WHAT IS CASE STUDY ANALYSIS?

A case study presents an account of what happened to a business or industry over a number of years. It chronicles the events that managers had to deal with, such as changes in the competitive environment, and charts the managers' response, which usually involved changing the business- or corporate-level strategy.

Cases prove valuable in a course for several reasons. First, cases provide you, the student, with experience of organizational problems that you probably have not had the opportunity to experience firsthand. In a relatively short period of time, you will have the chance to appreciate and analyze the problems faced by many different companies and to understand how managers tried to deal with them.

Second, cases illustrate what you have learned. The meaning and implication of this information are made clearer when they are applied to case studies. The theory and concepts help reveal what is going on in the companies studied and allow you to evaluate the solutions that specify companies adopted to deal with their problems. Consequently, when you analyze cases, you will be like a detective who, with a set of conceptual tools, probes what happened and what or who was responsible and then marshals the evidence that provides the solution. Top managers enjoy the thrill of testing their problem-solving abilities in the real world. It is important to remember, after all, that no one knows what the right answer is. All that managers can do is to make the best guess. In fact, managers say repeatedly that they are happy if they are right only half the time in solving strategic problems. Management is an uncertain game, and using cases to see how theory can be put into practice is one way of improving your skills of diagnostic investigation.

Third, case studies provide you with the opportunity to participate in class and to gain experience in presenting your ideas to others. Instructors may sometimes call on students as a group to identify what is going on in a case, and through classroom discussion the issues in and solutions to the case problem will reveal themselves. In such a situation, you will have to organize your views and conclusions so that you can present them to the class. Your classmates may have analyzed the issues differently from you, and they will want you to argue your points before they will accept your conclusions; so be prepared for debate. This is how decisions are made in the actual business world.

Instructors also may assign an individual, but more commonly a group, to analyze the case before the whole class. The individual or group probably will be responsible for a thirty- to forty-minute presentation of the case to the class. That presentation must cover the issues involved, the problems facing the company, and a series of recommendations for resolving the problems. The discussion then will be thrown open to the class, and you will have to defend your ideas. Through such discussions and presentations, you will experience how to convey your ideas effectively to others. Remember that a great deal of managers' time is spent in these kinds of situations, presenting their ideas and engaging in discussion with other managers, who have their own views about what is going on. Thus, you will experience in the classroom the actual process of what goes on in a business setting, and this will serve you well in your future career.

If you work in groups to analyze case studies, you also will learn about the group process involved in working as a team. When people work in groups, it is often difficult to schedule time and allocate responsibility for the case analysis. There are always group members who shirk their responsibilities and group members who are so sure of their own ideas that they try to dominate the group's analysis. Most business negotiations take place in groups, however, and it is best if you learn about these problems now.

Help with Nursing Assignment

Nursing assignment is a very diverse domain of scholastic requirement. Even if you are specified to accomplish a task based on your learning abilities, you will sometimes be required to handle related literatures such as constructing a Biology essay or an AS coursework. Because of the diversity of possible projects that can be handed down to you, you will need to have the necessary skills in accomplishing academic learning processes.

The nursing assignment type which can be imposed may not readily give you the actual learning skills in practicing your profession. Because of the wide angles of learning implemented by most schools, you will need to have the important skills in following directions since you will handle cases in real life pertaining to these skills. Just like in constructing a Business essay, a nurse based coursework may just be too technical especially to a student who is currently enrolled as a freshman. Although the skills acquired from previous levels of education may be of good help, the level of learning in a college life can sometimes be more demanding.

A nursing assignment may be further divided into three major categories. Since the actual profession involves real human interactions, you will need to have the best possible skills in relating with other people and consider them as potential patients. The first possible task for you can be in a form of a written paper. This kind of task is much easier compared to the other two since you will just need to present a research paper and provide explanations on your stand about a particular topic.

The next possible project for you can be in the form of a coursework. This may involve a question and answer approach in identifying your strengths and weaknesses in learning. Some professors provide a list of questions to their students which they can answer in a definite period of time. This way, you will learn how to handle situation pertaining to your profession. You will also need to research some more details in order to complete a task.

One last possible work for you is to be engaged in a practical nurse activity. Since you are going to handle real life situations, most schools employ the use of practicum procedures to expose their students in actual training. Most of the time, individuals will be assigned to a separate medical institution and assist in actual procedures for health. This is one primary approach in harnessing the skills of the students which can be a crucial factor to help them perform well with their patients.

The written types of homework can now be simplified by requesting for a writing service. HelpWithAssignment.com is now extending their help to UK students who are required by UK colleges to fulfill written requirements. The company uses UK English especially catered to British based students. This will be a big factor since you will no longer have to worry if you really have acquired a design suitable to the education model that you have. Get more useful tips on how to write an assignment.

How to Start Research for a Term Paper

How to Write a Thesis/Dissertation Proposal

1. Know the area

• Read, read, read, …
  
• Average 10-15 papers per week
  
• Current Journals: at least read/scan abstracts
  
• Use reference management software! (e.g. ProCite and EndNote)
  
• Use search engines (MedLine, Ergo Abstracts, Psych Info, Compendex, ACM Digital Library, etc.)
• Go to the source literature (don’t expect textbooks and other secondary sources to be either accurate or complete)

2. Go outside your area

• Good source of new/different ideas
  
• Avoids embarrassing overlap (already done by others in another field)
  

3. Pay attention to methods, analyses, motivations, applications

• We did this because....
  
• This work can be applied to …
  

4. Tree-in; tree-out

• Look at paper citations, and who cited particular papers (ISI Citation Index)
  
• Note how others interpreted (or how cited) papers you’ve already read; they may have a different interpretation

5. Don’t get ‘paper-locked’

• Easy to get overwhelmed and biased by what has already been done
  
• Once familiar with an area, what has and hasn’t been done, start working on what you could do

6. Look at proposals and documents generated by your predecessors

At this point, generate some initial ideas. Be creative, flexible, novel. Good idea to test them, if

possible. 

Jumping ahead, what does a faculty member look for in a proposal?

1. It should be well-written

• a. Organized, with a logical flow
  
• b. Concise, but also complete
  
• c. Good grammar
  
• d. It’s usually a good idea to have a colleague read it before giving it to the advisor, especially if they have already submitted their first draft or successfully defended their proposal. Often little errors or small changes will be identified and addressed. They can also be some the best sources of information for “why” or “how”.

2. General structure is typically followed, but there is flexibility in the details

• Introduction (Background, Motivations, Literature review)
  
• Objective/Purposes/Hypothesis (need not be a separate section, but often is)
• Methods
• Preliminary Results

3. Introduction

• Start broad (e.g. injuries, need for ergonomics, etc.), become increasingly specific
  
• End with a review, and broaden out to discuss potential applications (importance) of the proposed work
• Topics to be addressed: what’s been done; what hasn’t; what is needed and why; indicate your part or contribution (scoping your domain)
• d. Intro should contain some statements of objectives, purposes, and hypothesis. Placement is flexible, though, and these could be in a separate sections between Intro and Methods, or even part of the Methods. Depending on the specifics, not all of these (objective, purposes, and hypotheses) will always been relevant. More important that it be clear and readable.
• How long should it be? Long enough to satisfy the above goals. Typically 10-30 pages for an MS, longer for a PhD proposal.
• When summarizing existing literature, it is not enough just to describe what authors X, Y, and Z did. Results should be interpreted, in the context of the overall review and study objectives.
• g. In particular, discuss contrasting evidence, possible sources for discrepancies (experimental design, lack of controls, sensitivity of measures, etc.), and the importance of resolving the differences.

4. Objectives/Purposes

• Non-quantitative, but specific and clearly filling some hole/need addressed in the Introduction.
• The Intro should have motivated and ‘scoped’ the stated objectives and purposes.
  

5. Hypotheses

• Non-quantitative, but again specific and clear.
  
• There should be obvious connections to the objectives, and clear (though not stated here) indications of how statistical methods would be used to evaluate the hypotheses. In the methods, your statistical tests should make reference to these hypotheses.
• Not every statistical test should have an associate hypotheses (otherwise it would be unwieldy); instead, the hypotheses can be general (e.g. there will be an association among several variables; factors A and B will have effects on several measures of performance).
• Don’t use words like ‘significant’, save this for the description of statistical methods.

6. Methods

• What will be done, how, and why
  
• With respect to how and why, there is typically more than one way to do something, and you must explain (and sometimes justify) your choice.
• The methods should have clear connections to the hypotheses.
  
• The Methods tends to be a difficult and sometimes complicated section. In general, proceed from broad to specific, but also ensure that a context is provided before specific details are raised. For example, don’t describe specific experimental treatments before you’ve even explained the overall approach and the different independent and dependent variables.
• Note that ‘repeated measures’ refers to a study design, while within- and betweensubjects refers to specific independent measures (or treatments). Crossed and nested factors are synomymous.
• The reader should be able to understand what you’re talking about, given what was provided before (use of a colleague again helps here).
• Subsections are often used such as: Overview; Subjects; Procedures; Instrumentation; Experimental Design; Data Reduction; Analysis (stats)
• The specific ordering of the sections in g., should achieve the goals of d. and f.
• Somewhere (typically in Experimental Design), there should be an explicit statement of the independent and dependent variables (or factors, or measures)

So how do I get there? Unfortunately, this is as much an art as a science, but here are some things to consider:

1. Some General Tips:

• Each paragraph proceeds from general to specific.
  
• Some have suggested that reading the first sentence of every paragraph in the document should convey the essential meaning of the whole.
• Vary the structure of your sentences and paragraphs.
  
• Use transitions between paragraphs (either the last sentence of the proceeding one or the first sentence of the subsequent one, should tie the two together).
• Avoid one-sentence paragraphs (generally at least 3 sentences comprise a paragraph)
• Consider optional presentation methods (always using good HF knowledge and practice). Often the same thing can be conveyed by text, graphs, tables, diagrams, etc. Pick what is the most effective, but avoid duplication.

2. Some common mistakes to avoid:

• Repetitive sentence structure (The… The… The… or However, … Additionally, … Therefore, …)
• Avoid complex words and convoluted sentence constructions, where simpler ones will convey the information (like utilize vs. use; cognizant vs. aware; though personal style always has a role). Eschew obfuscation!
• There is no advantage to be gained by making something obscure. The scientific value is not enhanced by complicated words and prose, and to someone that knows the field, you don’t sound any more knowledgeable. If you look at some of the best journals, they are typically written in a very dry, boring, direct, and terse style. It tends to be the weaker journals where creative writing flourishes!

Reports of academic violations on campus jump

Dave Stern

Print this article

Share this article

Published: Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Updated: Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Sarah Korones/Tufts Daily

The Judicial Advocates program, part of the Tufts Community Union Judiciary, often becomes involved after a student is accused of cheating. Breaches of academic integrity are on the rise this year.

While the recession has students cutting corners in their spending, professors have also seen them cutting corners in classes.
Faculty have reported a record increase in both the number and severity of academic integrity violations to the administration during this academic year, and the number of infractions is on track to surpass previous years’ totals, according to Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter.
The infringements have resulted in a large number of student suspensions, Carter said.
Offenses range from plagiarism due to improper citation to bringing unauthorized materials into the classroom to defrauding the work-study program.
In 2005, the Faculty of Arts, Sciences and Engineering established a standardized system of consequences for violations across different departments, according to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman.
“It established guidelines for both a disciplinary and a grading consequence,” he said.
Before the new system was instituted, professors used their discretion in cases they may have deemed to be less severe. After the reform, Reitman said, instructional staff and faculty members were obligated to report to university officials all suspected violations.
Detecting plagiarism became easier for professors with the advent of Turnitin.com, an online database to which professors may require students to submit their writing. Turnitin cross-references submissions with Internet entries and previously submitted work.
Over 150 Tufts professors regularly use Turnitin, which often catches students plagiarizing assignments which are several years old and which they consider to be safe to copy, according to Reitman.
Due to Turnitin’s effectiveness in detecting unoriginal work, most schools see a spike in plagiarism reports once professors start using the Web site, he said. Unlike other schools that use the service, however, Tufts has not seen academic violations taper off since the initial increase after more professors started using the database. Although any professor can use the site when work seems suspicious, professors are required to notify students when they use it routinely for course submissions.
One student told the Daily that he was caught off-guard when Turnitin flagged his work as dubious.
“My teacher didn’t tell me about [it],” said the student, who requested anonymity to not jeopardize his future academic relationships. “All I got was this e-mail to meet with Veronica Carter.”
The meeting was particularly unexpected because the student did not intentionally borrow from other sources.
“I didn’t really copy someone else’s thoughts, just facts that were verbatim,” the student said. “I wasn’t actively thinking that this was a good sentence to copy.”
The student was found guilty of a level I infraction, which includes indirect quoting and paraphrasing, as well as improper citation.
Even though students know professors across campus use Turnitin, they are still surprised when their work is considered unauthentic, Reitman said.
“There’s this unrealistic invulnerability that some people feel that they’re just not going to get their work nabbed for plagiarism,” he said. “Students are always surprised when these things are found.”
Professor of Political Science Jeffrey Taliaferro said he has used Turnitin in the past, but he noted that it should not be considered a panacea and that professors should not rely on it as the only option to detect cheating.
Taliaferro, who does not hold in-class exams, added that he has also seen students paraphrase, cite improperly and use unverifiable excuses for missing assignments.
Among the three levels of academic integrity violations, suspensions can result from a level III offense or multiple level II offenses. Level II offenses can include direct borrowing of work without attribution and unauthorized collaboration. Level III offenses include, but are not limited to, cheating on an exam, falsifying data and plagiarizing large portions of a paper.
All incoming freshmen are currently required to attend a seminar on academic integrity during their orientation. Carter also intends to work with student groups and the Judicial Advocates to raise the level of awareness of cheating on campus.
“What I plan to do with the Academic Resource Center is try to get more information out to students … to let students know that they are held accountable for these actions,” Carter said. “They’re suspendable offenses. Students can get expelled.”

Source: http://www.tuftsdaily.com/news/1.1361384-1.1361384

Source for non-plagiarized assignments: http://www.HelpWithAssignment.com

MBA Writing Tips

At some business schools, good writing is on the curriculum

By Alison Damast

MBAs may be good at analyzing spreadsheets and reading financial statements, but many cringe when faced with a lengthy academic writing assignment. The task can be especially difficult for students who have been in the work force for four or five years and haven't written a serious academic paper or report since college.

Writing classes typically aren't on most business schools' list of core required courses, but business schools are starting to recognize that MBAs' rusty composition skills could benefit from a brush-up. In Minneapolis, the University of St. Thomas' Opus College of Business requires that all students take a writing and spoken communication course during their first year. The school's writing communication lab professors helps students improve their writing skills, coaching them on everything from how to write a case study analysis to lengthy academic papers.

Rosanne Bane, an Opus faculty member, has taught the school's Business Writing Communication Lab for the school's full-time MBA program for the past four years and currently teaches and coaches the school's Executive MBA students. She will be offering a workshop on business writing this month called "The Write Stuff: Writing for MBA Courses" at Opus. Bane agreed to share some tips on how MBA students can make their writing sharper and more effective:

DON'T BE LONG-WINDED

One of the things most valued in business writing is the ability to get to the point—quickly. "In business writing, conciseness is a prime virtue," Bane says. Students often lose sight of this in business school, and will sometimes "just add fluff" for the sake of getting to a required page count for a paper. Bane counsels students to look over their papers closely after they've written the first draft, taking out unnecessary words or flowery phrases. While some extra words and elaboration may be permissible on an academic paper, students need to show restraint when they are writing documents for business clients. For example, second-year students at Opus typically prepare a market research report for business clients and often feel the need to try to fit every data point into the paper. "It's going to be a long report anyway, so don't make it any longer by throwing in words or phrases you don't need," Bane says.

KNOW YOUR MEDIUM

Students often come into B-school tending to rely too muchon e-mail, a habit many developed at their former workplaces. This can be a mistake, especially if you are trying to communicate an important or sensitive message. E-mail communication is "context poor" and doesn't always express the senders' intended intonation or emotional state, Bane says. Business school, with its emphasis on teamwork and community, is an ideal place for students to experiment with other forms of communication. Making a phone call, writing something in a letter or memo format or talking to someone in person can often be a lot more effective.

UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

Before starting an assignment, students should step back and think about who will be reading their essay or report. Things to consider: What does your audience already know? What will the people need to know? What is the significance of the information you are trying to communicate? Students should also keep in mind the demographic they are writing for and the education level of their audience. This will make it easier to develop an outline and game plan for their writing assignment. "Identify the purpose of your communication, consider the context of the situation, and then select the message accordingly," Bane says.

SCHOOL AND BUSINESS ARE DIFFERENT

B-school students have to become comfortable doing a blend of academic writing and more practical business writing during their years in business school. It's helpful to have an understanding of the key differences between the two, Bane says. Academic writing tends to have a much more complex sentence structure with a "more elevated, polysyllabic vocabulary",; while business writing tends to have a brisker tone. "It should be faster and easier to read so people can absorb the information quickly," she notes.

PRACTICE WRITING OFTEN

Leaving an assignment to the last minute can be tempting, especially if you are juggling four or five projects for different classes. Fight this urge if possible, Bane says. Students should set aside time to write drafts, edit, and be thoughtful about their work. One easy way to do this is to set aside 5 or 10 minutes for "free writing" time a day, a practice of just writing without any defined purpose. That allows students to get over any inertia or writer's block. "I encourage them to do this so that they are able to practice and develop their skills," she says. "It lets you know where you need to focus your attention."

Damast is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/nov2008/bs20081118_490130.htm?chan=bschools_bschool+index+page_the+mba+life

http://www.HelpWithAssignment.com

Write a Winning Research Report

Let's face it: writing a research report can feel like wrestling a big, hairy monster into 5 pages with footnotes. But if you make and follow a plan from the beginning, you'll write a paper to make yourself proud.

Divide your time

As tempting as it may seem to dive right in and start writing (so you can get it done) a good research paper starts before you start crafting stellar sentences. First, you'll need to brainstorm a topic, then move on to researching.

To keep yourself from getting totally overwhelmed, you'll need to make time for each step. On the day your paper is assigned, use a calendar to plan backwards from the day it's due.

Divide your time into mini assignments, print the calendar, and hang it someplace you'll see it often. Use your judgment based on the assignment and how you do your best work, but a good rough estimate for how to divide up your time is:

10% Brainstorming
25% Researching and taking notes
20% Making an outline
25% Writing
15% Revising and polishing

So, if you have a month to write a paper, you might spend about 3 days brainstorming, a full week each for researching and writing, and 5 to 6 days each on your outline and revision.

Make an outline

An outline is a roadmap to keep you from getting lost when you start to write. It's where you organize the questions you'll answer and the information and subtopics you'll cover in your paper. It's a tool to help you, not another assignment to check off the list. There are lots of ways to make an outline and it makes sense to try out different versions to see what works for you. Here are some examples:

Term Paper Terrence likes to spend lots of time on his outline to make it really specific, down to noting what quotes he'll use where. Terrence finds the more detail he puts into the outline, the easier the paper is to write. For his paper on Sally Ride, the first American woman in outer space, his outline includes a note to discuss the specifics of what she did on her first mission — used the mechanical arm she designed to capture and deploy satellites, completed over 40 experiments — and to follow the specifics with a quote from Ride saying that what she remembers most about her first flight "is that it was fun." Terrence's outline is so detailed that writing the paper is almost like filling in the blanks.

Research Project Rachel feels differently about outlines. She looks through her research and makes a list of broad subtopics she'll cover. For her paper on rhinoceri (you know, more than one rhinoceros) she'll list things like: where they live and what they like to eat — mostly vegetables, they're vegetarians — but she generally doesn't break it down into smaller details. Rachel likes to structure her paper as she writes and revises. She looks back at what she has as she goes and decides on what to write about next. She often changes the structure of earlier parts based on what she's writing later on. Compared to Terrence, she spends a lot more time writing and revising, but not nearly as much on the outline itself.

Write your intro… for now

Once you've got your topic, research, and outline in hand, it's time to start writing. In your introduction, sometimes called your thesis statement or lead paragraph, you'll outline exactly what someone reading this paper can expect to learn from it. It's a tantalizing look at all the neat stuff the reader can look forward to finding out about.

Don't worry about getting the first sentences absolutely perfect on your first try. Sometimes it's better to keep writing and adjust later. Your introduction will usually be between one and three paragraphs long and will act almost like a summary of the topics to come.

Give each paragraph the meaning it deserves

Every paragraph tells a story, or at least it should. There should be a point to it, a piece of information you're explaining. Often the first sentence of the paragraph will serve as a bridge or link from the previous paragraph and as an introduction to what the new paragraph is about. The next few sentences will provide examples or information to back up the first sentence.

You have time specifically put aside for revision, but as you write do keep in mind that every sentence should have a reason for being and that reason is to support the paragraph as a whole. Likewise, every paragraph should have information that helps give meaning to the topic. Extra words and ideas are sure to sneak in there and clutter up your writing. It's your job to keep those words and sentences out of your paper. There's a fine balance between providing enough explanation and examples and making your paper unclear with extra words and thoughts.

Wrap it all up in the end

A good conclusion is related to a good introduction. They're like cousins, not entirely the same, but with many of the same qualities. At the end of the paper, you're wrapping up all your ideas and reminding the reader of what he learned. There usually isn't new information; it's more about revisiting the big ideas. A conclusion is often just a paragraph long or it might be two or three. Imagine saying to your reader, "As you can see from reading my paper…" The rest of that statement is the end of your paper.

Revision is your friend

Here's a secret: writing is hard, but revising effectively might be even harder. But it's worth the effort because this is the step that takes your okay, pretty good paper and transforms it into an assignment that really shines.

Revision or editing is not, I repeat, is not the same as re-writing the whole thing from scratch. You're not starting from square one here and you most likely don't need to scrap everything. What you are doing is taking a close and careful look at each word, sentence, and paragraph to make sure you've made the best choices. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you revise:

• Is everything spelled correctly?
• Are there any extra words, sentences, or paragraphs that don't add to the paper and should be deleted?
• Are all the ideas explained with description or examples so they'd make sense to someone who doesn't know anything about the topic?
• Do the ideas build so that by the end of the paper, the reader understands more than at the beginning?
• Does the paper deliver what it promises in the introduction and conclusion? Does it make a point?

Often revising works best if you take it in two or three passes rather than one big editing session. You're working to balance your paper, so you'll probably make changes at the end that will affect the beginning and vice versa.

It's very helpful to have someone else read your work to check if anything is unclear, confusing, or in need of better explanation. Ask a classmate, a friend, or a parent to mark places that could use improvement. Even the best professional writers benefit from using editors — and you can too.

Record your sources

Your assignment will probably instruct you on how to record and present all the sources you used for information:

• Endnotes are found within the body of the paper. They include the author and page numbers in parentheses to show where you got your information.
• Footnotes give similar information to endnotes, but they are placed at the bottom of the page, usually in a smaller typeface.
• A bibliography is a list of all the books, articles, and Web sites you used for information. It's sometimes paired with endnotes or footnotes, or it can stand alone.

Recording and using sources responsibly will prevent you from plagiarizing — a serious offense whether intentional or by accident. When in doubt, record a source rather than leaving it out.

Follow through on the final details

When it's time to hand in your assignment, make sure you have a clean copy that hasn't been crushed in your backpack or stained by yesterday's lunch. Include a title page with your name and the date. You've already done the work, so why not make it look as good as it can?

Now, take a moment to pat yourself on the back. Writing a good research paper is a huge deal and you deserve to feel proud for a job well done.

Amy KL Borrell, when researching, first highlights, then makes notes in the margins, then writes one fact each — with page number and book — on index cards.

Source: http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1610

Source: http://www.HelpWithAssignment.com