Writing a Case Study
last update: 10 January 2007

A. WRITTEN ANALYSIS (due two weeks prior to in-class discussion)

The entire case study needs to be very succinct; include the following items, while omiting any extraneous details. This requires a strict ECONOMY of words. Include only that information which is vital to an intelligent discussion of the case. Your ONE page, single-spaced (=450-500 words), will have five paragraphs containing the following five items.

Choose a significant event in your life (or the life of someone very close to you) which provoked a moral dilemma that you (or your friend) had to resolve. Analyze your (or your friend's) process of making that decision by answering the following questions. (If you are taking a case from someone else's life, indicate where you agree and where you disagree with your friend's analysis and the decision she/he made, and the reasons for this agreement/disagreement.)

  1. Background:
    1. What is the situation against which the event occurred?
    2. What was your objective, and why?
  2. Description of the Event:
    1. Who?
    2. What?
    3. Where?
    4. When?
    5. How?
    6. Are there any other relevant factors?
  3. Analysis:
    1. What issues were at work?
    2. What were the turning points in the incident?
    3. Where was there resistance?
    4. What developmental tasks were involved?
    5. What changes took place as a result of this incident?
  4. Evaluation:
    1. Did I accomplish what I set out to do? How so and/or how not?
    2. How could I have done it differently?
    3. What questions can my peers discuss that would be helpful to me?
  5. Theological Reflection:
    1. What religious and ethical issues did the incident involve?
    2. What does this case say about my understanding of divinity/God?
    3. What does this case say about my understanding of good and evil?
    4. What does this case say about my understanding of the church?
    5. What does this case say about my understanding of human nature?
B. BLACKBOARD DISCUSSION (due two weeks prior to in-class discussion)
  1. Send the instructor your complete draft of your Case Study (PART A) by leaving it in the BB "drop box."
  2. On the BB discussion board, start a new thread for your case study, summarizing for the class only the background information about the specific event (PART A, #1.1-2)
  3. Over the next several days, respond to questions from the class, providing further information and clarification
    4.  of the facts of the case
  4. During the week prior to your in-class discussion, the other students will discuss their observations about the case and suggest possible responses you might have made. Do NOT reply to these observations/suggestions on the BB; rather, use them to revise your written draft of the case study (PART A).
C. IN-CLASS DISCUSSION (due on your scheduled date; note the strict time limits)
  1. For the first 5 minutes, you will report your actual response in this Case and describe the results of this intervention (PART A, #1.3)
  2. In the next 8-10 minutes, the class will critique this response, discuss how well you accomplished your defined goals, and offer ideas of what could have been done differently or what else might have been helpful in this situation (PART A, #1.4).
  3. You will then have an additional 5 minutes to present your theological reflections on this case (PART A, #1.5).
  4. Again the class will have 8-10 minutes, now to critique the adequacy of your theological/ethical positions and present (and defend) alternatives to them.
  5. Finally, you will have 2-3 minutes to outline how this discussion has changed your views of the case and, given the chance to do it over again, what you would do differently as a result of this analysis of the case.