 English-speaking students. The students rated YAI4Edu’s explanations the highest. According to the students, the explanatory content generated by YAI4Edu is, on average, statistically better than two baseline alternatives ( P values below .005).

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Introduction

As pointed out by UNESCO, the United Nations specialized agency for education, in one of its recent publications (Miao et al., 2021 ), the opportunities and challenges that Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers for education in the AI era are yet to be fully understood. Nonetheless, the expectations are high given the potential of AI to foster our ability to acquire and convey knowledge. Indeed, since the invention of writing, we have collected a vast amount of written content that now forms the basis of our collective wisdom and industriousness.

However, fully harnessing the potential of such written knowledge by automatically explaining it in an intuitive and user-centered way is still an open problem . For instance, different explainees Footnote 1 may search for and request different types of information, even though, usually, the exposition and content of an explanatory document (e.g., a book, an article, a web page, or technical documentation) are predetermined and static.

Different books on the same subject expound the same knowledge in different ways and with different levels of detail. Additionally, this type of static representation is sub-optimal and time-consuming in the most generic scenario because helpful information may be sparse and scattered over hundreds or thousands of pages. As a result, explaining to a person can be an extremely challenging task, regardless of whether the explanandum Footnote 2 is from technical documentation, a scientific article, a regulation or a textbook. Additionally, the complexity of this task is increased by the elusiveness of the notion of explanation.

To address the problem of automatically explaining, we study how to automatically enhance static educational books by making them more interactive. We do this by reducing the sparsity of relevant information, thereby increasing the explanatory power of the medium while also linking it to a knowledge graph extracted from a collection of supplementary materials.

The approach is based on a recent theory from Ordinary Language Philosophy (Sovrano & Vitali, 2022a , explained in section “ Explanations According to Ordinary Language Philosophy ”), which views explaining as more than just providing answers to questions. It emphasizes that explaining involves answering unspoken or implicit questions in a meaningful and relevant way to the individual seeking understanding.

For instance, if you ask “How are you doing?” and the response is “I am fine”, this is not an explanation. However, if the response is “I am okay because I was worried I could have tested positive for COVID-19, but I am not, and [...]”, it becomes an explanation. The reason: this response intends to create an understanding of the person’s state of being.

This concept of responding to implicit questions is called illocution (Sovrano & Vitali, 2022a ). It makes the explanation process more focused on the individual seeking understanding. By anticipating these implicit questions, both the person explaining and the person seeking understanding can communicate more efficiently, resulting in a reduction of steps required to explain something Footnote 3 .

Hence, assuming that the goal of an educational e-book is to explain something to the reader and consistent with the abovementioned definition of explanations (Sovrano & Vitali, 2022a , b ), we built an explanatory process capable, through question-answering, of organizing a textbook’s explanatory space Footnote 4 to enable a reader to more efficiently and effectively retrieve helpful information. Specifically, our proposed solution consists of a pipeline of Explanatory AI (YAI) algorithms and heuristics to build, on top of textbooks, intelligent interfaces for:

answering explicit questions asked by a user;

automatically identifying the topics that can be explained by the contents of a textbook (or any collection of texts);

generating explanations by anticipating a set of useful (implicit) questions a user might have about the textbook.

Assuming that the content of a textbook (or a collection of texts integrating it) properly explains a given explanandum, our work relies on the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1

The most useful implicit questions a user may have about a collection of texts are those best answered in the collection as a whole. These questions are neither too detailed (because they would otherwise only be answered in a minor part of the collection) nor too general (because they would be answered inaccurately in the more detailed textual content).

If the assumption mentioned above holds, we believe that the hypothesis is correct for the following reasons:

any question falling outside the scope of the collection of documents could not be answered, thus not being useful;

whoever wrote the textbook tried to explain as well as possible (for her/his narrative purposes) the most important topics at hand, thus (according to the adopted definition of explanation) implicitly identifying the most important questions whose answers provide a good overview of the topics.

Consequently, our main contribution is a novel pipeline of YAI software for enhancing the explanatory power of a textbook based on an algorithm (called Intelligent Explanation Generator) for identifying the questions best answered by a collection of texts. Indeed, according to theory, what makes a YAI good at explaining is its ability to identify implicit and relevant questions to answer, somehow anticipating the needs of the explainee.

Example of intelligent explanatory overview generated by YAI4Edu. This figure contains an example of interactive overview in the form of a scrollspy showing relevant questions and answers as explanations. The reader can select a new topic to overview by clicking on any underlined word

As a case study for our proposed YAI for education (YAI4Edu, for short), we considered a teaching scenario where the excerpts of a textbook, “United States Legal Language and Culture: An Introduction to the U.S. Common Law System” (Brostoff & Sinsheimer, 2013 ), together with the encyclopedia of the Legal Information Institute of the Cornell Law School and thousands of cases of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) Footnote 5 are used for teaching how to write a legal memorandum Footnote 6 in support of a disability claim for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) according to the U.S. legal system.

The complexity of legal jargon and intricate language in the field of law offers a substantial test for YAI4Edu, making our case study an ideal showcase of its abilities. We utilize over 16,000 diverse resources for this study, including a textbook actively used in a University of Pittsburgh course. This enhances the study’s real-world practicality and educational relevance. When coupled with the important societal context of veterans’ PTSD disability claims, our case study highlights the potential of AI applications in education, particularly in complex fields such as law. For an example of an intelligent explanation generated by YAI4Edu in this scenario, see Fig. 1 .

As an example to clarify what Hypothesis 1 means in this case, let us suppose we want to explain what a legal memorandum is. The textbook (Brostoff & Sinsheimer, 2013 ) does it by describing what a memo is in a legal sense, what it is for, what the proper form of a legal memorandum is, and what sections it should include. The textbook also provides secondary details , explaining each step of drafting a memorandum, why writing a memo is difficult, what the heading of a memorandum contains, and so on. Hence, in this case, Hypothesis 1 implies that the most useful implicit questions to ask are not those whose answers are only secondary details. This is because they are too specific to represent the whole textbook’s explanatory content adequately. Instead, the best choices are the main questions such as “what is the proper form of a legal memorandum”, “what is a memo in a legal sense”, because they best represent the content of the textbook.

To evaluate YAI4Edu and verify Hypothesis 1 , we conducted a within-subjects user study , comprising more than 100 students. This was done to study how different strategies to identify helpful implicit questions impact the quality of the resulting explanations. In particular, during the study, different explanations (an example is shown in Fig. 5 ) were given to English-speaking students about the task of writing a legal memorandum . For more details about the explanations used in the experiment, see Table 2 .

We compared the explanations generated by the Intelligent Explanation Generator (relying on Hypothesis 1 ) with those of the following two baseline algorithms :

a random explanations generator : an algorithm that organizes explanations by randomly selecting implicit questions from those answered by the corpus of considered texts;

a generic explanations generator : an algorithm that uses very generic questions (e.g., why , how , what ) instead of those extracted from the textbook, under the assumption that all possible (implicit) questions are instances of such generic questions.

The results supported Hypothesis 1 . They showed that our Intelligent Explanation Generator outperforms the baselines mentioned above in all the considered explanations, selecting questions that are not too specific or generic. The differences in performance were statistically significant ( P values below .005). Notably, the results also show that the explanations generated from generic questions are significantly better than those generated from random questions, giving further evidence in support of the validity of the hypothesis.

Synopsis. In section “ Related Work ”, we discuss existing literature on interactive e-books for education, focusing on AI-based solutions. In section “ Background ”, we provide sufficient background to understand the theory behind the algorithms presented in section “ YAI4Edu: a YAI for Improving the Explanatory Power of an Intelligent Textbook ”. Then, in section “ Case Study: A Textbook for Teaching How to Write Legal Memoranda ”, we present our case study on legal writing, and in section “ Experiment ”, we introduce the experiment for verifying Hypothesis 1 . Finally, in section “ Discussion: Results and Limitations ” and section “ Limitations and Future Work ”, we discuss the experimental results and the limitations of the proposed approach, while also highlighting potential avenues for future work.

Related Work

Some studies suggest that using intelligent textbooks Footnote 7 and interactive e-books leads to an increase in use, motivation and learning gains versus static e-books (Ericson, 2019 ). Of the several streams of work on the topic of interactive e-books and intelligent textbooks, most focus on the cognitive process of the reader, studying how to enhance the pedagogical productivity of textbooks through expert systems or sophisticated interfaces. They usually accomplish this by:

showing personal progress through open learner models (Kay & Kummerfeld, 2019 , 2021 );

specializing on ad hoc tasks through some domain modeling (Beier & Rau, 2022 ; Deligiannis et al., 2019 ; Chacon et al., 2021 ; Matsuda & Shimmei, 2019 );

modeling a student through questions, in order to identify and suggest personalized contents (Thaker et al., 2019 ; Mohammed & Shaffer, 2021 ; Matsuda & Shimmei, 2019 );

associating pedagogically valuable quizzes and exercises to portions of the e-book (Wang et al., 2022 ; Shimmei & Matsuda, 2022 ; Campenhout et al., 2021a , b );

providing tools for manually creating new interactive e-books (Wang et al., 2021 ; Pursel et al., 2019 ; Kluga et al., 2019 ).

The use of AI for the automatic generation of interactive e-books seems to be under-explored. In one such project, (Barria-Pineda et al., 2022 ) propose to automatically augment the sections of existing books with related YouTube videos by directly annotating the PDF, thus without breaking the structure of these textbooks.

Unlike the previous literature examples, our approach attempts to fully automatically convert an existing e-book into an interactive version by exploiting theories of explanations, intelligent interfaces, and YAI. In particular, we are not interested in the task of generating verbatim Footnote 8 questions for quizzes or exercises as in Wang et al. ( 2022 ); Shimmei and Matsuda ( 2022 ); Campenhout et al. ( 2021a , 2021b ). Instead we pursue the idea that questions (even non-verbatim ones) can be a practical criterion to organize and categorize the content of explanations. Moreover, instead of considering any question as a suitable candidate for this task, we empirically show that some questions are more useful than others and that the best questions for explanatory overviews are neither too generic nor too specific.

This section aims to provide enough background information for the reader to understand what an explanation is according to Ordinary Language Philosophy and the consequent theory of YAI.

Explanations According to Ordinary Language Philosophy

The concept of explanation in philosophy Footnote 9 began to have a more precise role in the 20th century with the growth and development of the philosophy of science. The publication by Hempel and Oppenheim ( 1948 ) of their “Studies in the Logic of Explanation” gave rise to what is considered the first theory of explanations: the deductive-nomological model. Sometime later, this first model came to be considered fatally flawed (Bromberger, 1966 ; Salmon, 1984 ). Indeed, Hempel’s epistemic theory of explanations is not empiricist: it is concerned (mistakenly) only with logical form, so an explanation can be such regardless of the actual processes and entities conceptually required to understand it.

Several more modern and competing theories of explanation have resulted from this criticism (Mayes, 2001 ). Some of these theories, for instance, those proposed by Salmon ( 1984 ) and van Fraassen ( 1980 ), take a scientific approach, framing explanations purely as answers to why questions. These theories represent a theoretical and largely scientific interpretation of the process of explanation.

On the other hand, other theorists have taken a more grounded approach to the idea of explanations. These are grounded in the practicalities of how people perform explanations in everyday life (Mayes, 2001 ). An exemplar of this approach is the theory proposed by Achinstein ( 1983 ). His theory, which is firmly rooted in Ordinary Language Philosophy, underscores the communicative or linguistic aspect of an explanation. It highlights the importance of an explanation’s role in fostering understanding between individuals by answering questions.

In particular, according to Achinstein’s theory, explaining is an illocutionary act born of a clear intention to produce new understandings in an explainee by providing a correct content-giving answer to an open-ended question. According to this view, answering by “filling in the blanks” of a pre-defined answer template, as with most one-size-fits-all approaches, prevents answering from being explanatory since it lacks this illocutionary purpose.

Despite this definition, illocution seems too abstract to implement in an actual software application. Nonetheless, recent efforts towards the automated generation of explanations (Sovrano & Vitali, 2021 , 2022b ), have shown that it may be possible to define illocution in a more “computer-friendly” way. Indeed, as stated by Sovrano and Vitali ( 2021 ), illocution in explaining involves informed and pertinent answers not just to the main question but also to other questions that are implicitly relevant to the explanations and the explainee. These questions can be understood as instances of archetypes such as why , why not , how , what for , what if , what , who , when , where , how much , etc.

Definition 1

(Illocution in Explaining) Explaining is an illocutionary act that provides answers to an explicit question on some topic along with answers to several other implicit or unformulated questions deemed necessary for the explainee to understand the topic properly. Sometimes these implicit questions can be inferred through a thorough analysis of the explainee’s background knowledge, history, and objectives, also considering Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). However, in the most generic case, no assumption can be made about the explainee’s knowledge and objectives. The only implicit questions that can then be exploited for illocution are the most generic ones, called archetypal questions .

For example, if someone asks “How are you doing?”, an answer like “I am good” would not be considered an explanation. By contrast, a different answer, such as “I am happy because I just got a paper accepted at this important venue, and [...]” would generally be considered an explanation because it answers other archetypal questions along with the main question.

Definition 2

(Archetypal Question) An archetypal question is an archetype applied on a specific aspect of the explanandum. Examples of archetypes are the interrogative particles (e.g., why , how , what , who , when , where ), or their derivatives (e.g., why not , what for , what if , how much ), or also more complex interrogative formulas (e.g., what reason , what cause , what effect ). Accordingly, the same archetypal question may be rewritten in several different ways, as “why” can be rewritten in “what is the reason” or “what is the cause”.

Archetypal Questions in Linguistic Theories

Casting the semantic annotations of individual propositions as narrating an archetypal question-answer pair recently gained increasing attention in computational linguistics (He et al., 2015 ; FitzGerald et al., 2018 ; Michael et al., 2018 ; Pyatkin et al., 2020 ). In particular, the main archetypes coming from Abstract Meaning Representation theory (Michael et al., 2018 ) are: what , who , how , where , when , which , whose , why . We refer to these archetypes as the primary ones because they consist only of interrogative particles.

On the other hand, the main archetypes coming from PDTB-style discourse theory (Pyatkin et al., 2020 ) (also called secondary archetypes because they make use of the primary archetypes ) are: in what manner , what is the reason , what is the result , what is an example , after what , while what , in what case , despite what , what is contrasted with , before what , since when , what is similar , until when , instead of what , what is an alternative , except when , unless what .

Although many more archetypes could be devised (e.g., where to or who by ), we believe that the list of questions we provided earlier is already rich enough to be generally representative, whereas more specific questions can always be framed by using the interrogative particles we considered (e.g., why , what ). Primary archetypes can be used to represent any fact and abstract meaning (Bos, 2016 ). In contrast, the secondary archetypes can cover all the discourse relations between them (at least according to the PDTB theory).

How to Measure the Degree of Explainability

Degree of Explainability (DoX) is a model-agnostic approach and metric, proposed by Sovrano and Vitali ( 2022c ), to objectively evaluate explainability. It builds on Achinstein’s theory of explanations and the interpretation of illocution given by Sovrano and Vitali ( 2022b ). DoX can quantify the degree of explainability of a corpus of texts by estimating how adequately that corpus could be used to answer in an illocutionary way an arbitrary set of archetypal questions about the explanandum.

In other words, Sovrano and Vitali ( 2022c ) show how the degree of explainability of information depends on the number of archetypal questions to which it can adequately answer. In practice, DoX scores are computed by measuring and aggregating the pertinence with which a snippet of text can answer a (pre-defined) set of archetypal questions. Specifically, pertinence scores are obtained employing pre-trained deep language models for general-purpose answer retrieval (Karpukhin et al., 2020 ; Bowman et al., 2015 ) applied to a particular graph of triplets automatically extracted from text to facilitate this type of information retrieval.

Explanatory Artificial Intelligence

An Explanatory AI (YAI) is an artificial intelligence program designed to generate user-centered, interactive explanations out of (possibly extensive) collections of explainable information (Sovrano & Vitali, 2022a ). An example of YAI based on Achinstein’s theory of explanation is YAI4Hu Footnote 10 (Sovrano & Vitali, 2021 , 2022b ).

YAI4Hu is a fully automatic explanatory tool that explains (pre-existing) documentation about an AI-based system. In particular, the textual content of such documentation is algorithmically reorganized and represented as a special hypergraph where information can be either explored through overviewing or searched via open-ended questioning . On the one hand, open-ended questioning can be performed by asking open-ended questions in English through a search box that uses the knowledge graph for efficient answer retrieval.

On the other hand, overviewing can be performed iteratively from an initial explanation by clicking on automatically annotated words for which more information is needed. In particular, annotated words are visible because they have a unique format that makes them easy to recognize. After clicking on an annotation, a modal window opens (see Fig. 1 ), showing a navigation bar of tabs containing explanatory overviews of the clicked annotated words. The information shown in the overview is as follows:

A short description of the explained word (if available).

The list of other words that are taxonomically connected.

A list of pre-defined archetypal questions (e.g., why is this aspect/concept important, what is this aspect/concept, etc.) and their respective answers ordered by estimated pertinence (see section “ Intelligent Explanation Generator: An Algorithm for the Identification of Pedagogically Useful Questions from Textbooks ” for a definition of pertinence).

Simplified Flow Diagram of YAI4Edu. This diagram shows the main components of YAI4Edu. As in YAI4Hu, the user can ask questions and get overviews. However, differently, YAI4Edu uses a new component (i.e., the “Intelligent Explanation Generator”) for generating overviews, as described in section “ Intelligent Explanation Generator: An Algorithm for the Identification of Pedagogically Useful Questions from Textbooks ”

YAI4Edu: a YAI for Improving the Explanatory Power of an Intelligent Textbook

The benefit of answering questions for learning has been shown in many studies (Rivers, 2021 ; Pan & Rickard, 2018 ), further supporting the assertion that explaining is akin to question-answering and that organizing contents on a question-answer base might be beneficial for the explainee. However, creating questions with proper detail that effectively helps students’ learning usually requires experience and extensive efforts (Shimmei & Matsuda, 2022 ).

For this reason, with the present work, we propose YAI4Edu (pipeline shown in Fig.  2 ), an extension of YAI4Hu (see section “ Explanatory Artificial Intelligence ”) to automatically transform static educative e-books (in PDF, XML or HTML format) into interactive intelligent textbooks by increasing their explanatory power. Similarly to YAI4Hu, YAI4Edu uses open-ended questioning and overviewing as main mechanisms for producing explanations. More specifically, interaction is given by: i) word glosses that can be clicked to open an overview ; ii) a special kind of search box that allows the reader to get answers to any open-ended English question.

In particular, we exploit Achinstein’s theory of explanations to reorganize, on-demand, the contents of a textbook and connect it with external integrative resources (e.g., an encyclopedia) to provide the user with more useful explanations. We build a novel heuristic to identify and anticipate the most useful implicit questions an explainee might have about a textbook, organizing information accordingly. Indeed, according to theory (see section “ Explanations According to Ordinary Language Philosophy ”), what makes an Explanatory AI good at explaining is its ability to identify implicit and relevant questions to answer, i.e., its illocutionary power .

We developed an algorithm capable of automatically extracting questions from a textbook and identifying those that are neither too detailed (because they would otherwise only be answered in a minor part of the textbook) nor too general (because they would be answered inaccurately in the more detailed textual content). We did it by starting from the hypothesis that the most useful implicit questions a user may have about a collection of texts are those best answered by the whole collection.

Suppose it is possible to quantify the explanatory power of a collection of explainable texts (i.e., through DoX; see section “ How to Measure the Degree of Explainability ”) and organize it accordingly by prioritizing the most explanatory contents (i.e., those with the highest DoX scores) over the others. In that case, it is also possible to identify which texts are the most explained within a corpus of documents and, therefore, the most useful questions to ask about the textbook. More specifically, for YAI4Edu, we developed several AI-based mechanisms that improve over the baseline YAI4Hu algorithm producing more pedagogically useful explanations via:

intelligent overviewing (an example of overview is shown in Fig. 3 ), by automatically extracting the most useful questions that the textbook (or the support material) is answering;

smart annotation generation, through the automatic identification of a glossary of words explained by the textbook’s contents.

In the following subsections, we will describe the technical details behind these new mechanisms and briefly summarize how the answer retrieval algorithm works. We also release the source code of YAI4Edu Footnote 11 and the anonymized data collected to evaluate it (see section “ Experiment ”) under MIT license at https://github.com/Francesco-Sovrano/YAI4Edu .

Automated Question Extraction for Intelligent Overviewing

According to theory, illocution in explaining involves informed and pertinent answering questions, implicitly relevant to the explanations and the explainee, understood as instances of archetypes. In section “ Archetypal Questions in Linguistic Theories ”, we presented different types of these archetypal questions identified by foundational linguistic theories.

Flow Diagram of the Intelligent Explanation Generator. This diagram shows how an explainee can obtain an intelligent overview. First, the user decides which aspect of the explanandum to overview (i.e., by clicking on an annotated word available on the screen). Then the system extracts an explanation from the textbook or any other collection of texts (e.g., other textbooks, an encyclopedia) by using an AI for question extraction and an AI for answer retrieval as described in section “ Answer Retrieval ”

Specifically, the secondary archetypes coming from discourse theory (Pyatkin et al., 2020 ) are meant to capture how Elementary Discourse Units (EDUs) Footnote 12 are connected. In contrast, the primary archetypes coming from Abstract Meaning Representation theory Footnote 13 (Michael et al., 2018 ) are meant to capture the informative components within the EDUs by possibly supporting answering basic questions such as “ who did what to whom , when or where ”. For example, from the sentence, “ The existence and validity of a contract, or any term of a contract, shall be determined by the law which would govern it under this regulation if the contract or term were valid, ” it is possible to extract the following discourse relation Footnote 14 about contingency: “In what case would the law govern under this regulation? If the contract or term were valid,” and the following Abstract Meaning Representation (AMR) question-answer: “By what is the existence and validity of a contract determined? By the law that would govern it under this regulation if the contract or clause were valid.”

In particular, the discourse-based and AMR-based archetypal questions we need for YAI4Edu are extracted from sentences and paragraphs through a deep language model based on T5 Footnote 15 (Raffel et al., 2020 ), pre-trained on a multi-task mixture of unsupervised and supervised tasks.

Since vanilla T5 is not trained to extract discourse-based and AMR-based questions, we had to fine-tune T5 on some public datasets designed for this task. These datasets are QAMR (Michael et al., 2018 ) for extracting AMR-based questions and QADiscourse (Pyatkin et al., 2020 ) for discourse-based questions.

Most importantly, the QAMR and QADiscourse datasets are unrelated to any of the textbooks we will consider (see section “ Case Study: A Textbook for Teaching How to Write Legal Memoranda ”) for evaluating YAI4Edu. In particular, they do not contain any legal document or snippet of text written in legalese. In other words, we do not refine T5 on legal texts but instead train it on spoken English, given the high data availability. Therefore, training T5 the way we do does not imply any legal fine-tuning. Legal fine-tuning would require the costly extraction of a dataset of AMR- and discourse-based questions from legal texts, as well as ad-hoc adaptations of the theories of discourse and abstract meaning representation to legalese.

In particular, the QAMR dataset is made of 107,880 different questions (and answers), while the QADiscourse dataset is made of 16,613 different questions (and answers), as described in section “ Archetypal Questions in Linguistic Theories ”. The two considered datasets are tuples of \(<s, q, a>\) , where s is a source sentence, q is a question implicitly expressed in s , and a is an answer expressed in s . T5 is fine-tuned to tackle at once the following four tasks per dataset:

extract a given s and q ,

extract q given s and a ,

extract all the possible q given s ,

extract all the possible a given s .

Specifically, we fine-tuned the T5 model on QAMR and QADiscourse for five epochs. Footnote 16 The objective of the fine-tuning was to minimize a loss function measuring the difference between the expected output and the output given by T5. A mathematical definition of such a loss function is given by Raffel et al. ( 2020 ).

At the end of the training, the average loss was 0.4098, meaning that our fine-tuned T5 model cannot perfectly extract AMRs or EDUs from the text composing the training set. On the one hand, this is a good thing because it is likely that the model did not over-fit the training set. On the other hand, this clearly indicates that the questions extracted by our T5 model can be imperfect, containing errors that could propagate to the Intelligent Explanation Generator.

Intelligent Explanation Generator: An Algorithm for the Identification of Pedagogically Useful Questions from Textbooks

Assuming that the goal of a textbook is to explain something to the reader, and based on the theoretical understandings expressed in section “ Explanations According to Ordinary Language Philosophy ”, our YAI4Edu is designed around the idea that organizing the explanatory space (i.e., the space of all possible bits of explanation) as clusters of archetypal questions and answers is beneficial for an explainee. In particular, YAI4Edu uses the following predefined interactions inherited from YAI4Hu to allow the user to explore this explanatory space:

Open-ended Question-Answering: the user writes a question and receives one or more relevant answers.

Aspect Overviewing: the user selects an aspect of the explanandum (i.e., contained in an answer) and receives as an explanation a set of relevant archetypal answers involving different aspects that can be explored as well. Archetypal answers can also be expanded, increasing the level of detail.

As hypothesized (cf. Hypothesis 1 ), archetypal questions that are too generic are unlikely to represent the explanatory goals of a sufficiently complex and elaborated collection of texts. The archetypal questions originally used by YAI4Hu for overviewing are too generic and predefined, frequently not adhering to the explanatory requirements of the overview. Therefore, considering the need for YAI4Edu to be pedagogically helpful, we designed a novel theoretically grounded AI algorithm to quantify how much an archetypal question is likely to represent the explanatory goals of a collection of texts. We called this algorithm the Intelligent Explanation Generator.

More specifically, instead of using predefined generic archetypal questions for our Intelligent Explanation Generator, we also consider more domain-specific ones automatically extracted from the knowledge graph through the AI for question-answer extraction. In particular, once an explanandum is chosen, the workflow of the Intelligent Explanation Generator consists of the following steps (also shown in Fig. 3 ).

Step 1: the algorithm computes the DoX (see section “ How to Measure the Degree of Explainability ”) of all snippets of text about a given explanandum (i.e., an aspect to overview), finding the top k snippets with the highest DoX and also finding the archetypal questions extracted from them by the algorithm described in section “ Automated Question Extraction for Intelligent Overviewing ”;

Step 2: for each question selected in the previous step, the algorithm identifies a set of pertinent answers within the text snippets. An answer is said to be pertinent to a question when its pertinence score Footnote 17 is greater than a given pertinence threshold p ;

Step 3: the algorithm filters the pertinent answers, keeping the best q questions and a answers by executing the following sub-steps: i) questions that are too long are removed, i.e., questions whose length (without considering the length of the explanandum label) exceeds a threshold L ; ii) if a question has some grammatical error, it is automatically corrected via Gramformer Footnote 18 , a deep neural network; iii) questions that are too similar are removed, Footnote 19 prioritizing the questions extracted from the most explanatory snippets (i.e., those with the highest DoX) and the shortest questions; iv) answers that are too short or too long are removed; v) the questions with no valid answers are removed; vi) the answers that could be assigned to several questions are given to the question with the highest estimated pertinence; vii) for each question, only the a answers with the highest pertinence score are kept; viii) the questions are sorted by the decreasing pertinence of the first answer, and only the top q questions are kept.

Importantly, step 1 is performed before step 2 to reduce the asymptotic time complexity of step 2. Selecting the questions best answered by the corpus (step 2) has an asymptotic complexity \(O(\vert Q_c \vert \cdot \vert S \vert )\) that grows with the number of questions extracted from the snippets of text, where Q is the set of questions about an aspect c to be explained and S is the set of snippets of text. Therefore, this complexity in the worst-case scenario (without step 1) can be quadratic in the size of the textbook or collection of texts, i.e., \(O(\vert S \vert ^2)\) .

Rather than having a quadratic complexity, a computationally simpler approach can perform an initial filtering procedure to consider only those questions coming from the paragraphs with the highest DoX (as step 1 does), thus converting \(\vert Q_c \vert \) into a constant number independent from \(\vert S \vert \) . Hence, considering that computing the DoX of \(\vert S \vert \) snippets of text has an asymptotic time complexity equal to \(O(\vert S \vert )\) , it follows that step 1 reduces the complexity of the Intelligent Explanation Generator to \(O(\vert S \vert )\) .

If Hypothesis 1 is true, then the Intelligent Explanation Generator will be able to produce better and more satisfying explanation overviews (than the baseline YAI4Hu). This is because it will be able to anticipate, in a sense, implicit questions the user may have.

Not all words, though, require an overview. That is because, in practice, only a tiny fraction of the words in a text are helpful to explain. Indeed, many words have common-sense meanings (e.g., the words: “and”, “first”, “figure”) and, therefore, should not be explained. Otherwise, the explainee might be overwhelmed by largely redundant and pointless information that would only hinder the usability of the YAI.

To intelligently avoid jotting down unnecessary words, our smart annotation mechanism only annotates those concepts and words that can be explained by (the knowledge graph extracted from) the textbook and other supplementary texts. More specifically, to understand whether a word should be annotated, the algorithm executes the following instructions:

It checks whether the word is a stop word (i.e., a commonly used word such as “and” or “or”). If so, the word is not annotated.

If the word is not a stop word, the algorithm generates its overview through the Intelligent Explanation Generator. Then, it computes the cumulative pertinence score of the answers composing the overview; if greater than a given threshold, it annotates the word.

This annotation mechanism is intended to remove noisy annotations and distractors so that the reader can focus only on the most central and well-explained concepts. Moreover, the cumulative pertinence score, used to understand whether a word should be annotated, can also be used to understand the topics in the corpus of documents that are better explained.

Consequently, the smart annotation mechanism and the Intelligent Explanation Generator are integral components of the YAI4Edu system. Notably, the Intelligent Explanation Generator tackles the challenge of selecting questions that balance between being too general or overly specific through the abovementioned filtering and refinement steps. By incorporating these steps, the Intelligent Explanation Generator prioritizes questions derived from the most informative excerpts, favors concise questions, and filters out excessively similar ones. This process aims to identify questions that align well with the explanatory objectives of the text collection, as discussed in section “ Discussion: Results and Limitations ”.

Answer Retrieval

Similarly to YAI4Hu, YAI4Edu uses a pipeline of AI algorithms to extract a particular graph of knowledge from a collection of texts that an information retrieval system can exploit to answer a given question. In particular, a dependency parser detects all the possible grammatical clauses Footnote 20 within the collection of texts. Each such clause stands for an edge of the knowledge graph.

In practice, these clauses are represented as combinations of subjects, templates, and objects/nominal modifiers. Footnote 21 We refer to these as template-triplets. Specifically, templates consist of an ordered token sequence connecting subjects and objects/modifiers in a clause. In these templates, the subjects and the objects/modifiers are represented by the placeholders \(``\{subj\}''\) and \(``\{obj\}''\) , respectively. The resulting template-triplets are a sort of function where the predicate is the body, and the object/modifier and the subject are the parameters.

Obtaining a natural language representation of these template-triplets involves replacing the instances of the parameters in the body. This natural language representation is then used as a possible answer for retrieval by measuring the similarity between its embedding and the embedding of a question. An example (taken from the case study discussed in section “ Case Study: A Textbook for Teaching How to Write Legal Memoranda ”) of template-triple is:

Subject: “A constitution”

Template: \(``\{subj\}''\) specifically defines, empowers, and imposes \(\{obj\}\) on each part of the governmental structure

Object: “limits”

The resulting knowledge graph is imperfect because of the adopted extraction procedure. It may contain mistakes caused by wrongly identified grammatical dependencies or other issues. However, the likelihood of such errors occurring is relatively low. This is primarily attributed to the high accuracy of the model we used for part-of-speech tagging. Footnote 22

To increase the interoperability of the extracted knowledge graph with external resources, we formatted it as an RDF Footnote 23 graph. In particular, RDF has features that facilitate data merging even if the underlying schemas differ. To format a graph of template triplets in an RDF graph, we performed the following steps:

We assigned a URI Footnote 24 to every node (i.e., subject and object) and edge (i.e., template) of the graph by lemmatizing the associated text. We assigned an RDFS Footnote 25 label to each URI corresponding to the associated text.

We added special triplets to keep track of the sources from which the template-triplets were extracted so that each node and edge can refer to its source document or paragraph.

We added sub-class relations between composite concepts (syntagms) and the simplest concepts (if any) composing the syntagm. For instance, “ contractual obligation ” is a sub-class of “ obligation ”. Therefore, we employ the RDFS predicate \(``\{subj\}rdfs:subClassOf ~\{obj\}''\) as a template for the triplet that signifies this sub-class relationship.

For more technical details about how we performed all the steps mentioned above to convert the template-triplets into an RDF graph, please refer to Sovrano et al. ( 2020 ) or the source code of YAI4Edu.

Finally, the algorithm to retrieve answers from the extracted knowledge graph is based on the following steps. Let C be the set of concepts in a question q , \(m=<s,t,o>\) be a template-triplet, \(u=t(s,o)\) be the natural language representation of m , also called an information unit , and z be its source paragraph. DiscoLQA retrieves answers by finding the most similar concepts to C within the knowledge graph, retrieving all their related template-triplets m (including those of the sub-classes), and selecting, among the natural language representations u of the retrieved template-triplets, those that are likely to answer q . The likelihood of u answering q is estimated by computing the cosine similarity between its contextualized embedding \(<u,z>\) and the embedding of q . If \(<u,z>\) is similar enough to q , then z is said to answer q .

The embeddings of \(<u,z>\) and q are obtained through a deep language model specialized in answer retrieval pre-trained in ordinary English to associate similar vectorial representations to a question and its correct answers. The pre-trained deep language model we employed in implementing YAI4Edu is a variation of MiniLM (Wang et al., 2021 ) published by Reimers and Gurevych ( 2019 ).

Case Study: A Textbook for Teaching How to Write Legal Memoranda

To showcase and evaluate YAI4Edu, we considered a case study in the intersection between AI and law. In particular, we applied YAI4Edu to the following material explaining, among other things, how to write a legal memorandum in a U.S. legal context for a veteran’s PTSD disability claim:

22 pages excerpted from the textbook “ United States Legal Language and Culture: An Introduction to the U.S. Common Law System ” (Brostoff & Sinsheimer, 2013 pp. 47-60, 93-96, 101-103, 131-132). Footnote 26

5,407 open access web pages about concepts related to the U.S. legal system coming from the encyclopedia of the Legal Information Institute of the Cornell Law School Footnote 27 (5,406 web pages) and Wikipedia Footnote 28 (1 web page).

11,198 legal cases on PTSD disability claims taken from the official website of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA). Footnote 29

Altogether, the included material, comprising more than 16,000 documents, complements the primary teaching material on which YAI4Edu focuses, i.e., the excerpts of the selected textbook. In particular, the textbook is used in “Applied Legal Analytics and AI,” Footnote 30 an interdisciplinary course at the University of Pittsburgh, co-taught by instructors from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Carnegie Mellon University’s Language Technologies Institute. It provides “a hands-on practical introduction to the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing as they are being applied to support the work of legal professionals, researchers, and administrators.”

Teaching how to write a legal memorandum for the U.S. legal system is a course objective, in part, because in a common law system, such as the American one, the use of AI assists practitioners in efficiently retrieving legal cases for constructing arguments (Phelps & Ashley, 2022 ). A legal memorandum is an organized document that summarizes relevant laws to support a conclusion on a particular legal issue. Writing it can require legal practitioners to navigate through large databases of cases, i.e., to retrieve the definitions of technical and specific concepts or to understand which argumentation patterns are most common in a particular context. Indeed, some of the distinguishing features of legal writing are:

Authority: The writer must back up assertions and statements with citations of authority (i.e., precedents and other decided cases).

Argument re-use: A more effective memorandum may reuse existing documents as templates or argumentation patterns.

Formality: The written legal document should be properly formatted according to existing standards.

Hence, legal practitioners may now be required to learn how to efficiently and effectively interact with existing AI-based technological solutions for information retrieval to speed up legal writing and to learn the complexities of legal writing. Given the task’s complexity and the course’s goals, we envisaged that it might be of utmost relevance and utility to design and create a tool such as YAI4Edu that could ease the acquisition of the necessary knowledge for a student to learn legal writing.

Specifically, YAI4Edu should help students understand, from real examples, how to write a legal memorandum comprising legal arguments to defend or attack a claim. In particular, students have to understand how to use statutes, read and summarize cases, synthesize cases, draft a legal memorandum, and use legal concepts in writing. This may involve learning legal concepts as well as skills of making arguments with concrete cases selected using legal information retrieval tools, as is typical in the U.S. legal context.

In particular, applying YAI4Edu to the collection of documents mentioned above, we extracted a knowledge graph of 52,987,778 RDF triplets from the BVA cases and a knowledge graph of 2,059,145 RDF triplets from the textbook excerpts and the other web pages; other statistics are shown in Table 1 .

Thanks to the compositional nature of RDF graphs, we can combine smaller individual graphs into larger ones without altering the original meaning or semantics. Taking advantage of this feature, we enriched the graph with about ten manually added RDF triplets to fill identified knowledge gaps, such as “memo” being a synonym for “memorandum”. These gaps surfaced during software testing.

However, we have not thoroughly analyzed the whole extracted RDF graph. As a result, other knowledge gaps may yet emerge. Despite our incomplete analysis, we believe this property of compositionality of the knowledge graph used by YAI4Edu is of utmost importance. Indeed, it enables manually correcting any error produced during the graph extraction and easily integrating it with additional or missing knowledge.

Landing page of YAI4Edu applied to the case study. This figure contains a screenshot of the annotated textbook (Brostoff & Sinsheimer, 2013 ) and the input for open-ended questioning . Clicking on underlined words opens an explanatory overview , an example of which is shown in Fig. 1

This knowledge graph helped to build an interactive and intelligent version of the textbook, as described in section “ YAI4Edu: a YAI for Improving the Explanatory Power of an Intelligent Textbook ” and shown in Fig. 2 . There, an input box for open-ended questioning and annotated (i.e., underlined) words for overviewing (shown in Figs.  4 and 1 ) provide the user with interactive elements to obtain intelligent explanations without breaking the structure of the textbook.

The choice of hyper-parameters (i.e., the pertinence threshold p or the question similarity threshold s ; cf. section “ Intelligent Explanation Generator: An Algorithm for the Identification of Pedagogically Useful Questions from Textbooks ”) of the Intelligent Explanation Generator is focused on generating concise and compact explanations. In particular, the hyper-parameters chosen for this instance of YAI4Edu are the following: i) number of snippets with the highest DoX to consider \(k=10\) ; ii) answer pertinence threshold \(p=.57\) ; iii) maximum overview question length \(L=50\) ; iv) question similarity threshold \(s=.95\) ; v) minimum and maximum answer length equal to 150 and 1000; vi) maximum number of questions per overview \(q=4\) ; vii) maximum number of answers per overview question \(a=2\) .

Screenshot of the web application used during the experiment. This figure shows what the participants in the user study see during the experiment

Explanations and explanatory tools may be complex artifacts whose quality depends on a wide range of different factors (Sovrano et al., 2020 ), including:

the quality of the explainable information;

the logic used for presenting this information, namely the set of rules employed to present the information in a meaningful and coherent manner, which we refer to as the presentation logic ;

the quality of the interface.

In particular, with this experiment, we are interested in evaluating the presentation logic used by YAI4Edu for selecting and reorganizing questions and answers into explanations.

Sovrano and Vitali ( 2022a ) have already demonstrated, with several examples and experiments, a user-centered YAI is better than one-size-fits-all and static explanations. In this experiment, instead of evaluating the whole interactive e-book with a rather time-consuming test, we focused on evaluating the one feature of YAI4Edu that should be responsible for improving the explanatory power of the e-book: the Intelligent Explanation Generator. According to theory (see section “ Explanations According to Ordinary Language Philosophy ”), what makes a YAI good at explaining is its ability to identify implicit and relevant questions to answer, i.e., its illocutionary power.

Therefore, in this experiment (which is a within-subjects user study), we directly ask real students to rate explanations (on a scale of 0 to 5 stars) for how well they adequately explain a given topic, as shown in Fig. 5 . We do it to understand the extent to which the explanations generated by our Intelligent Explanation Generator are satisfactory and whether they are better than baseline explanatory strategies, as stated by Hypothesis 1 . More details about the experiment can be found in Appendix  A .

The two baselines against which the Intelligent Explanation Generator is compared are variants of the same. They use the same sequence of steps to generate their explanations, apart from the step responsible for selecting the explanatory questions, which is different. These two baselines are:

An explainer that uses randomly chosen questions to organize the contents of an overview . This explainer randomly selects \(q=4\) questions, setting the maximum question length to \(L=\infty \) and using a lower answer pertinence threshold \(p=.3\) (and not \(p=.57\) as in the Intelligent Explanation Generator). This prevents the number of questions from diminishing too much due to not finding sufficiently relevant answers.

YAI4Hu’s generic overview generator, which instead employs pre-defined and very generic archetypal questions, using the same four questions (i.e., what is it, how is it, where is it and why ) for each topic.

Given the case study at hand (see section “ Case Study: A Textbook for Teaching How to Write Legal Memoranda ”), the main objective of the explanatory contents is to explain how to write a legal memorandum appropriate for the U.S. legal system and a veteran’s PTSD disability claim. The excerpts of the considered textbook are about legal writing, while the collection of legal cases of the BVA are about PTSD disability claims. Thus, we can say that some of the goals of the YAI for this case study are to explain: i) what is the proper form of a legal memorandum; ii) what sections should be included in a legal memorandum; iii) what legal standard does a veteran need to satisfy for a disability claim; iv) what are the elements of the legal standard a veteran needs to satisfy for a disability claim; v) what issues do the required elements of a disability claim raise; and vi) what kinds of legal arguments are appropriate for resolving such issues.

Considering that we need an experiment lasting a maximum of 10 minutes (in order to minimize costs: each participant cannot be paid less than 6 \(\pounds \) per hour on Prolific), we chose the following three topics for evaluating the explainers:

Topic 1: The proper form of a legal memorandum.

Topic 2: The effects of a disability.

Topic 3: The elements of the legal standard a veteran needs to satisfy for a PTSD disability claim.

In particular, the explanations for the first two topics are extracted from the textbook and web pages (the first is better explained by the textbook, the second by the web pages). In contrast, the explanations for the third topic are extracted from legal cases. For more details about the explanations used in the experiment, see Table 2 .

Discussion: Results and Limitations

Through Prolific, we gathered 130 participants, all students aged between 19 and 38. 28 participants were discarded for the reasons stated in Appendix A . Eventually, 102 valid submissions were collected.

The results (shown in Fig. 6 ) indicate that the intelligent explainer received the highest rates, followed by the generic one; the worst was the random explainer. To further validate the results and verify that the improvements of the intelligent explainer over the baselines are statistically significant, we performed one-sided Mann-Whitney U-tests (a non-parametric version of the t-test for independent samples) whose results are summarized in Fig. 6 . Results clearly show that, assuming \(P < .05\) is enough to assert statistical significance, the intelligent explainer is superior to the baselines regarding perceived explanatory power in all three chosen topics. For more details on statistical tests, see Appendix B .

Interestingly, looking at the topics separately, we also have statistical evidence showing that the intelligent explainer is better than the generic and the random explainer for the first two topics, but not enough statistical evidence for the last one. This may be because the variance of the cumulative pertinence of the explanations about the third topic (see Table 2 ) is too low. Alternatively (and more likely), this may also be because the explanations about the last topic were extracted from a corpus of legal cases rather than textbooks or other educational contents as the other two, thus being harder to explain. In particular, this intuition is corroborated by the statistics of Table 1 , where one can see that the legal cases have a ratio of explained concepts close to 0.32%. In contrast, the textbook and web pages have 2.96% (10 times greater). This difference in explainability between the two documents corpora may impact the quality of extracted explanations. Indeed, as pointed out by some qualitative feedback, the explanations extracted from the BVA cases contain too much (unexplained) technical jargon and too long sentences (e.g., “the first topic was easy to understand also the second one, the problem with the last one it was too long and was not straight to the point.”).

This shows that the most useful implicit questions a user may have about a collection of texts will likely be those best answered by the whole collection. Furthermore, even if the random explanations have a cumulative pertinence score greater than generic explanations (at least for the first two topics, as shown in Table 2 ), they are evaluated as worse explanations nonetheless. This evidence further supports Hypothesis  1 , showing that too specific archetypal questions may be less effective than generic ones at explaining and that intelligently balancing between generality and specificity is needed, as also suggested by some qualitative feedback:

“All of the [random] explanations were OK, but improvement is needed. They lack a sense of direction. It’s like they go around mountains to prove one single point. All [generic] explanations were easy to decode and were straight to the point. All [intelligent] explanations were a mixture of first and second explanations.”

“The [random explanations] proved unsatisfactory for all three topics: the explanations do not follow a logical order, are incomplete, and often contain incorrect or irrelevant elements. The [generic and intelligent explanations] are quite complete. The [generic explanations] seem to fit more practical questions, while [intelligent explanations] fit more theoretical ones. I believe [intelligent explanations] are preferable for the topic at hand.”

Limitations and Future Work

One limitation of our study pertains to its scope, encompassing both the duration of the study and the number of participants involved. Specifically, the study was conducted over a brief 10-minute period and comprised a relatively small group of 102 individuals. This restricted scope raises concerns regarding the generalizability of our findings. Furthermore, our research primarily concentrated on participant ratings and qualitative feedback, without directly measuring changes in learning outcomes.

As a result, while our results offer initial insights into the potential applications of educational tools like YAI4Edu, they should be approached with caution. In order to validate and expand upon these preliminary findings, it is necessary to conduct more comprehensive studies over longer time-frames, involving larger and more diverse participant groups. However, previous research (Sovrano and Vitali, 2022a ) provides compelling evidence supporting the notion that user-centered illocution significantly enhances the effectiveness of YAI software, leading to more efficient explanations and improved learning outcomes, as suggested also by qualitative feedback.

It is worth noting that even though qualitative feedback was optional, a notable 81% of users provided feedback. Interestingly, 19 participants left highly positive feedback (e.g., “the explanations were superb and of good quality”) without suggesting any improvement or explaining their rates, unlike the remaining 64 users. Overall, we identified 6 major suggestions for improvement :

Avoid long and redundant explanations : suggested by 32 participants;

Avoid or explain legal jargon : 24;

Avoid generic or incomplete information : 18;

Use simpler questions : 9;

Provide examples when explaining : 7;

Provide better organized and compartmentalized contents : 5.

The complaints were primarily about too-long explanations, unexplained legal jargon, or generic/incomplete information. Some qualitative feedback comments ask for more conciseness, and others for less. Some participants preferred generic explanations over intelligent ones. Interestingly, one could turn this into a feature if the system could offer users a choice of generic or intelligent explanations.

The qualitative feedback was extremely helpful in identifying the main problems and limitations of YAI4Edu and the baselines, pointing to future work. In particular, we believe YAI4Edu’s smart annotation mechanism can partially mitigate the jargon problem by explaining it. However, we could not verify this with the experiment because it was set to take 10 minutes, so intelligent annotations were excluded. See Appendix A for more details on qualitative feedback.

Feedback has also indicated that YAI4Edu could significantly improve in terms of efficiently integrating retrieved information into a coherent structure. As it stands, explanations often tend to be lengthy, repetitive, and disjointed. The introduction of generative AI like ChatGPT might serve as a valuable solution to these issues, re-elaborating the information retrieved by YAI4Edu. Indeed, ChatGPT has the potential to produce content that is not only concise and coherent but also well-organized. It can adeptly avoid or interpret complex (legal) jargon, presenting content in a well-structured and compartmentalized manner. These features could address at least three out of the six primary improvement areas identified in the qualitative feedback. As a result, the integration of such AI technology could significantly enhance the effectiveness of YAI4Edu, as shown in Sovrano et al. ( 2023 ).

It should be noted, however, that while ChatGPT can complement YAI4Edu, it cannot fully replace it. There are unique challenges associated with using large language models like ChatGPT to generate explanations from input documents, such as textbooks. These challenges include memory limitations and the risk of generating inaccurate or copyrighted content. Unlike ChatGPT, YAI4Edu primarily relies on information retrieval technologies, eliminating the need to input the entire context of the explanation into the language model. This is particularly important also for standard-sized textbooks, where memory constraints can easily become an issue, as discussed in the study by Sovrano et al. ( 2023 ).

Future studies also need to focus on several factors to secure more robust results. First, we need further investigation into the effectiveness of our random explanations generator as a baseline. Given the feedback regarding redundant explanations and the need for better-organized content, exploring sophisticated alternatives like ChatGPT might provide a stronger baseline for comparison with YAI4Edu.

Second, our research did not integrate commonsense and domain-general knowledge into the YAI pipeline, making the system highly dependent on well-written, logically coherent texts. This dependency sets a high standard for the source text, potentially limiting the extensibility of our work. Addressing this concern might be possible with the help of large language models, such as ChatGPT, which could potentially excel in tasks similar to YAI4Edu. This holds particularly true for unstructured texts and those not professionally written, offering promising avenues for future research.

In this paper, we presented YAI4Edu, an Explanatory AI for the automatic generation of interactive and adaptive e-books for education. To create YAI4Edu, we enhanced the YAI proposed by Sovrano and Vitali ( 2022b ), making it more explanatory and more intelligent through a novel AI, called Intelligent Explanation Generator, for extracting explanations that are neither too specific nor too generic.

The idea behind our work is that explaining is akin to question answering, so the more questions an intelligent textbook can answer, the more it can explain. In other words, the explanatory power of a book can be improved by reorganizing it interactively, firstly to help readers identify the most critical questions to be answered about the textbook, but also to get answers to their questions. In particular, YAI4Edu uses the Intelligent Explanation Generator, an efficient pipeline for automatic (archetypal) question extraction and answer retrieval, to select these important questions and use them to reorganize the contents of a textbook. This is done following Hypothesis 1 for which the most useful questions a user may have about a collection of texts (e.g., a textbook) are best answered in the collection as a whole.

We applied YAI4Edu to a textbook for teaching how to write legal memoranda appropriate for the U.S. legal system and a PTSD disability claim. This was integrated with 5,406 external web pages from a legal encyclopedia and 11,198 legal cases from the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. Then, to show that our novel strategy for generating explanations is more effective than baseline approaches, we devised a within-subjects user study involving more than 100 English-speaking students who evaluated explanations about three different and relevant topics. The final results were in many cases statistically significant and always in favor of our Intelligent Explanation Generator, suggesting that Hypothesis 1 is true.

The impact of our YAI software pipeline extends to various sectors, including education, professional training, and industry. Within the education sector, our tool enhances the use of textbooks by seamlessly integrating external content, facilitating efficient exploration and retrieval of information through answer retrieval mechanisms. In professional training, it has the potential to elucidate complex concepts and procedures, thereby expediting knowledge acquisition, particularly in highly technical domains. In the industrial context, our tool can simplify technical documentation and improve customer support, as suggested by Sovrano and Vitali ( 2022b ); Sovrano et al. ( 2023 ).

Looking ahead, we foresee a notable shift in education with interactive e-books and AI-generated content supplementing or replacing traditional textbooks. These tools promise personalized, up-to-date learning experiences. Rather than replacing educators, these AI tools could augment their capabilities by providing personalized instruction at scale. They could explain basic concepts and answer common questions, thus allowing educators to focus on more complex topics, critical thinking, creativity, and personalized guidance.

An explainee is a person receiving an explanation.

The word explanandum means “what has to be explained” in Latin.

This theory has been supported by various experiments and studies involving over 190 participants (Sovrano & Vitali, 2022a , b ).

The explanatory space is the space of all possible bits of explanation about an explanandum. A more formal definition is given by Sovrano and Vitali ( 2022a ).

The BVA is an administrative tribunal within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs that determines whether U.S. military veterans are entitled to claimed veterans’ benefits and services.

A legal memorandum is an organized document that summarizes relevant laws to support a conclusion on a particular legal issue.

Intelligent textbooks extend regular textbooks by integrating machine-manipulable knowledge (Wang et al., 2021 ).

The verbatim question is a question for which an answer can be identified in a related instructional text (i.e., source text) (Shimmei & Matsuda, 2022 ).

One of the first known philosophers to work on the concept of explanation was Aristotle with his theory of causation (Stein, 2011 ).

YAI4Hu stands for YAI for Humans. Examples of YAI for reinforcement learning agents are discussed by Sovrano et al. ( 2022 ).

We cannot release the textbook excerpts (Brostoff & Sinsheimer, 2013 ) because they are copyrighted.

The smallest unit of coherent text that expresses a complete or partial discourse relation.

A semantic formalism that represents the meaning of natural language sentences as rooted, directed, and labeled graphs.

A discourse relation identifies two EDUs: the first one is encoded in the question, the second one in the answer.

T5 is an encoder-decoder model based on the assumption that all Natural Language Processing problems can be converted in a text-to-text problem.

An epoch is one complete cycle through the entire training dataset.

Pertinence scores are numbers in [0, 1] computed by measuring the cosine similarity between vectorial representations of question and answer obtained through deep neural networks specialized for answer retrieval.

https://github.com/PrithivirajDamodaran/Gramformer

A question is said to be similar to another when its similarity score is above a given threshold s . Similarity scores are calculated like pertinence scores.

A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with any objects and other modifiers.

A nominal modifier is a noun (or noun phrase) functioning as a non-core (oblique) argument or adjunct.

Known as the “en_core_web_md” model, it boasts an accuracy score of 0.97. More details about this model can be found at https://spacy.io/models/en .

RDF is a standard model for data interchange on the Web (Allemang and Hendler, 2011 ).

A URI, or Uniform Resource Identifier, is a string of characters that provides a simple and extensible means for identifying a resource on the Internet.

RDFS, or RDF Schema, is a language used for creating vocabularies in the semantic web, allowing for the description of classes, properties, and their interrelationships.

We received explicit consent from the copyright holder to use excerpts of this textbook for our experiments and the related scientific publications.

https://www.law.cornell.edu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_States

https://search.usa.gov/search?affiliate=bvadecisions &sort_by= &query=PTSD &commit=Search

https://www.law.pitt.edu/academics/courses/catalog/5719

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Acknowledgements

We thank the copyright holders of (Brostoff and Sinsheimer, 2013 ) for allowing us to use (parts of) the book to conduct the experiments, carry out the case study and present this article.

Open access funding provided by University of Zurich. This work was partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the MSCA grant agreement No 777822 “GHAIA: Geometric and Harmonic Analysis with Interdisciplinary Applications”. F. Sovrano gratefully acknowledge the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation through the SNF Project 200021_197227.

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Francesco Sovrano & Fabio Vitali

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Francesco Sovrano

School of Law, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Kevin Ashley

School of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

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F. Sovrano : conceptualization, methodology, software, data curation, original draft preparation, visualization, investigation, validation, formal analysis. K. Ashley : conceptualization, review, editing and supervision. P. L. Brusilovsky : supervision. F. Vitali : supervision.

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Appendix A Experiment Details

The experiment consisted of a 10-minute within-subjects user study where the explanations generated by two baseline explainers and YAI4Edu were evaluated by English-speaking students assembled with Prolific Footnote 31 , an online platform that helps recruit paid participants for online research.

Through Prolific, we gathered 130 participants, all students aged between 19 and 38, each paid \(\pounds \) 1. 28 of the participants were discarded for the following reasons:

26 participants were discarded because they were too quick (i.e., they spent less than 4 minutes completing the evaluation of all topics) or they skipped at least one topic (i.e., they spent less than 35 seconds on it without being a legal expert);

2 participants were rejected because they reported poor knowledge of written English (i.e., A1 or A2) or wrote non-grammatical qualitative feedback.

Eventually, 102 valid submissions were collected.

Of these 102 participants:

46 were males, 52 females, 1 identified itself as other/non-binary, and three preferred not to say;

81% stated that their written English proficiency level is C1 or C2, while 16% indicated a B2 level;

86% rated their knowledge of the U.S. legal system with a score lower than or equal to 3;

86 said they are not legal experts;

68 reported that they have low or no experience with legal writing, 29 wrote they have some experience, and five that their experience with legal writing is high.

Participants were required to be fluent in English, be resident in English-speaking countries (i.e., USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa), use a device with a large screen (e.g., a laptop, a desktop computer, a tablet in landscape mode), be at least 18 years old, and possess a student status and a minimum approval rating of 75% on Prolific.

Moreover, at the beginning of the study, they were asked to provide the following information anonymously: age; gender; whether they are legal experts; their proficiency in written English, on a scale of A1 (very low) to C2 (very high); their experience in legal writing (from none to high ); how they would rate their knowledge of the U.S. legal system on a scale of 0 (bad) to 5 (good) stars.

It is important to note that during the experiment, for each topic, each participant could compare the explanations generated by all three explainers, provided in random order to avoid unwanted biases that might be caused by some explanations being shown before or after others. Furthermore, using a predefined random seed, the explanations generated by the random explainer were the same for all participants.

In the experiment, participants were not informed about the origin of the explanations they evaluated, specifically whether they came from random, generic, or intelligent generators, nor were they made aware of the existence of these three different generators. Each explanation was to be evaluated on a 0 to 5-star scale, with 0 representing “bad” and 5 indicating “good”, as depicted in Fig. 5 . Once the testing was completed, participants were also invited to share their qualitative feedback in an open-ended format.

Some of the most interesting feedback examples are the following:

“The more lengthy explanations offer more details and give the reader a greater understanding but can feel a bit harder to read rather than the [generic explanations].”

“Dividing the topic into sections is good if the [questions] are relevant and make sense. Relatively simple explanations supported by evidence are better, in my opinion.”

“The longer explanations were more detailed and more understandable. The shorter definitions were also understandable and compact, but the law should be detailed. ”

“I particularly liked the layout that included ’what, why, how’, as it made the explanations easy to follow. [...] The headings with long sentences lost me before I began, and I found it hard to decipher the explanations.”

“I would make [explanations] shorter.”

“The answers should be less vague and focus more on details.”

“The explanations with very long or involved subheadings were difficult to follow. Often, when there are large blocks of text, my mind tends to get overwhelmed - simply making shorter subheadings and adding more paragraph breaks to the explanations helps with this.”

“The answers to the questions could have been more concise, for instance, in the first topic on what a memorandum is, though I found [intelligent] and [generic explanations] to be similar in their verbiage. I found [generic explanations] always easier to understand across the board. Because of its simplistic presentation, I did not spend time focusing on unnecessary details”

“The explanations are a bit difficult to follow as they are long, so as a reader, you get lost in the middle of the explanation and forget what you just read on top.”

“They were pretty straightforward and easy to understand, especially because descriptions relating to the law or topics that are difficult to understand are always filled with difficult jargon, but this simplified version made it easy to understand.”

“Generally, the explanations were full but a bit difficult to digest. There were cases in which not enough was explained to fully understand what a specific legal term meant and encompassed. The explanations that had a short and quick explanation of some legal terms followed by a more prolonged and detailed explanation were, for me, the easiest to grasp.”

Appendix B Statistical Tests

Complementing Fig. 6 , Table 3 provides the extended results of Mann-Whitney U-tests conducted on three different comparisons: Random vs Generic, Random vs Intelligent, and Generic vs Intelligent. We carried out these tests both on the aggregate data across all three topics (memorandum, disability, elements of legal standard), and on each topic individually. For each comparison, the results include the U statistic, the p-value, the Common Language Effect Size (CLES), and the Rank-biserial Correlation.

Experiment results. This figure contains bar charts showing the average scores and the statistically significant P values (indicated above the curly brackets) for each topic and explainer. For a list of all P values, see Table 3 . On the left side of the figure, one can see the results obtained by aggregating the scores for all three topics. In particular, the bar plot labeled as “memorandum” refers to the first topic, “disability” to the second topic, and “elements of legal standard” to the third topic

The interpretation of the results across all three topics reveals a consistent pattern. On the whole, we find a significant difference favoring the Generic over the Random group, and the Intelligent group over the Random group. The effect sizes of these differences range from small to medium, as indicated by the Common Language Effect Size and Rank-biserial Correlation. The differences between the Generic and Intelligent groups are also significant, albeit smaller.

When it comes to the specific topic of “Memorandum”, there is no notable difference between the Random and Generic groups. However, both the Random and Generic groups score significantly lower than the Intelligent group, with small to medium effect sizes.

In the case of “Disability”, the Random group performs significantly worse than both the Generic and Intelligent groups, with small to medium effect sizes. However, the Generic and Intelligent groups do not significantly differ.

For the “Elements of legal standard” topic, no significant difference is found between the groups, but the Random group does trend lower than the Generic and Intelligent groups, with small effect sizes. The Generic and Intelligent groups are also very similar in performance.

In all, while we see some variation by topic, the overarching pattern is that the Intelligent group consistently outperforms the Random group, and the Generic group falls somewhere in between.

Since we are performing multiple comparisons with Mann-Whitney U-tests, the chances of a false comparison increase. Some statistical tools that are used in this case to reduce the chance of a type I error (false positive) are: the Bonferroni correction, the Holm-Bonferroni method, or the Dunn-Šidák correction. These tools, however, are known to increase false negatives (Armstrong, 2014 ). Regardless, if we would use a Dunn-Šidák correction to adjust for 3 multiple comparisons per topic, then the minimum P value for claiming a statistically significant result would not be .05 but instead something close to .017.

Nevertheless, the collected findings still support Hypothesis 1 . As shown in Fig. 6 and Table 3 , many P values are much less than .017.

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Sovrano, F., Ashley, K., Brusilovsky, P.L. et al. How to Improve the Explanatory Power of an Intelligent Textbook: a Case Study in Legal Writing. Int J Artif Intell Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-024-00399-w

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Published : 06 May 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-024-00399-w

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