Can Dissertation be a Case Study: Research Example and Format

Also known as a thesis, a dissertation usually comes at the end of a degree course. Unlike essays and other standard research papers, a dissertation is a large project that requires a deeper depth of research.

The research can take up to the final six months of your degree course. The significance of this type of research is to test the ability of a student to do independent research. A student comes up with his or her idea, does thorough research then structures the content to make a final research paper.

In essence, this stage of your degree course teaches you how to manage your time and sharpen your working skills.

A student usually works with the department supervisor to make dissertation writing easier. The supervisor can help in planning the writing of the dissertation. The purpose of the supervisor is to provide guidance, feedback, and advice as you progress from stage one of writing to the end.

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Can Dissertation Be a Case Study?

There are very few instances when a dissertation is used as a case study because of the differences.

If you opt to use your dissertation as a case study, ensure that you do not focus on providing a solution to the problem.

If it is an already-written dissertation, it requires a lot of editing. In a dissertation, you provide the solution to a problem, but in case studies, only analysis of events is enough to complete the project.

How to Incorporate Case Study into Your Dissertation

A good qualitative case study can form the perfect basis for your dissertation and save you a lot of time.

To start with, a case study gives you the avenue to deeply analyze a situation. Precisely so, it will be easier for you to exhibit the academic survey level that your degree requires.

A good case study can be used in your dissertation in a practical sense.

In the final stages of your degree, time constraints are tight and a case study will take you a relatively short period to complete, unlike a dissertation. Therefore, it is an appropriate form of research that saves the time taken to navigate multiple research sites.

However, to incorporate a case study into your dissertation, pay attention to the potential drawbacks and limitations involved.

To avoid lowering the value and quality of your research, the following are some of the considerations to observe when selecting a proper case study for your dissertation:

a) The case study ought to be clear and in uniformity with the research purpose.

b) The particular case you choose, should be justified.

c) There has to be a clear explanation concerning the basis of the overviews made from your research results.

d) The case study should have a comparison between the chosen cases and others.

To date, many students use case studies as an obvious option for research projects. 

All in all, be careful how you implement the study into your research as many professors may view a dissertation as one that lacks rigor and consistency. Despite this skepticism, case studies can offer more exhaustive insights that ordinary research cannot achieve.

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How to Write Case Study Only as Your Dissertation

A case study and a dissertation share a lot of similarities but they are not the same.

In case studies, there is a full introduction of a topic. But, the opinion of the writer and other similar works do not need citation. Equally, a dissertation requires the citing of a writer’s view as well as that of other similar works. 

A student who is about to graduate is supposed to know instances when case studies can be used as a dissertation and when they cannot.

If you are worried about writing a great dissertation that will excite your lecturer, you can opt for the case study method.

Here are important steps to follow in writing a case study only as your dissertation:

• Start by defining the particular question you are going to address in the paper. It will be easier if you create specific questions that will answer the main parts of the situation. Develop your focus of research to get all the information about the topic.

• Design the process of the case study. Come up with a clear roadmap of the selected real-life cases and ensure you know the reason why you have chosen them. Also, do not forget to enlighten more information about the research methods you intend to adopt for data collection and analysis.

• A case study written only as a dissertation needs a huge amount of data. Needless to say, a writer should develop a clear plan for data collection.

• With your plan ready, proceed to the field and collect data. At this stage, do not make any interpretation of results until the research process is complete.

• Having done that, present the data by reporting in a flowing manner.  Use simple language for readers to understand your interpretations effortlessly.

Formatting the Case Study        

Following the right format guarantees a good case study paper that you can use to impress the professor as a dissertation. 

Start with an introduction or an exclusive summary to inform the reader about the findings and analysis of the case study.

Secondly, provide background information by writing clear facts and pinpointing the topic issues to your audience.

The next part is to embark on the methods and findings.

This is a discussion that entails verdicts of the case you have chosen and should be divided into separate sections for easier understanding. 

Afterward, come to the section where you will provide the recommendations and how to implement them. Here, a writer should discuss the solution chosen, give clear reasons why it is the right one, and how to put it into practice.

Good solutions usually focus on realistic means of improving the situation or solving it.

You can give evidence as a backup for the solutions you have proposed.  The final part is to write a conclusion that summarizes all the important points from the evaluations and solutions of the case study.

3 Examples of Case Study Topics to Write as Dissertations

To arrive at a good case topic idea, hunt for the ultimate topic that inspires you. From the possible list of selections you have, narrow down to topics that reflect the main idea you want.

After arriving at the topic of choice, select the right methodology for research. Below are good topics you can select for your case study:

1. Why start-up businesses are on a steady rise.

2. Research study cases on patients with Omicron coronavirus and the latest nursing methods for the virus.

3. Case study on the rise and rise of TikTok.

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Finally

Regardless of the course you have selected or your academic objectives, a college student needs a good case study. The quality of this study will depend on the topic you select.

Therefore, if you select a topic correctly, your ideas will be well organized and you can use available research methodologies to write an interesting case study.

There are different categories of ideas you can base your study on depending on the subject you want. You can focus on titles ranging from information technology to psychology, education, and environmental science.

There are also good topic ideas you can derive from applied physics, marketing, management, human rights case studies, or even nursing.