Case Study...

In Yin’s article “The Case Study Crisis: Some Answers”, he talks about the role of case study as a systematic research tool by introducing us to Matthew Miles who has written on case study analysis. If you’re incorporating a case study for your research, Yin discusses techniques on how to reduce problems within-case analysis and when analyzing across cases. In addressing issues when analyzing a case one needs to make sure they taking notes rather than trying to write a story. This will save time and effort and will allow the research to organize the data easier. Another issue is when analyzing quantitative data, the researcher need to make sure they are not trying to code or tabulate every little aspect of the information, however sticking to what is relevant and meaningful. Lastly, when building explanations, researchers must state the actual facts, consider other options, and provide a conclusion based on consistent facts. When Yin discusses how cross-case evidence should be analyzed, he talks about one specific approach that is considered to be more successful for cross-case analysis, which is “case-comparison”. He uses the case of a detective to explain its process. Detective (Researcher) is faced with a single crime (case) which he has already has come up with an explanation. Now, he has another crime scene to deal with, which is similar to the first case where he can use his previous explanation for the second crime. The Detective must construct an adequate explanation for each individual case, and must be aware of the adequate adjustments that might be made.  These points are useful if we are choosing to use case studies as part of our research, trying to analyze case studies can be a difficult task, it is very complex and the researcher needs to try to ask the right questions in order to gear the subjects to talk about what exactly the researcher needs them to discuss. The most difficult task is trying to organize and find meaning to the data you have collected. I don’t know if I will be using case study in my research assignment, but maybe in the future.