GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

A case study analysis requires you to investigate a business problem, examine the
alternative solutions, and propose the most effective solution using supporting
evidence. To see an annotated sample of a Case Study Analysis, click here.
Preparing the Case
Before you begin writing, follow these guidelines to help you prepare and
understand the case study:
1. Read and examine the case thoroughly

Take notes, highlight relevant facts, underline key problems.

2. Focus your analysis

Identify two to five key problems

Why do they exist?

How do they impact the organization?

Who is responsible for them?

3. Uncover possible solutions

Review course readings, discussions, outside research, your

experience.

4. Select the best solution

Consider strong supporting evidence, pros, and cons: is this solution

realistic?

Drafting the Case

Once you have gathered the necessary information, a draft of your analysis should
include these sections:
1. Introduction

Identify the key problems and issues in the case study.

Formulate and include a thesis statement, summarizing the outcome of

your analysis in 12 sentences.

2. Background

Set the scene: background information, relevant facts, and the most
important issues.

Demonstrate that you have researched the problems in this case study.

3. Alternatives

Outline possible alternatives (not necessarily all of them)

Explain why alternatives were rejected

Constraints/reasons

Why are alternatives not possible at this time?

4. Proposed Solution

Provide one specific and realistic solution

Explain why this solution was chosen

Support this solution with solid evidence

Concepts from class (text readings, discussions, lectures)

Outside research

Personal experience (anecdotes)

5. Recommendations

Determine and discuss specific strategies for accomplishing the

proposed solution.

If applicable, recommend further action to resolve some of the issues

What should be done and who should do it?

Finalizing the Case

After you have composed the first draft of your case study analysis, read through it
to check for any gaps or inconsistencies in content or structure: Is your thesis
statement clear and direct? Have you provided solid evidence? Is any component
from the analysis missing?
When you make the necessary revisions, proofread and edit your analysis before
submitting the final draft. (Refer to Proofreading and Editing Strategies to guide you
at this stage).
https://awc.ashford.edu/tocw-guidelines-for-writing-a-case-study.html

Brief Introduction
BACKGROUND
PRESENT STUDY (Sample, Instrument, Analysis)
FINDINGS
CONCLUSIONS
Brief Conclusion
Regarding APA bibliographies, in some versions of APA style, hanging indents are
used; while in others, paragraph indents are used. This paper uses paragraph
indents as requested by the companion sociology instructor.
--University of Minnesota
EngC 3014 -- Jewell
Final "Interview" Research Paper
Copyright Christine Hetcher
Women and Beauty Magazines
by Christine Hetcher
Beauty magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Marie Claire, are
widely read by women throughout America . What do women actually think of
these magazines? Do they feel the magazines are helpful, degrading, or simply
something to read? This paper is a survey interview to determine what women in
their late teens and early twenties think about beauty magazines
in Americatoday. The purpose of this study is to determine whether women like or
dislike beauty magazines, why they like or dislike them, and how frequently women
read beauty magazines.
Background
This section reviews the previous studies conducted on the effects of
womens magazines. Magazines specifically written for women have been in
circulation for over sixty years, discussing whatever issues were relevant to women
at the time (Moskowitz, 1996). Some of the earlier magazines focused on a wartime rebellion of feminism. Moskowitz (1996) conducted a study about the effects
of war-time magazines and said, Womens magazines of the Cold War era remain
symbols of antifeminism (p. 66). Moskowitz (1996) found that many women liked
the articles because many magazines discussed important issues to them, such as
stress, emotionalism, and feminism (p.66). Moskowitz (1996) said, recognition of
emotional tension was common for womens magazines (p.67). This recognition
presented a whole new genre of articles that gave housewives the freedom to
interpret their own states of mind (Moskowitz, 1996, p. 74). This freedom was an
important issue of the early thirties and forties.

Today, most womens magazines focus on five basic concepts: health,

career, personal well-being, fashion, and, of course, sex. Some articles from a
recent Cosmopolitan were Freaky Flow? Your Most Pressing Period Problems Ever,
Cosmos Hot New Sex Position, and Ten Hollywood Haircuts to Copy Right Now
(Beland, Gotthardt, & Kemp, 1999, p. 250-278). Such cover stories would have
been shocking in the conservative war era sixty years ago, but are now expected in
the liberal nineties.
Only recently have psychologists and womens studies enthusiasts begun to
wonder what effects magazines with such articles may have on women. McCracken
(1993) found that some women enjoy reading these articles because they like to
imagine that they can be like the women in the magazine -- beautiful, successful,
etc. (p. 6). Other women read beauty magazines simply for entertainment. One
woman stated, [The articles] are fun to laugh at because they are so far-fetched,
while another said, I like to look at the fashions even though no one I know dresses
like that and I know I never could (McCracken, 1993, p. 7). Other women read the
magazines because they feel that the advice is helpful and informative (McCracken,
1993, p. 6). McCracken (1993) stated, Many readers experience a pseudo sense of
community; the advice columns aid them with their problems and help assure them
that other women experience similar difficulties (p. 6).
While some women find beauty magazines entertaining and helpful, others
find them appalling and degrading. McCracken (1993) stated, Disillusionment can
occur when the magazines ideal world does not correspond to real life (p.7). The
contents of beauty magazines offend some women because the magazines
encourage insecurities, heighten gender stereotypes, and urge redefining
definitions of self-through consumer goods (McCracken, 1993, p. 9).
Although much research has been done on womens opinions of beauty
magazines, the results have been inconclusive as to whether more women like the
magazines and read them regularly or whether more women dislike the magazines
and never read them. In the research reported here, I interviewed young women in
order to determine which factors cause the opposing viewpoints of liking or disliking
beauty magazines. I attempted to discover why women chose to read or refused to
read these magazines. I expected to find a higher percentage of women who liked
beauty magazines and regularly read them than those who disliked beauty
magazines and never read them.
Present Study
The next section discusses the present study. It explains how the sample
was chosen, describes the instrument used, and analyzes the results. This study
focused on young womens opinions of popular womens magazines and why
women liked to read them or refused to read them.
SAMPLE

The sample used for this study consisted of twenty young women between
the ages of nineteen to twenty-five. The women interviewed were randomly
selected from students attending theUniversity of Minnesota at noon on three
separate days: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The students filled out
questionnaires distributed to them while they were engaging in various
activities. The activities they were engaging in were either sitting in Coffman Union,
walking on campus, waiting for a bus, studying at a library, eating lunch, playing a
sport on the lawn, or waiting for a class. First, the women were asked if they were
between the ages of nineteen to twenty-five. If they fit the age group, then they
were asked to immediately answer a questionnaire and return it to me upon
completion.
INSTRUMENT
The instrument used was a questionnaire consisting of six questions. The
six questions focused on how often the women read beauty magazines, what they
thought of the contents, on what they thought the magazines should change or
increase focus, how beneficial the magazines were to them, how often they take
the advice given in the magazines, and which magazines (if any) was their favorite
including the reason why it was their favorite. The format of the questions
consisted of both a nominal scale and an ordinal scale of answers according to their
responses.
The following are the questions from the questionnaire administered:
QUESTIONNAIRE
1. How many times per month do you read beauty magazines?
3 or more, 2, 1, Less than 1, Never
2. How do you feel about the contents of beauty magazines?
Strongly approve Approve, Neutral or no opinion, Disapprove, Strongly
disapprove
3. Which are do you think beauty magazines should emphasize more?
Nothing (magazines put good emphasis on all areas), Health, Sex,
Career, Fashion, Personal well being, No opinion
4. How beneficial do you think beauty magazines are?
Very beneficial, Slightly beneficial, Not at all beneficial, Slightly
harmful, Very harmful, No opinion
5. How often do you take the advice or tips given in beauty magazines?

Very often, Frequently, Rarely, Never, No opinion

6. Which beauty magazine is your favorite?
Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Glamour, None
Why? _________________________________
_________________________________
ANALYSIS
In order to determine the results of this study, the answers were tabulated
and then statistically computed. This computation found the relative frequency, or
the percentages, of each response to each question.
Here are the relative frequency charts and histograms for each question:
1. Frequency and Relative Frequency of Times Beauty Magazines were read per
month:
Frequency

Rel. Freq.

Never

0.30

less than one

0.00

0.25

0.30

3 or more

0.15

Total

20

1.00

2. Frequency and Relative Frequency of Opinion of Contents of Beauty Magazines:

Frequency

Rel. Freq.

strongly approve

0.20

approve

0.45

neutral (no
opinion)

0.15

disapprove

0.05

strongly
disapprove

0.15

Total

20

1.00

3. Frequency and Relative Frequency of Opinion of Contents of Beauty Magazines:

Frequency

Rel. Freq.

nothing

0.25

health

0.10

sex

0.15

career

0.10

fashion

0.10

personal well being 3

0.15

neutral (no
opinion)

0.15

Total

20

1.00

4. Frequency and Relative Frequency of Opinion of Benefit of Magazines:

Frequency

Rel. Freq.

0.15

slightly beneficial 8

0.40

not beneficial

0.10

slightly harmful

0.05

harmful

0.15

neutral (no
opinion)

0.15

Total

20

1.00

very beneficial

5. Frequency and Relative Frequency of Advice Taken from Magazines:

Frequency

Rel. Freq.

very frequently

0.10

frequently

0.35

rarely

0.20

never

0.20

neutral (no
opinion)

0.15

Total

20

1.00

6. Frequency and Relative Frequency of Favorite Magazines:

Frequency

Rel. Freq.

Cosmopolitan

0.40

Glamour

0.20

Vogue

0.05

Marie Claire

0.05

Elle

0.00

no favorite

0.15

don't read beauty mag.s

0.15

Total

20

1.00

The responses to the Why portion of question six will not be listed here
due to the fact that they are personally written responses.
Findings
This section examines and discusses the results to the questionnaire. In
order to effectively understand the information found through the results, this
section is broken into six categories in accordance with the six questions from the
questionnaire. These six categories are how frequently the magazines are read by
women in this age group, the opinions of the contents of the magazines, the
opinions of which areas should be emphasized more by the magazines, how
frequently women take advice from the magazines, the opinions of the beneficiallity
of magazines, and finally, which magazine was listed as the common favorite and
why.
FREQUENCY OF READING MAGAZINES
The first area of the results is how frequently the women surveyed read
beauty magazines. The results to this area found that most women (55%) read the
magazines once or twice a month. When the results are broken down according to
each response they show that 15% of the women interviewed read beauty

magazines three times a month or more, 30% read them twice a month, 25% read
them once a month, and 00 % read them less than once a month. 30% of women
surveyed never read beauty magazines.
.OPINIONS OF THE CONTENTS
The second area of the results is the womens opinions of the contents of
beauty magazines. The results to this area found that most women interviewed
(65%) either approved or strongly approved of the contents. These results broken
down show that 20% strongly approved, 45% approved, 15% were neutral or had
no opinion, 5% disapproved, and 15% greatly disapproved.
AREAS NEEDING MORE EMPHASIS
The third area of results is which areas the women felt needed more
emphasis. Overall, most women (60%) felt that one area needed more emphasis,
but the results differed as to which area should be emphasized. While 25% felt
nothing should be changed, 10% felt the magazines should put more emphasis on
health, 15% felt the magazines should put more emphasis on sex, 10% felt the
magazines should put more emphasis on career, 10% felt the magazines should put
more emphasis on fashion, and 15% felt the magazines should put more emphasis
on personal well-being. 15% of the women interviewed had no opinion.
FREQUENCY OF ADVICE TAKEN
The fourth area of results is how often women take the advice given in
beauty magazines. Most women (45%) frequently or very frequently took advice
from beauty magazines. The results show that 10% of women interviewed take the
advice given in magazines very frequently and 35% take it frequently. However,
20% of women interviewed rarely take the advice given and 20% never take it. 15%
of the women interviewed were neutral or had no opinion.
BENEFIT
The fifth area of results is how beneficial women interviewed felt beauty
magazines are. While most women (55%) felt the magazines are either very
beneficial (10%) or slightly beneficial (40%), other women felt the magazines are at
least slightly harmful (5%) or harmful (15%). In this area of results, 15% of women
interviewed were neutral or had no opinion.
FAVORITE MAGAZINE
The final area of results to this study is which magazine women choose as
their favorite and why. Most women interviewed choose Cosmopolitan as their
favorite (40%) with Glamour a distant second (20%). Both Vogue and Marie
Claire received 5% of the votes each, and no one choose Elle as their favorite. 15%

of the women interviewed did not have a favorite beauty magazine and 15% did not
read beauty magazines.
Summarized Conclusions
This section provides a summary of the results found with final conclusions
about these results. The findings of this study show that most women (70%) read
beauty magazines often (once a month or more) and were supportive of the
contents of the magazines (65%). Most women (60%) felt the magazine should put
more emphasis on one certain area, but differed as to which area. Only (25%) felt
the magazines had a good balance of topic emphasis. The reason most women
gave for choosing Cosmopolitan as their favorite was because it was very hip and
not afraid to discuss important topics to women. Also, most women (55%) felt
that the magazines were helpful to their daily life and frequently used the advice
found in the magazines (45%).
The results to this study lead to the conclusion that, despite the fact that
beauty magazines may seem frivolous to some, young women of today use them as
types of survival guides. Women look to them for advice in their careers, health,
personal well-being, fashion styles, and sex-lives. Examining these results shows
that women consider beauty magazines as they would consider a friend; they go to
them for advice, new ideas, and health tips.
These results can be interpreted in two ways. The first interpretation is that
the magazines are a benefit to women because they give them guidance and allow
them to feel more secure in their lives. The second interpretation is that women are
so concerned with what is in vogue that they feel they need to consult a magazine
to guide them. This poses an interesting question that will lead to another survey to
determine how dependent women are upon these magazines.
This survey interview asked young women about their opinions towards
beauty magazines. The purpose of this study was to determine why women like or
dislike beauty magazines and how frequently women read beauty magazines. The
results to this study supported the original hypothesis that a higher percentage of
women like beauty magazines and read regularly read them than the percentage of
women that disliked the magazines and refused to read them. The results lead to
the interpretation that beauty magazines are well liked among women in the age
group of nineteen to twenty-five because they contain many topics found
interesting by these women and because they offer beneficial advice and tips.
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