case study introduction examples

How to write a case study — examples, templates, and tools

It’s a marketer’s job to communicate the effectiveness of a product or service to potential and current customers to convince them to buy and keep business moving. One of the best methods for doing this is to share success stories that are relatable to prospects and customers based on their pain points, experiences, and overall needs.

That’s where case studies come in. Case studies are an essential part of a content marketing plan. These in-depth stories of customer experiences are some of the most effective at demonstrating the value of a product or service. Yet many marketers don’t use them, whether because of their regimented formats or the process of customer involvement and approval.

A case study is a powerful tool for showcasing your hard work and the success your customer achieved. But writing a great case study can be difficult if you’ve never done it before or if it’s been a while. This guide will show you how to write an effective case study and provide real-world examples and templates that will keep readers engaged and support your business.

In this article, you’ll learn:

What is a case study?

How to write a case study, case study templates, case study examples, case study tools.

A case study is the detailed story of a customer’s experience with a product or service that demonstrates their success and often includes measurable outcomes. Case studies are used in a range of fields and for various reasons, from business to academic research. They’re especially impactful in marketing as brands work to convince and convert consumers with relatable, real-world stories of actual customer experiences.

The best case studies tell the story of a customer’s success, including the steps they took, the results they achieved, and the support they received from a brand along the way. To write a great case study, you need to:

• Celebrate the customer and make them — not a product or service — the star of the story.
• Craft the story with specific audiences or target segments in mind so that the story of one customer will be viewed as relatable and actionable for another customer.
• Write copy that is easy to read and engaging so that readers will gain the insights and messages intended.
• Follow a standardized format that includes all of the essentials a potential customer would find interesting and useful.
• Support all of the claims for success made in the story with data in the forms of hard numbers and customer statements.

Case studies are a type of review but more in depth, aiming to show — rather than just tell — the positive experiences that customers have with a brand. Notably, 89% of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy, and 79% view case study content as part of their purchasing process. When it comes to B2B sales, 52% of buyers rank case studies as an important part of their evaluation process.

Telling a brand story through the experience of a tried-and-true customer matters. The story is relatable to potential new customers as they imagine themselves in the shoes of the company or individual featured in the case study. Showcasing previous customers can help new ones see themselves engaging with your brand in the ways that are most meaningful to them.

Besides sharing the perspective of another customer, case studies stand out from other content marketing forms because they are based on evidence. Whether pulling from client testimonials or data-driven results, case studies tend to have more impact on new business because the story contains information that is both objective (data) and subjective (customer experience) — and the brand doesn’t sound too self-promotional.

Case studies are unique in that there’s a fairly standardized format for telling a customer’s story. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creativity. It’s all about making sure that teams are clear on the goals for the case study — along with strategies for supporting content and channels — and understanding how the story fits within the framework of the company’s overall marketing goals.

Here are the basic steps to writing a good case study.

1. Identify your goal

Start by defining exactly who your case study will be designed to help. Case studies are about specific instances where a company works with a customer to achieve a goal. Identify which customers are likely to have these goals, as well as other needs the story should cover to appeal to them.

The answer is often found in one of the buyer personas that have been constructed as part of your larger marketing strategy. This can include anything from new leads generated by the marketing team to long-term customers that are being pressed for cross-sell opportunities. In all of these cases, demonstrating value through a relatable customer success story can be part of the solution to conversion.

2. Choose your client or subject

Who you highlight matters. Case studies tie brands together that might otherwise not cross paths. A writer will want to ensure that the highlighted customer aligns with their own company’s brand identity and offerings. Look for a customer with positive name recognition who has had great success with a product or service and is willing to be an advocate.

The client should also match up with the identified target audience. Whichever company or individual is selected should be a reflection of other potential customers who can see themselves in similar circumstances, having the same problems and possible solutions.

Some of the most compelling case studies feature customers who:

• Switch from one product or service to another while naming competitors that missed the mark.
• Experience measurable results that are relatable to others in a specific industry.
• Represent well-known brands and recognizable names that are likely to compel action.
• Advocate for a product or service as a champion and are well-versed in its advantages.

Whoever or whatever customer is selected, marketers must ensure they have the permission of the company involved before getting started. Some brands have strict review and approval procedures for any official marketing or promotional materials that include their name. Acquiring those approvals in advance will prevent any miscommunication or wasted effort if there is an issue with their legal or compliance teams.

3. Conduct research and compile data

Substantiating the claims made in a case study — either by the marketing team or customers themselves — adds validity to the story. To do this, include data and feedback from the client that defines what success looks like. This can be anything from demonstrating return on investment (ROI) to a specific metric the customer was striving to improve. Case studies should prove how an outcome was achieved and show tangible results that indicate to the customer that your solution is the right one.

This step could also include customer interviews. Make sure that the people being interviewed are key stakeholders in the purchase decision or deployment and use of the product or service that is being highlighted. Content writers should work off a set list of questions prepared in advance. It can be helpful to share these with the interviewees beforehand so they have time to consider and craft their responses. One of the best interview tactics to keep in mind is to ask questions where yes and no are not natural answers. This way, your subject will provide more open-ended responses that produce more meaningful content.

4. Choose the right format

There are a number of different ways to format a case study. Depending on what you hope to achieve, one style will be better than another. However, there are some common elements to include, such as:

• An engaging headline
• A subject and customer introduction
• The unique challenge or challenges the customer faced
• The solution the customer used to solve the problem
• The results achieved
• Data and statistics to back up claims of success
• A strong call to action (CTA) to engage with the vendor

It’s also important to note that while case studies are traditionally written as stories, they don’t have to be in a written format. Some companies choose to get more creative with their case studies and produce multimedia content, depending on their audience and objectives. Case study formats can include traditional print stories, interactive web or social content, data-heavy infographics, professionally shot videos, podcasts, and more.

5. Write your case study

We’ll go into more detail later about how exactly to write a case study, including templates and examples. Generally speaking, though, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing your case study.

• Be clear and concise. Readers want to get to the point of the story quickly and easily, and they’ll be looking to see themselves reflected in the story right from the start.
• Provide a big picture. Always make sure to explain who the client is, their goals, and how they achieved success in a short introduction to engage the reader.
• Construct a clear narrative. Stick to the story from the perspective of the customer and what they needed to solve instead of just listing product features or benefits.
• Leverage graphics. Incorporating infographics, charts, and sidebars can be a more engaging and eye-catching way to share key statistics and data in readable ways.
• Offer the right amount of detail. Most case studies are one or two pages with clear sections that a reader can skim to find the information most important to them.
• Include data to support claims. Show real results — both facts and figures and customer quotes — to demonstrate credibility and prove the solution works.

6. Promote your story

Marketers have a number of options for distribution of a freshly minted case study. Many brands choose to publish case studies on their website and post them on social media. This can help support SEO and organic content strategies while also boosting company credibility and trust as visitors see that other businesses have used the product or service.

Marketers are always looking for quality content they can use for lead generation. Consider offering a case study as gated content behind a form on a landing page or as an offer in an email message. One great way to do this is to summarize the content and tease the full story available for download after the user takes an action.

Sales teams can also leverage case studies, so be sure they are aware that the assets exist once they’re published. Especially when it comes to larger B2B sales, companies often ask for examples of similar customer challenges that have been solved.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about case studies and what they should include, you may be wondering how to start creating great customer story content. Here are a couple of templates you can use to structure your case study.

Template 1 — Challenge-solution-result format

• Start with an engaging title. This should be fewer than 70 characters long for SEO best practices. One of the best ways to approach the title is to include the customer’s name and a hint at the challenge they overcame in the end.
• Create an introduction. Lead with an explanation as to who the customer is, the need they had, and the opportunity they found with a specific product or solution. Writers can also suggest the success the customer experienced with the solution they chose.
• Present the challenge. This should be several paragraphs long and explain the problem the customer faced and the issues they were trying to solve. Details should tie into the company’s products and services naturally. This section needs to be the most relatable to the reader so they can picture themselves in a similar situation.
• Share the solution. Explain which product or service offered was the ideal fit for the customer and why. Feel free to delve into their experience setting up, purchasing, and onboarding the solution.
• Explain the results. Demonstrate the impact of the solution they chose by backing up their positive experience with data. Fill in with customer quotes and tangible, measurable results that show the effect of their choice.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that invites readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to nurture them further in the marketing pipeline. What you ask of the reader should tie directly into the goals that were established for the case study in the first place.

Template 2 — Data-driven format

• Start with an engaging title. Be sure to include a statistic or data point in the first 70 characters. Again, it’s best to include the customer’s name as part of the title.
• Create an overview. Share the customer’s background and a short version of the challenge they faced. Present the reason a particular product or service was chosen, and feel free to include quotes from the customer about their selection process.
• Present data point 1. Isolate the first metric that the customer used to define success and explain how the product or solution helped to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 2. Isolate the second metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 3. Isolate the final metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Summarize the results. Reiterate the fact that the customer was able to achieve success thanks to a specific product or service. Include quotes and statements that reflect customer satisfaction and suggest they plan to continue using the solution.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that asks readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to further nurture them in the marketing pipeline. Again, remember that this is where marketers can look to convert their content into action with the customer.

While templates are helpful, seeing a case study in action can also be a great way to learn. Here are some examples of how Adobe customers have experienced success.

Juniper Networks

One example is the Adobe and Juniper Networks case study , which puts the reader in the customer’s shoes. The beginning of the story quickly orients the reader so that they know exactly who the article is about and what they were trying to achieve. Solutions are outlined in a way that shows Adobe Experience Manager is the best choice and a natural fit for the customer. Along the way, quotes from the client are incorporated to help add validity to the statements. The results in the case study are conveyed with clear evidence of scale and volume using tangible data.

The story of Lenovo’s journey with Adobe is one that spans years of planning, implementation, and rollout. The Lenovo case study does a great job of consolidating all of this into a relatable journey that other enterprise organizations can see themselves taking, despite the project size. This case study also features descriptive headers and compelling visual elements that engage the reader and strengthen the content.

Tata Consulting

When it comes to using data to show customer results, this case study does an excellent job of conveying details and numbers in an easy-to-digest manner. Bullet points at the start break up the content while also helping the reader understand exactly what the case study will be about. Tata Consulting used Adobe to deliver elevated, engaging content experiences for a large telecommunications client of its own — an objective that’s relatable for a lot of companies.

Case studies are a vital tool for any marketing team as they enable you to demonstrate the value of your company’s products and services to others. They help marketers do their job and add credibility to a brand trying to promote its solutions by using the experiences and stories of real customers.

When you’re ready to get started with a case study:

• Think about a few goals you’d like to accomplish with your content.
• Make a list of successful clients that would be strong candidates for a case study.
• Reach out to the client to get their approval and conduct an interview.
• Gather the data to present an engaging and effective customer story.

Adobe can help

There are several Adobe products that can help you craft compelling case studies. Adobe Experience Platform helps you collect data and deliver great customer experiences across every channel. Once you’ve created your case studies, Experience Platform will help you deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time for maximum impact.

To learn more, watch the Adobe Experience Platform story .

Keep in mind that the best case studies are backed by data. That’s where Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and Adobe Analytics come into play. With Real-Time CDP, you can gather the data you need to build a great case study and target specific customers to deliver the content to the right audience at the perfect moment.

Watch the Real-Time CDP overview video to learn more.

Finally, Adobe Analytics turns real-time data into real-time insights. It helps your business collect and synthesize data from multiple platforms to make more informed decisions and create the best case study possible.

Request a demo to learn more about Adobe Analytics.

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/b2b-ecommerce-10-case-studies-inspire-you

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/business-case

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-real-time-analytics

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Best Family Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2023 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

What Is a Case Study?

Weighing the pros and cons of this method of research

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Cara Lustik is a fact-checker and copywriter.

Verywell / Colleen Tighe

• Pros and Cons

What Types of Case Studies Are Out There?

Where do you find data for a case study, how do i write a psychology case study.

A case study is an in-depth study of one person, group, or event. In a case study, nearly every aspect of the subject's life and history is analyzed to seek patterns and causes of behavior. Case studies can be used in many different fields, including psychology, medicine, education, anthropology, political science, and social work.

The point of a case study is to learn as much as possible about an individual or group so that the information can be generalized to many others. Unfortunately, case studies tend to be highly subjective, and it is sometimes difficult to generalize results to a larger population.

While case studies focus on a single individual or group, they follow a format similar to other types of psychology writing. If you are writing a case study, we got you—here are some rules of APA format to reference.  

At a Glance

A case study, or an in-depth study of a person, group, or event, can be a useful research tool when used wisely. In many cases, case studies are best used in situations where it would be difficult or impossible for you to conduct an experiment. They are helpful for looking at unique situations and allow researchers to gather a lot of˜ information about a specific individual or group of people. However, it's important to be cautious of any bias we draw from them as they are highly subjective.

What Are the Benefits and Limitations of Case Studies?

A case study can have its strengths and weaknesses. Researchers must consider these pros and cons before deciding if this type of study is appropriate for their needs.

One of the greatest advantages of a case study is that it allows researchers to investigate things that are often difficult or impossible to replicate in a lab. Some other benefits of a case study:

• Allows researchers to capture information on the 'how,' 'what,' and 'why,' of something that's implemented
• Gives researchers the chance to collect information on why one strategy might be chosen over another
• Permits researchers to develop hypotheses that can be explored in experimental research

On the other hand, a case study can have some drawbacks:

• It cannot necessarily be generalized to the larger population
• Cannot demonstrate cause and effect
• It may not be scientifically rigorous
• It can lead to bias

Researchers may choose to perform a case study if they want to explore a unique or recently discovered phenomenon. Through their insights, researchers develop additional ideas and study questions that might be explored in future studies.

It's important to remember that the insights from case studies cannot be used to determine cause-and-effect relationships between variables. However, case studies may be used to develop hypotheses that can then be addressed in experimental research.

Case Study Examples

There have been a number of notable case studies in the history of psychology. Much of  Freud's work and theories were developed through individual case studies. Some great examples of case studies in psychology include:

• Anna O : Anna O. was a pseudonym of a woman named Bertha Pappenheim, a patient of a physician named Josef Breuer. While she was never a patient of Freud's, Freud and Breuer discussed her case extensively. The woman was experiencing symptoms of a condition that was then known as hysteria and found that talking about her problems helped relieve her symptoms. Her case played an important part in the development of talk therapy as an approach to mental health treatment.
• Phineas Gage : Phineas Gage was a railroad employee who experienced a terrible accident in which an explosion sent a metal rod through his skull, damaging important portions of his brain. Gage recovered from his accident but was left with serious changes in both personality and behavior.
• Genie : Genie was a young girl subjected to horrific abuse and isolation. The case study of Genie allowed researchers to study whether language learning was possible, even after missing critical periods for language development. Her case also served as an example of how scientific research may interfere with treatment and lead to further abuse of vulnerable individuals.

Such cases demonstrate how case research can be used to study things that researchers could not replicate in experimental settings. In Genie's case, her horrific abuse denied her the opportunity to learn a language at critical points in her development.

This is clearly not something researchers could ethically replicate, but conducting a case study on Genie allowed researchers to study phenomena that are otherwise impossible to reproduce.

There are a few different types of case studies that psychologists and other researchers might use:

• Collective case studies : These involve studying a group of individuals. Researchers might study a group of people in a certain setting or look at an entire community. For example, psychologists might explore how access to resources in a community has affected the collective mental well-being of those who live there.
• Descriptive case studies : These involve starting with a descriptive theory. The subjects are then observed, and the information gathered is compared to the pre-existing theory.
• Explanatory case studies : These   are often used to do causal investigations. In other words, researchers are interested in looking at factors that may have caused certain things to occur.
• Exploratory case studies : These are sometimes used as a prelude to further, more in-depth research. This allows researchers to gather more information before developing their research questions and hypotheses .
• Instrumental case studies : These occur when the individual or group allows researchers to understand more than what is initially obvious to observers.
• Intrinsic case studies : This type of case study is when the researcher has a personal interest in the case. Jean Piaget's observations of his own children are good examples of how an intrinsic case study can contribute to the development of a psychological theory.

The three main case study types often used are intrinsic, instrumental, and collective. Intrinsic case studies are useful for learning about unique cases. Instrumental case studies help look at an individual to learn more about a broader issue. A collective case study can be useful for looking at several cases simultaneously.

The type of case study that psychology researchers use depends on the unique characteristics of the situation and the case itself.

There are a number of different sources and methods that researchers can use to gather information about an individual or group. Six major sources that have been identified by researchers are:

• Archival records : Census records, survey records, and name lists are examples of archival records.
• Direct observation : This strategy involves observing the subject, often in a natural setting . While an individual observer is sometimes used, it is more common to utilize a group of observers.
• Documents : Letters, newspaper articles, administrative records, etc., are the types of documents often used as sources.
• Interviews : Interviews are one of the most important methods for gathering information in case studies. An interview can involve structured survey questions or more open-ended questions.
• Participant observation : When the researcher serves as a participant in events and observes the actions and outcomes, it is called participant observation.
• Physical artifacts : Tools, objects, instruments, and other artifacts are often observed during a direct observation of the subject.

If you have been directed to write a case study for a psychology course, be sure to check with your instructor for any specific guidelines you need to follow. If you are writing your case study for a professional publication, check with the publisher for their specific guidelines for submitting a case study.

Here is a general outline of what should be included in a case study.

Section 1: A Case History

This section will have the following structure and content:

Background information : The first section of your paper will present your client's background. Include factors such as age, gender, work, health status, family mental health history, family and social relationships, drug and alcohol history, life difficulties, goals, and coping skills and weaknesses.

Description of the presenting problem : In the next section of your case study, you will describe the problem or symptoms that the client presented with.

Describe any physical, emotional, or sensory symptoms reported by the client. Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions related to the symptoms should also be noted. Any screening or diagnostic assessments that are used should also be described in detail and all scores reported.

Your diagnosis : Provide your diagnosis and give the appropriate Diagnostic and Statistical Manual code. Explain how you reached your diagnosis, how the client's symptoms fit the diagnostic criteria for the disorder(s), or any possible difficulties in reaching a diagnosis.

Section 2: Treatment Plan

This portion of the paper will address the chosen treatment for the condition. This might also include the theoretical basis for the chosen treatment or any other evidence that might exist to support why this approach was chosen.

• Cognitive behavioral approach : Explain how a cognitive behavioral therapist would approach treatment. Offer background information on cognitive behavioral therapy and describe the treatment sessions, client response, and outcome of this type of treatment. Make note of any difficulties or successes encountered by your client during treatment.
• Humanistic approach : Describe a humanistic approach that could be used to treat your client, such as client-centered therapy . Provide information on the type of treatment you chose, the client's reaction to the treatment, and the end result of this approach. Explain why the treatment was successful or unsuccessful.
• Psychoanalytic approach : Describe how a psychoanalytic therapist would view the client's problem. Provide some background on the psychoanalytic approach and cite relevant references. Explain how psychoanalytic therapy would be used to treat the client, how the client would respond to therapy, and the effectiveness of this treatment approach.
• Pharmacological approach : If treatment primarily involves the use of medications, explain which medications were used and why. Provide background on the effectiveness of these medications and how monotherapy may compare with an approach that combines medications with therapy or other treatments.

This section of a case study should also include information about the treatment goals, process, and outcomes.

When you are writing a case study, you should also include a section where you discuss the case study itself, including the strengths and limitiations of the study. You should note how the findings of your case study might support previous research. 

In your discussion section, you should also describe some of the implications of your case study. What ideas or findings might require further exploration? How might researchers go about exploring some of these questions in additional studies?

Need More Tips?

Here are a few additional pointers to keep in mind when formatting your case study:

• Never refer to the subject of your case study as "the client." Instead, use their name or a pseudonym.
• Read examples of case studies to gain an idea about the style and format.
• Remember to use APA format when citing references .

Crowe S, Cresswell K, Robertson A, Huby G, Avery A, Sheikh A. The case study approach .  BMC Med Res Methodol . 2011;11:100.

Crowe S, Cresswell K, Robertson A, Huby G, Avery A, Sheikh A. The case study approach . BMC Med Res Methodol . 2011 Jun 27;11:100. doi:10.1186/1471-2288-11-100

Gagnon, Yves-Chantal.  The Case Study as Research Method: A Practical Handbook . Canada, Chicago Review Press Incorporated DBA Independent Pub Group, 2010.

Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods . United States, SAGE Publications, 2017.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Spring Promo 30% OFF Surfer plans & AI bundles until April 24th.  Celebrate the release of Auto-Optimize and Internal Linking! 🎉 Grab the discount and take your Content Score from meh to ah-ma-zing in a single click. ✨

30% OFF Surfer plans & AI bundles until April 24th.

Celebrate the release of Auto-Optimize and Internal Linking! Grab the discount and take your Content Score from meh to ah-ma-zing in a single click.

How To Write A Case Study [Template plus 20+ Examples]

In an era where every niche seems completely saturated, learning how to write a case study is one of the most important time investments you can make in your business.

That’s because case studies help you present a compelling story of success to bottom-of–funnel decision makers. Do it right, and a solid case study can greatly increase your chances of closing new deals.

A 2023 study from the Content Marketing Institute found that 36% of B2B marketers consider case studies to be effective tools for converting prospects into customers.

In this article, I’ll show you step-by-step exactly how to write a case study that makes an impact. Along the way, I’ll highlight several stellar case studies that illustrate how to do it right.

What you will learn

• What a case study is and what it's not.
• How an effective case study can help establish you as an expert and land more clients.
• How to choose the right topic for your case study, taking into account client successes and broad appeal in your customer's industry.
• The essential parts of a good case study and how to write each one.
• Style and formatting points that will make your case study stand out for readers to understand.
• 4 tips for conducting an effective client interview.
• 6 real-life case studies that you can use as examples for creating your own customer stories.

What is a case study?

A case study is a detailed story about how your products or services helped a client overcome a challenge or meet a goal. Its main purpose is to prove to potential customers that you understand their problems and have the experience and expertise to help solve them.

But, even though a case study can help you attract and win customers, it's not just an advertisement for your offerings.

In truth, your company shouldn’t even be the main focus of a good case study.

Instead, a winning case study follows a successful business transformation from beginning to end and shows how you made it all possible for your client.

An example of a case study that conveys a strong customer story is the deep dive we did into how ClickUp used SurferSEO to boost their blog traffic by 85% in a year.

Why you should write a case study

The most obvious reason why you should write a case study is that it's a great way to show potential customers how others in their position have benefited from your product or service.

Here are a few of the key benefits of writing a case study, all of which can help you turn readers into customers.

Demonstrates expertise 

A well-written case study shows clearly how your company solved a complex problem or helped a particular customer make improvements using your solution.

This is the sort of expertise other potential clients will look for when they run into the same sort of issues.

For instance, one of CrowdStrike's case studies shows how they helped Vijilan scale its logging capacity so they could stop turning away business.

This positions CrowdStrike as experts in helping deal with log management issues.

Other companies dealing with their own logging problems will definitely find this to be a compelling story. And you can bet CrowdStrike will be on their short list of potential solution providers after reading this case study.

Educates potential customers 

You might have the best product on the market, but it won't do you any good if potential clients don't understand how it might help them.

A case study breaks down those barriers by showing real-life examples of your product in action, helping other customers solve their problems.

A good example is the Trello case study library .

Each story gives detailed examples showing how the customer uses Trello and includes actual screenshots from their workflows.

Here is an interesting snapshot from the BurgerFi example.

Here, you get a glimpse of a live Trello board that BurgerFi uses to manage their marketing assets.

By showing how existing clients use your product, you make it a lot easier for future customers to imagine how it might work for their needs, too.

Generates leads 

A strong case study is a valuable piece of content that provides insights and can help companies make decisions.

Many of them would be happy to give you their contact information in exchange for the chance to read about potential solutions to their problems.

That combination of valuable content and a hungry market makes case studies great tools for lead generation.

You can either gate part of your case study and leave the rest of it public, or require an email address and other contact information in order to download the full study.

That's the approach Pulsara took in detailing how their telehealth communication platform helped EvergreenHealth improve efficiency:

The names and addresses you collect with this approach will be about as warm as you could ever hope for since they probably have the same sort of problems you solved in your case study.

Along the same lines, case studies can be extremely effective in upselling or cross-selling other products to the decision-makers who read them.

And they are great tools for persuading a client to make a purchase with you.

Indeed, a great case study can often be the "final straw" that lands you a client considering your services.

A 2023 survey by Uplift Content , for example, found that 39% of SaaS marketers ranked case studies as being very effective for increasing sales.

That made it their #1 tactic for the second year in a row.

Builds trust 

Potential clients want to know that they can trust you to handle their business with care and to deliver on your promises.

A case study is the perfect vehicle to show that you can do just that.

Take advantage of that opportunity to present statistics, client testimonials, graphics, and any other proof that you can get results.

For example, in their case study about helping a law firm uncover critical data for a tricky case, Kroll shows us just how much they were able to cut through the noise:

Any law firm staring at its own pile of documents to search through would love to have that haystack reduced by a factor of 32.5x, too.

And Sodexo makes good use of customer testimonials in their case studies, like this quote from the procurement lead for a Montana mining company.

Having existing customers tell the world that they count on you is powerful free advertising and builds trust with your readers. That can help transform them into customers down the road.

Provides social proof 

You can also use your case study to show that your product or service works in a specific industry.

Real-world examples of customer success stories position you as someone their peers and competitors can turn to, too.

For instance, Stericycle details how they helped seven children's hospitals get a handle on their "sharps" management:

They also include glowing quotes from hospital leaders in the same study.

Other hospitals looking for help in disposing of their hazardous waste will know right away after reading this study that Stericycle understands their needs.

This is the type of social proof that can really help establish you as a go-to solution for the industries you serve.

How to choose a subject for your case study

In order to get the most bang for your buck from your case study, you need to make sure you pick a topic that resonates with your target audience. And one that can make your solution look its best.

Below are 4 ways to select the best subject for your case study.

1. Choose a popular topic

Make sure the topic you tackle in your case study is one that most of your potential clients are searching for.

You may be tempted to highlight an unusual project that you find especially interesting. But that usually won't have the same sort of selling power as a topic with more broad appeal.

For instance, Aruba Networks has helped colleges and universities with all sorts of networking projects. Some of those involve really fascinating edge cases like research labs, esports arenas, and other innovative solutions.

But what most schools are looking for in a network upgrade is improving connectivity across campus while enhancing security and saving money.

Those are exactly the outcomes Aruba focuses on in its Doane University case study .

Remember that your case study is likely to be read by decision-makers at the bottom of the sales funnel who are ready to buy.

Your content needs to resonate with them and address the questions they want answered in order to make their decision.

Aruba tackles their customers' concerns head-on throughout the Doane study, as you can see from their section headings:

• "Realizing a hyper-connected vision"
• "10X throughput eliminates academic barriers"
• "More secure with less effort"
• "Greener and more resilient at better insurance rates"

College administrators can see at a glance that Aruba understands their needs and has helped other institutions with similar problems.

2. Consider relevance and attractiveness

Although you want to choose a popular subject for your case study (as discussed above), it's also important to make sure it's relevant to your target audience.

For instance, if you provide design services, a one-off project you did to help a local company set up its website might have taught you a lot. But most of your potential readers will be much more interested in reading about how your designs helped that client improve brand perception.

It’s also best to choose a situation where your product or service is used in a way that you expect most potential users to adopt. 

For example, Allegion's Mount Holyoke case study (PDF) details how one campus used their products to move to contactless and mobile entry systems.

Students today demand more control over their physical security than ever before. And the administrative overhead of managing thousands of doors and physical keys on a college campus is enormous.

As a result, most schools are interested in using technology to enable their students and reduce staffing costs.

Allegion hits those points dead-on with this case study.

An added benefit of choosing a topic with broad appeal among your target client base is that you can use the content in your normal distribution channels.

For example, you can publish all or part of it as a blog post, include it in your newsletter, or use it as the basis for a YouTube video. Wherever your audience is, that's probably a good place to promote your case study.

3. Identify a 5 star use case

A case study is like a sales executive for your company.

It needs to show your product or service in the best possible light and highlight its features and benefits while distinguishing it from other products.

Choose a client example that really makes your solution look like a superstar and showcases its most outstanding attributes.

You should also avoid showing your product or service being used in a novel or completely innovative way. While that can provide some solid insight, you risk alienating your typical client who needs to know that you can solve their specific problem.

Instead, your case study should demonstrate how your solution took on a common industry problem and delivered stellar results.

A great example is Beckman Coulter's case study that details their work with Alverno Labs.

The objective was to reduce the time it took Alverno to deliver lab test results while reducing operating costs, which are common goals for many testing labs.

The case study presents a detailed description of how Beckman Coulter implemented a continuous improvement process for Alverno. They enhance the discussion with several meaty visuals like this project roadmap:

They also include plenty of tangible data to prove their success.

And of course, include direct client testimonials:

From top to bottom, this case study proves that Beckman Coulter understands their customers business needs and can offer top-notch solutions.

4. Find a satisfied customer

You're going to need input from your client in order to build the most complete and accurate case study that you can.

So when you're trying to choose a customer story to use, look for a client who is happy to share their positive experience working with you.

Try to find one who seems genuinely eager to talk so that they will be timely with their responses to your questions.

If you have a customer who is willing to sit down for an actual interview with you, they're a great candidate. You'll get answers quickly, and the client is obviously comfortable enough with your relationship to talk with you directly.

A good example that focuses on a satisfied client comes from Aerofloat, an Australian wastewater treatment company.

In their Norco Food Case Study , Aerofloat reports that Norco hired them for additional projects as a result of their successful prior engagement:

It's always good to show prospective clients that your existing customers stick with you.

So try to pick a case study done in collaboration with a current client, not one from the past.

Aerofloat also highlights their ongoing relationship with Norco by also including them in the customer list on their About page:

How to write a case study

Now that we’ve covered the benefits of writing a case study and figured out how to pick the best topic for your situation, it’s time to get down to the business of writing.

Below is a rundown of the sections that make up the structure of a typical case study. For each piece, I’ll show you what types of content you should include and give you an example of a study that does it right.

Here are 8 tips to writing a case study.

1. Attention grabbing title

The title of your case study needs to grab potential readers attention and convince them that this is a valuable piece of content.

Make your title catchy, concise, and descriptive, just like you would for a good blog post. But you also need to make sure you give your readers a clear idea of what the case study is about.

Offer them at least a hint of the type of results you were able to deliver, too.

It’s a good idea to use numbers here – the higher, the better. It's especially effective if you can show how quickly you got results and how much money your client saved or made as a result of working with you.

Our ClickUp case study that I mentioned earlier is a good example. The full title is

SurferSEO Helps ClickUp Publish 150+ Articles And Achieve Blog Traffic Growth of 85% in 12 Months.

Here are some other case studies that make effective use of numbers in their titles:

• Healthcare Administrative Partners Increases Online Patient Payments by 20% in Two Months
• Case Study: Taylor Kotwa, Sprinter, Increases FTP 7% in 4 months
• Case Study: Lakeview Farms Reduced Downtime by 36% in 6 Months
• CASELY case study: Improved first response time by 10x while experiencing 16,954% growth

This type of headline gives potential clients a sense that you will work with urgency to improve their bottom-line results.

2. Hook readers in your introduction

The introduction of your case study should set the stage for the comprehensive narrative that follows.

Give a brief description of the problem for context and quickly introduce the customer's story. Touch on the results you helped them achieve, but don't go overboard on details.

Overall, the introduction should give your reader just enough information to keep them engaged and ready to move into the heart of the case study.

It should also establish that they're in the right place and that you are the right person to be telling this story.

This case study about the cybersecurity program at Investors Bank includes a solid example of an effective introduction:

3. Highlight the challenge

This section should clearly outline the problem or challenge that your customer is facing.

Help your readers understand why a solution was necessary, and why that specific pain point was bothering the client. 

And, since this is the entire motivation for the project in the first place, don't skimp on details.

For instance, one of Verkada's case studies explains why maintaining security cameras is a huge challenge for Crystal Mountain Resort in Washington state. They start off with a direct quote from the resort's IT director:

The elevation tops out at a little over 7,000 feet, so the weather conditions can get extreme. We needed durable cameras capable of handling everything from snowstorms to 100 MPH winds.

That makes it crystal clear what sort of problem Crystal Mountain was facing.

The case study then adds more detail with separate subsections about hardware durability, image quality, and cumbersome footage retrieval.

By the time they finish reading this section, your readers should have no doubt about what the problem is and why a solution is needed.

4. Solve their problem

The solution section is one of the most important parts of a case study.

This is your chance to describe how your product or service provided a solution to the problem or challenge your client was having.

It's where you can really start to make a connection with potential new clients by showing them that you understand the issue at hand.

First, provide some details about how you analyzed the situation. The Kroll case study on handling critical legal data mentioned earlier does a great job of this with bullet points describing their research process.

This type of analysis helps build confidence that you take a thorough approach to your engagements and are looking out for your clients best interests.

Now you can move on to describe the solution you and your client chose based on your investigation.

In their legal case study, Kroll determined that the best solution involved digitizing thousands of paper documents and using AI to analyze more than a million documents.

Kroll describes in detail how they used their RelativityOne system to achieve those goals:

This level of detail helps prospective customers better understand the root cause of their problems and positions you as the right company to solve them.

5. Showcase your results

The results section is all about proving that you can actually deliver on the promise of your proposed solution. Go heavy on the details here, too, and make sure your readers understand the results you achieved.

Wherever possible, use specific numbers and data points to show exactly how effective your solution was for your client.

A good example is this BetterBricks case study showing how they helped an aerospace company slash energy costs.

They distilled their bottom line results into a simple table:

The text of the study then goes into more detail about what these numbers mean, but this quick graphic lets readers know right away the scope of the results achieved.

Here is a sampling of BetterBrick’s more detailed explanation of their results in this case:

This is your place to really crow about the success you achieved with your client, so make it as obvious as possible just how impactful you were.

6. Use multimedia well

One way to make a lasting impression on potential clients is to include relevant visuals throughout your case study.

Graphs, screenshots, and product photos help break up the text and make your study more engaging overall.

But they can also add details to your story and make a memorable visual impact beyond what mere words can accomplish.

We got a taste of that with the table of results in the BetterBricks example above, but that's just the start.

Inrix is a good example of a company that loads up its case studies with insightful and engaging media to tell a better story.

For instance, in their breakdown of a collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (DOT), Inrix uses charts, tables, and graphs throughout.

One innovative example is this diagram about crash distances:

This really brings the idea to life in a way that words alone can't, and it's likely to stick with readers long after they've clicked off the case study.

Other types of media that companies use to good effect in their case studies include pictures of key client stakeholders, interactive charts, tables, and simple graphs.

You can see in this high-level overview that Inrix includes most of these in their Pennsylvania DOT case study:

You can even use video to demonstrate your solution or to share a client testimonial.

If possible, include direct quotes from your client to add authenticity to the case study.

This will show potential customers that you and your existing client have a good relationship and that they value your work.

It’s pretty compelling stuff to have a ringing endorsement like this one from an EnergyCAP case study , to show your readers:

You can place customer quotes throughout the case study to highlight important points, and you should definitely try to include at least one that shows overall customer satisfaction.

Chances are you have some of these quotes already in the form of testimonials or as part of the customer interview you conducted in preparing for your case study (more on that later).

You can use those quotes here if they fit the context of your case study.

That will save time and red tape for both you and your client since they'll be reviewing your final case study before it goes live anyway.

8. Conclusion

The conclusion should summarize the key points of the case study and reinforce the success of the solution. It could also include a call to action, encouraging readers to try your product or service or to get in touch for more information.

You might also include information about future plans with the client to reinforce the idea that your relationship is strong and ongoing.

That's the approach that Gravitate Design used in their case study about helping GoBeyond with their bounce rates and time on page:

Like the introduction, the conclusion section of a case study should be short and sweet, giving just enough detail to make the reader want to hear more from you.

Checklist for case studies

Beyond the story that you want to tell in your case study, you also need to pay attention to several other factors. Indeed, the layout and format of your study can have a big impact on how effective it is at keeping your readers engaged and delivering your message.

Here is a quick checklist for creating case studies.

Break up the text with headings and subheadings

Big blocks of text can be intimidating and make it tough for your audience to stay on track.

In contrast, a case study with clear headings and subheadings throughout breaks up the story and gives readers visual clues about what's coming.

This also makes the case study easier for readers to scan and helps you keep each section focused on a single idea.

Use bullet points for lists or key points

Along the same lines, bullet points let you present important information in small bits that are easy for readers to digest.

Some of the best uses of bullet points include:

• A series of facts or tips
• A list of product features or benefits
• A quick summary of results
• Steps in a how-to procedure
• A rundown of multiple statistics

For these bite-sized hunks of detail, bullets often make for a much cleaner and readable list than jamming all the information into a single paragraph. 

Bullet point lists also make great quick references for readers to come back to later.

Highlight key points with bold or italic text

Bold and italic text draws the reader’s eyes to the words you highlight, which lets you really drive home key ideas in your case study.

You can use this technique to introduce new terms, place emphasis on a sentence, and showcase important parts of your approach or results.

Like bullet points, bold and italic text also give readers a visual anchor for reference as they’re working through your document.

Make paragraphs short and to-the-point

Aim for 3-4 sentences per paragraph to keep the text readable and engaging. Each paragraph should focus on one main idea to support the subject of the section it’s in.

Using short paragraphs tells readers at a glance that there are break points throughout your case study and helps keep them engaged.

Keep consistent length across the case study 

Throughout all parts of your case study, try to cover your main points in detail without overwhelming the reader.

Your potential clients are there to find a possible solution to their problems, not to read a novel.

Give them an inviting document structure and then lead them through each section with clear explanations and no fluff.

Adjust the length based on the complexity of the subject 

The flip side of the tip above about keeping your case study tight and focused is that you need to make sure you cover your topic in detail.

Very complex topics will require more explanation and longer overall case studies than simpler subjects.

For example, a case study about paving a church parking lot might be pretty short.

But a story about implementing a comprehensive information security program for a state government will likely be much longer and more detailed.

Include a summary with some takeaways 

At the end of your case study, summarize the key takeaways and results to reinforce the message you’re trying to get across.

Briefly recap the problem your client was facing, the solution you came up with, and the results you achieved. Think of this as an executive summary that gives business leaders the TL;DR version of your customer’s success story.

Content Snare includes an eye-catching summary in the case study detailing their efforts to grow their email list:

The overall goal is to leave potential clients with a good last impression and invite them to contact you with questions.

Use visuals to break up text and illustrate points

As we saw in the "How to write a case study" section above, graphs, charts, or images can make your case study more engaging and help illustrate key ideas or results. They also add visual variety and help break up the monotony of text-heavy studies.

Use these types of visuals to help keep your readers interested and make your story more complete.

Below is a high-level view of a portion of Advanced HPC’s Philips case study , which does a great job of incorporating the points in this section. It pulls together all the visual elements to create a very appealing reader experience.

4 tips to create an effective case study

You’re going to need your customer’s input in order to craft the most effective case study possible. It’s their story, after all, and they’re the ones who know what it was like to work with you throughout the process.

They also hold key details that you probably don’t know.

So, once you have their permission to write about the project, you’ll need to talk to them about the specifics. But you also want to respect their time.

Here are 4 tips on how to conduct an interview for your case study.

Prepare questions in advance

Know what information you need and prepare questions to pull that information from your client.

Doing this in advance will help you formulate the questions and sequence them properly to avoid bias and wasting time.

Have a few follow-up or emergency questions ready, too, in case you run into a dead end. 

Record the interview

With your client’s permission, record the interview to ensure accuracy and so you can come back to listen to important points again.

This helps you avoid bothering your clients with follow-up questions and also gives you more freedom to let the interview evolve in a natural conversational manner. 

Make the interviewee comfortable

Explain the interview process to your client, why you're asking them to talk, and how the information will be used. Remember that you are the one who “needs” the case study, not them. 

So you go the extra mile to ensure that your guest is as comfortable as possible.

That also means being flexible with the format of your interview.

If your client doesn’t have time for calls, offer to trade voice notes. Or give them a shared Google document for trading questions and answers.

And if you do end up conducting a live interview, agree to meet at a time that’s best for them.

No matter how you end up conducting your interview, make it clear that your client will be able to review the final version before you make it live.

Give them veto power over any of the information you put together.

Ask open-ended questions

Even though you’ll start out with a series of questions you need answered, don’t limit yourself to those. Instead, encourage your interviewee to share their story in their own words. 

Leave some room to ask open-ended questions and let the conversation evolve naturally.

Here are a few examples of the types of questions for discussion:

• What would you do differently if you were starting this project again?
• What do you think about XYZ emerging technology in relation to your industry's challenges?
• What sorts of other projects do you think Acme's solution might help with?
• How do your company's day-to-day operations and needs from how the relevant theories describe the industry?

Especially if you’re recording the interview, as suggested above, you can go back later and put things in a logical order.

Once you have all of the raw material, then you can curate the information and edit it to come up with your final product.

6 case study examples to follow

Now that you know what makes a great case study and how to write one, let's finish up with a few more top-notch business case study examples.

Each of the case studies below hits many of the points in this article, but they all take a different approach. Use them for inspiration or when you need a little refresher on how to write a case study.

This case study provides a detailed account of how Monograph, a B2B SaaS company, improved its marketing projects and reporting using Databox.

It's a pretty straightforward example of the best practices we've discussed in this article, with an introduction followed by background information on the company (Monograph) and the challenges they faced with manual tracking of each data point.

It describes the solution that Databox helped put in place and then shows clear evidence of the results their customer achieved:

Case studies don't come much more textbook than this one, which makes it a great example to follow.

Growth Design on Airbnb

Growth Design takes a totally unique approach to case studies, each one is an online comic book!

Read through their case study about Airbnb , though, and you'll see that it meets all the criteria for a complete case study even if the setup is a little different than most.

Here is a look at the landing page for this beauty of a study.

The author starts out with a problem: the need to book a place to stay in a foreign country in a hurry. So he heads to Airbnb but ends up overwhelmed by choices and bounces to Google Maps to make his reservation.

He concludes that Airbnb was not the full solution for him in this case and suggests several places they could make improvements.

It's a pretty neat dive into a well-known user experience, and it's also a great lesson in how to use visuals to keep your readers engaged in your case study.

This case study about how Grubhub used Webflow to build a viral marketing campaign hits you with stunning results right off the bat.

From there, the study tells the full story of how they achieved these results. Even though the author doesn't explicitly break out the problem, solution, and results sections, she still takes the reader through that journey.

It's a concise but complete story broken up by a few choice graphics.

This case study dives into how Employment Hero uses Slack to keep their remote employees engaged and productive as the company grows.

It details how Employee Hero continuously reevaluates its app usage to identify possible solutions to issues that arise and how Slack consistently helps meet the challenges.

This case study is a great example of picking a use case that is relevant to most of Slack's user base -- improving communication and productivity among remote employees.

Slack also makes effective use of quotes from the decision makers at Employment Hero.

We already talked about our ClickUp case study a little earlier in this article, but it's worth a deeper look as an example to help guide your writing.

As you would expect, this case study hits main points we've covered here: problem statement, solution, and results.

But there are a couple of "extras" that make this one stand out.

For starters, it doesn't just present a single solution. It presents three , each one addressing a different aspect of ClickUp's objectives and each one showcasing a different Surfer feature set. 

For example, solution #1 describes how ClickUp improved their on-page SEO with the help of Surfer’s Content Editor . 

This case study also provides a high-level view of ClickUp’s project management processes and describes how they incorporated Surfer into their content workflows.

It’s a really instructive example of how you can use a case study to help prospective clients envision how your product might fit their situation.

Zoom’s library

This one isn't a single case study at all but a library full of case studies designed to help potential clients understand how Zoom can benefit them.

Here you'll find stories about how very recognizable organizations like Capital One, Vox Media, and the University of Miami are using Zoom to boost connectivity and productivity among remote workers.

There are plenty of good examples here that you can consult when you get stuck writing your own case study.

And the entire library is a great example of using case studies to demonstrate expertise with the help of social proof:

The Zoom case study library also makes liberal use of video, which might give you some good ideas about how you can, too.

Key takeaways

• Case studies are one of the best ways to generate leads and convert readers into customers.
• By showcasing the success you've had helping previous customers, case studies position you as an expert in your field.
• Good case studies can be the final push businesses need in their decision making process to buy your products or services.
• Pick a use case for your study that has broad appeal in your industry and that showcases your products and services in the best light possible.
• Effective case studies follow a predictable format: introduction, problem statement, solution, results, and conclusion.
• Make your case studies as readable as possible by including visual elements like graphs and images, and by breaking up the text into smaller sections, subsections, and concise paragraphs.
• Be as thorough and accurate as possible by conducting client interviews to gather background information for your case studies.
• Follow top-notch case studies for inspiration and ideas about how to make your own case studies as good as possible.

A well-written case study shines a light on your products and services like nothing else and helps position you as an expert in your field.

By showing that you understand their problems and have helped others overcome similar issues, you can prove to prospective clients that you are well-suited to help them, too.

Use the step-by-step instructions in this article to craft a case study that helps you and your company stand out from the competition.

https://surferseo.com/blog/write-case-study/

Get started now, ‍7 days for free

Choose a plan that fits your needs and try Surfer out for yourself. Click below to sign up!

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments

• Annotated Bibliography
• Analyzing a Scholarly Journal Article
• Group Presentations
• Dealing with Nervousness
• Using Visual Aids
• Grading Someone Else's Paper
• Types of Structured Group Activities
• Group Project Survival Skills
• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

A case study research paper examines a person, place, event, condition, phenomenon, or other type of subject of analysis in order to extrapolate  key themes and results that help predict future trends, illuminate previously hidden issues that can be applied to practice, and/or provide a means for understanding an important research problem with greater clarity. A case study research paper usually examines a single subject of analysis, but case study papers can also be designed as a comparative investigation that shows relationships between two or more subjects. The methods used to study a case can rest within a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method investigative paradigm.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010 ; “What is a Case Study?” In Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London: SAGE, 2010.

How to Approach Writing a Case Study Research Paper

General information about how to choose a topic to investigate can be found under the " Choosing a Research Problem " tab in the Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper writing guide. Review this page because it may help you identify a subject of analysis that can be investigated using a case study design.

However, identifying a case to investigate involves more than choosing the research problem . A case study encompasses a problem contextualized around the application of in-depth analysis, interpretation, and discussion, often resulting in specific recommendations for action or for improving existing conditions. As Seawright and Gerring note, practical considerations such as time and access to information can influence case selection, but these issues should not be the sole factors used in describing the methodological justification for identifying a particular case to study. Given this, selecting a case includes considering the following:

• The case represents an unusual or atypical example of a research problem that requires more in-depth analysis? Cases often represent a topic that rests on the fringes of prior investigations because the case may provide new ways of understanding the research problem. For example, if the research problem is to identify strategies to improve policies that support girl's access to secondary education in predominantly Muslim nations, you could consider using Azerbaijan as a case study rather than selecting a more obvious nation in the Middle East. Doing so may reveal important new insights into recommending how governments in other predominantly Muslim nations can formulate policies that support improved access to education for girls.
• The case provides important insight or illuminate a previously hidden problem? In-depth analysis of a case can be based on the hypothesis that the case study will reveal trends or issues that have not been exposed in prior research or will reveal new and important implications for practice. For example, anecdotal evidence may suggest drug use among homeless veterans is related to their patterns of travel throughout the day. Assuming prior studies have not looked at individual travel choices as a way to study access to illicit drug use, a case study that observes a homeless veteran could reveal how issues of personal mobility choices facilitate regular access to illicit drugs. Note that it is important to conduct a thorough literature review to ensure that your assumption about the need to reveal new insights or previously hidden problems is valid and evidence-based.
• The case challenges and offers a counter-point to prevailing assumptions? Over time, research on any given topic can fall into a trap of developing assumptions based on outdated studies that are still applied to new or changing conditions or the idea that something should simply be accepted as "common sense," even though the issue has not been thoroughly tested in current practice. A case study analysis may offer an opportunity to gather evidence that challenges prevailing assumptions about a research problem and provide a new set of recommendations applied to practice that have not been tested previously. For example, perhaps there has been a long practice among scholars to apply a particular theory in explaining the relationship between two subjects of analysis. Your case could challenge this assumption by applying an innovative theoretical framework [perhaps borrowed from another discipline] to explore whether this approach offers new ways of understanding the research problem. Taking a contrarian stance is one of the most important ways that new knowledge and understanding develops from existing literature.
• The case provides an opportunity to pursue action leading to the resolution of a problem? Another way to think about choosing a case to study is to consider how the results from investigating a particular case may result in findings that reveal ways in which to resolve an existing or emerging problem. For example, studying the case of an unforeseen incident, such as a fatal accident at a railroad crossing, can reveal hidden issues that could be applied to preventative measures that contribute to reducing the chance of accidents in the future. In this example, a case study investigating the accident could lead to a better understanding of where to strategically locate additional signals at other railroad crossings so as to better warn drivers of an approaching train, particularly when visibility is hindered by heavy rain, fog, or at night.
• The case offers a new direction in future research? A case study can be used as a tool for an exploratory investigation that highlights the need for further research about the problem. A case can be used when there are few studies that help predict an outcome or that establish a clear understanding about how best to proceed in addressing a problem. For example, after conducting a thorough literature review [very important!], you discover that little research exists showing the ways in which women contribute to promoting water conservation in rural communities of east central Africa. A case study of how women contribute to saving water in a rural village of Uganda can lay the foundation for understanding the need for more thorough research that documents how women in their roles as cooks and family caregivers think about water as a valuable resource within their community. This example of a case study could also point to the need for scholars to build new theoretical frameworks around the topic [e.g., applying feminist theories of work and family to the issue of water conservation].

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. “Building Theories from Case Study Research.” Academy of Management Review 14 (October 1989): 532-550; Emmel, Nick. Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research: A Realist Approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2013; Gerring, John. “What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?” American Political Science Review 98 (May 2004): 341-354; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Seawright, Jason and John Gerring. "Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research." Political Research Quarterly 61 (June 2008): 294-308.

Structure and Writing Style

The purpose of a paper in the social sciences designed around a case study is to thoroughly investigate a subject of analysis in order to reveal a new understanding about the research problem and, in so doing, contributing new knowledge to what is already known from previous studies. In applied social sciences disciplines [e.g., education, social work, public administration, etc.], case studies may also be used to reveal best practices, highlight key programs, or investigate interesting aspects of professional work.

In general, the structure of a case study research paper is not all that different from a standard college-level research paper. However, there are subtle differences you should be aware of. Here are the key elements to organizing and writing a case study research paper.

I.  Introduction

As with any research paper, your introduction should serve as a roadmap for your readers to ascertain the scope and purpose of your study . The introduction to a case study research paper, however, should not only describe the research problem and its significance, but you should also succinctly describe why the case is being used and how it relates to addressing the problem. The two elements should be linked. With this in mind, a good introduction answers these four questions:

• What is being studied? Describe the research problem and describe the subject of analysis [the case] you have chosen to address the problem. Explain how they are linked and what elements of the case will help to expand knowledge and understanding about the problem.
• Why is this topic important to investigate? Describe the significance of the research problem and state why a case study design and the subject of analysis that the paper is designed around is appropriate in addressing the problem.
• What did we know about this topic before I did this study? Provide background that helps lead the reader into the more in-depth literature review to follow. If applicable, summarize prior case study research applied to the research problem and why it fails to adequately address the problem. Describe why your case will be useful. If no prior case studies have been used to address the research problem, explain why you have selected this subject of analysis.
• How will this study advance new knowledge or new ways of understanding? Explain why your case study will be suitable in helping to expand knowledge and understanding about the research problem.

Each of these questions should be addressed in no more than a few paragraphs. Exceptions to this can be when you are addressing a complex research problem or subject of analysis that requires more in-depth background information.

II.  Literature Review

The literature review for a case study research paper is generally structured the same as it is for any college-level research paper. The difference, however, is that the literature review is focused on providing background information and  enabling historical interpretation of the subject of analysis in relation to the research problem the case is intended to address . This includes synthesizing studies that help to:

• Place relevant works in the context of their contribution to understanding the case study being investigated . This would involve summarizing studies that have used a similar subject of analysis to investigate the research problem. If there is literature using the same or a very similar case to study, you need to explain why duplicating past research is important [e.g., conditions have changed; prior studies were conducted long ago, etc.].
• Describe the relationship each work has to the others under consideration that informs the reader why this case is applicable . Your literature review should include a description of any works that support using the case to investigate the research problem and the underlying research questions.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research using the case study . If applicable, review any research that has examined the research problem using a different research design. Explain how your use of a case study design may reveal new knowledge or a new perspective or that can redirect research in an important new direction.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies . This refers to synthesizing any literature that points to unresolved issues of concern about the research problem and describing how the subject of analysis that forms the case study can help resolve these existing contradictions.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research . Your review should examine any literature that lays a foundation for understanding why your case study design and the subject of analysis around which you have designed your study may reveal a new way of approaching the research problem or offer a perspective that points to the need for additional research.
• Expose any gaps that exist in the literature that the case study could help to fill . Summarize any literature that not only shows how your subject of analysis contributes to understanding the research problem, but how your case contributes to a new way of understanding the problem that prior research has failed to do.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important!] . Collectively, your literature review should always place your case study within the larger domain of prior research about the problem. The overarching purpose of reviewing pertinent literature in a case study paper is to demonstrate that you have thoroughly identified and synthesized prior studies in relation to explaining the relevance of the case in addressing the research problem.

III.  Method

In this section, you explain why you selected a particular case [i.e., subject of analysis] and the strategy you used to identify and ultimately decide that your case was appropriate in addressing the research problem. The way you describe the methods used varies depending on the type of subject of analysis that constitutes your case study.

If your subject of analysis is an incident or event . In the social and behavioral sciences, the event or incident that represents the case to be studied is usually bounded by time and place, with a clear beginning and end and with an identifiable location or position relative to its surroundings. The subject of analysis can be a rare or critical event or it can focus on a typical or regular event. The purpose of studying a rare event is to illuminate new ways of thinking about the broader research problem or to test a hypothesis. Critical incident case studies must describe the method by which you identified the event and explain the process by which you determined the validity of this case to inform broader perspectives about the research problem or to reveal new findings. However, the event does not have to be a rare or uniquely significant to support new thinking about the research problem or to challenge an existing hypothesis. For example, Walo, Bull, and Breen conducted a case study to identify and evaluate the direct and indirect economic benefits and costs of a local sports event in the City of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of their study was to provide new insights from measuring the impact of a typical local sports event that prior studies could not measure well because they focused on large "mega-events." Whether the event is rare or not, the methods section should include an explanation of the following characteristics of the event: a) when did it take place; b) what were the underlying circumstances leading to the event; and, c) what were the consequences of the event in relation to the research problem.

If your subject of analysis is a person. Explain why you selected this particular individual to be studied and describe what experiences they have had that provide an opportunity to advance new understandings about the research problem. Mention any background about this person which might help the reader understand the significance of their experiences that make them worthy of study. This includes describing the relationships this person has had with other people, institutions, and/or events that support using them as the subject for a case study research paper. It is particularly important to differentiate the person as the subject of analysis from others and to succinctly explain how the person relates to examining the research problem [e.g., why is one politician in a particular local election used to show an increase in voter turnout from any other candidate running in the election]. Note that these issues apply to a specific group of people used as a case study unit of analysis [e.g., a classroom of students].

If your subject of analysis is a place. In general, a case study that investigates a place suggests a subject of analysis that is unique or special in some way and that this uniqueness can be used to build new understanding or knowledge about the research problem. A case study of a place must not only describe its various attributes relevant to the research problem [e.g., physical, social, historical, cultural, economic, political], but you must state the method by which you determined that this place will illuminate new understandings about the research problem. It is also important to articulate why a particular place as the case for study is being used if similar places also exist [i.e., if you are studying patterns of homeless encampments of veterans in open spaces, explain why you are studying Echo Park in Los Angeles rather than Griffith Park?]. If applicable, describe what type of human activity involving this place makes it a good choice to study [e.g., prior research suggests Echo Park has more homeless veterans].

If your subject of analysis is a phenomenon. A phenomenon refers to a fact, occurrence, or circumstance that can be studied or observed but with the cause or explanation to be in question. In this sense, a phenomenon that forms your subject of analysis can encompass anything that can be observed or presumed to exist but is not fully understood. In the social and behavioral sciences, the case usually focuses on human interaction within a complex physical, social, economic, cultural, or political system. For example, the phenomenon could be the observation that many vehicles used by ISIS fighters are small trucks with English language advertisements on them. The research problem could be that ISIS fighters are difficult to combat because they are highly mobile. The research questions could be how and by what means are these vehicles used by ISIS being supplied to the militants and how might supply lines to these vehicles be cut off? How might knowing the suppliers of these trucks reveal larger networks of collaborators and financial support? A case study of a phenomenon most often encompasses an in-depth analysis of a cause and effect that is grounded in an interactive relationship between people and their environment in some way.

NOTE:   The choice of the case or set of cases to study cannot appear random. Evidence that supports the method by which you identified and chose your subject of analysis should clearly support investigation of the research problem and linked to key findings from your literature review. Be sure to cite any studies that helped you determine that the case you chose was appropriate for examining the problem.

IV.  Discussion

The main elements of your discussion section are generally the same as any research paper, but centered around interpreting and drawing conclusions about the key findings from your analysis of the case study. Note that a general social sciences research paper may contain a separate section to report findings. However, in a paper designed around a case study, it is common to combine a description of the results with the discussion about their implications. The objectives of your discussion section should include the following:

Reiterate the Research Problem/State the Major Findings Briefly reiterate the research problem you are investigating and explain why the subject of analysis around which you designed the case study were used. You should then describe the findings revealed from your study of the case using direct, declarative, and succinct proclamation of the study results. Highlight any findings that were unexpected or especially profound.

Explain the Meaning of the Findings and Why They are Important Systematically explain the meaning of your case study findings and why you believe they are important. Begin this part of the section by repeating what you consider to be your most important or surprising finding first, then systematically review each finding. Be sure to thoroughly extrapolate what your analysis of the case can tell the reader about situations or conditions beyond the actual case that was studied while, at the same time, being careful not to misconstrue or conflate a finding that undermines the external validity of your conclusions.

Relate the Findings to Similar Studies No study in the social sciences is so novel or possesses such a restricted focus that it has absolutely no relation to previously published research. The discussion section should relate your case study results to those found in other studies, particularly if questions raised from prior studies served as the motivation for choosing your subject of analysis. This is important because comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies helps support the overall importance of your results and it highlights how and in what ways your case study design and the subject of analysis differs from prior research about the topic.

Consider Alternative Explanations of the Findings Remember that the purpose of social science research is to discover and not to prove. When writing the discussion section, you should carefully consider all possible explanations revealed by the case study results, rather than just those that fit your hypothesis or prior assumptions and biases. Be alert to what the in-depth analysis of the case may reveal about the research problem, including offering a contrarian perspective to what scholars have stated in prior research if that is how the findings can be interpreted from your case.

Acknowledge the Study's Limitations You can state the study's limitations in the conclusion section of your paper but describing the limitations of your subject of analysis in the discussion section provides an opportunity to identify the limitations and explain why they are not significant. This part of the discussion section should also note any unanswered questions or issues your case study could not address. More detailed information about how to document any limitations to your research can be found here .

Suggest Areas for Further Research Although your case study may offer important insights about the research problem, there are likely additional questions related to the problem that remain unanswered or findings that unexpectedly revealed themselves as a result of your in-depth analysis of the case. Be sure that the recommendations for further research are linked to the research problem and that you explain why your recommendations are valid in other contexts and based on the original assumptions of your study.

V.  Conclusion

As with any research paper, you should summarize your conclusion in clear, simple language; emphasize how the findings from your case study differs from or supports prior research and why. Do not simply reiterate the discussion section. Provide a synthesis of key findings presented in the paper to show how these converge to address the research problem. If you haven't already done so in the discussion section, be sure to document the limitations of your case study and any need for further research.

The function of your paper's conclusion is to: 1) reiterate the main argument supported by the findings from your case study; 2) state clearly the context, background, and necessity of pursuing the research problem using a case study design in relation to an issue, controversy, or a gap found from reviewing the literature; and, 3) provide a place to persuasively and succinctly restate the significance of your research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with in-depth information about the topic.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:

• If the argument or purpose of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize these points for your reader.
• If prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the conclusion of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration of the case study's findings that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from your case study findings.

Note that, depending on the discipline you are writing in or the preferences of your professor, the concluding paragraph may contain your final reflections on the evidence presented as it applies to practice or on the essay's central research problem. However, the nature of being introspective about the subject of analysis you have investigated will depend on whether you are explicitly asked to express your observations in this way.

Problems to Avoid

Overgeneralization One of the goals of a case study is to lay a foundation for understanding broader trends and issues applied to similar circumstances. However, be careful when drawing conclusions from your case study. They must be evidence-based and grounded in the results of the study; otherwise, it is merely speculation. Looking at a prior example, it would be incorrect to state that a factor in improving girls access to education in Azerbaijan and the policy implications this may have for improving access in other Muslim nations is due to girls access to social media if there is no documentary evidence from your case study to indicate this. There may be anecdotal evidence that retention rates were better for girls who were engaged with social media, but this observation would only point to the need for further research and would not be a definitive finding if this was not a part of your original research agenda.

Failure to Document Limitations No case is going to reveal all that needs to be understood about a research problem. Therefore, just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study , you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis. For example, the case of studying how women conceptualize the need for water conservation in a village in Uganda could have limited application in other cultural contexts or in areas where fresh water from rivers or lakes is plentiful and, therefore, conservation is understood more in terms of managing access rather than preserving access to a scarce resource.

Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings. If you do not, your reader may question the validity of your analysis, particularly if you failed to document an obvious outcome from your case study research. For example, in the case of studying the accident at the railroad crossing to evaluate where and what types of warning signals should be located, you failed to take into consideration speed limit signage as well as warning signals. When designing your case study, be sure you have thoroughly addressed all aspects of the problem and do not leave gaps in your analysis that leave the reader questioning the results.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Gerring, John. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007; Merriam, Sharan B. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education . Rev. ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998; Miller, Lisa L. “The Use of Case Studies in Law and Social Science Research.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14 (2018): TBD; Mills, Albert J., Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Putney, LeAnn Grogan. "Case Study." In Encyclopedia of Research Design , Neil J. Salkind, editor. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010), pp. 116-120; Simons, Helen. Case Study Research in Practice . London: SAGE Publications, 2009;  Kratochwill,  Thomas R. and Joel R. Levin, editors. Single-Case Research Design and Analysis: New Development for Psychology and Education .  Hilldsale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992; Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London : SAGE, 2010; Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods . 6th edition. Los Angeles, CA, SAGE Publications, 2014; Walo, Maree, Adrian Bull, and Helen Breen. “Achieving Economic Benefits at Local Events: A Case Study of a Local Sports Event.” Festival Management and Event Tourism 4 (1996): 95-106.

Writing Tip

At Least Five Misconceptions about Case Study Research

Social science case studies are often perceived as limited in their ability to create new knowledge because they are not randomly selected and findings cannot be generalized to larger populations. Flyvbjerg examines five misunderstandings about case study research and systematically "corrects" each one. To quote, these are:

Misunderstanding 1 :  General, theoretical [context-independent] knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical [context-dependent] knowledge. Misunderstanding 2 :  One cannot generalize on the basis of an individual case; therefore, the case study cannot contribute to scientific development. Misunderstanding 3 :  The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses; that is, in the first stage of a total research process, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building. Misunderstanding 4 :  The case study contains a bias toward verification, that is, a tendency to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions. Misunderstanding 5 :  It is often difficult to summarize and develop general propositions and theories on the basis of specific case studies [p. 221].

While writing your paper, think introspectively about how you addressed these misconceptions because to do so can help you strengthen the validity and reliability of your research by clarifying issues of case selection, the testing and challenging of existing assumptions, the interpretation of key findings, and the summation of case outcomes. Think of a case study research paper as a complete, in-depth narrative about the specific properties and key characteristics of your subject of analysis applied to the research problem.

Flyvbjerg, Bent. “Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research.” Qualitative Inquiry 12 (April 2006): 219-245.

• << Previous: Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Next: Writing a Field Report >>
• Last Updated: Mar 6, 2024 1:00 PM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/assignments

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, automatically generate references for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Methodology
• Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on 5 May 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 30 January 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organisation, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating, and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

Table of contents

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyse the case.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

Unlike quantitative or experimental research, a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

If you find yourself aiming to simultaneously investigate and solve an issue, consider conducting action research . As its name suggests, action research conducts research and takes action at the same time, and is highly iterative and flexible. 

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience, or phenomenon.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews, observations, and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data .

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis, with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results , and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyse its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, January 30). Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods. Scribbr. Retrieved 22 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/research-methods/case-studies/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, correlational research | guide, design & examples, a quick guide to experimental design | 5 steps & examples, descriptive research design | definition, methods & examples.

Blog about Writing Case Study and Coursework

dudestudy.com

How to Write an Introduction for a Case Study Report

If you’re looking for examples of how to write an introduction for a case-study report, you’ve come to the right place. Here you’ll find a sample, guidelines for writing a case-study introduction, and tips on how to make it clear. In five minutes or less, recruiters will read your case study and decide whether you’re a good fit for the job.

Example of a case study introduction

An example of a case study introduction should be written to provide a roadmap for the reader. It should briefly summarize the topic, identify the problem, and discuss its significance. It should include previous case studies and summarize the literature review. In addition, it should include the purpose of the study, and the issues that it addresses. Using this example as a guideline, writers can make their case study introductions. Here are some tips:

The first paragraph of the introduction should summarize the entire article, and should include the following sections: the case presentation, the examinations performed, and the working diagnosis, the management of the case, and the outcome. The final section, the discussion, should summarize the previous subsections, explain any apparent inconsistencies, and describe the lessons learned. The body of the paper should also summarize the introduction and include any notes for the instructor.

The last section of a case study introduction should summarize the findings and limitations of the study, as well as suggestions for further research. The conclusion section should restate the thesis and main findings of the case study. The conclusion should summarize previous case studies, summarize the findings, and highlight the possibilities for future study. It is important to note that not all educational institutions require the case study analysis format, so it is important to check ahead of time.

The introductory paragraph should outline the overall strategy for the study. It should also describe the short-term and long-term goals of the case study. Using this method will ensure clarity and reduce misunderstandings. However, it is important to consider the end goal. After all, the objective is to communicate the benefits of the product. And, the solution should be measurable. This can be done by highlighting the benefits and minimizing the negatives.

Structure of a case study introduction

The structure of a case study introduction is different from the general introduction of a research paper. The main purpose of the introduction is to set the stage for the rest of the case study. The problem statement must be short and precise to convey the main point of the study. Then, the introduction should summarize the literature review and present the previous case studies that have dealt with the topic. The introduction should end with a thesis statement.

The thesis statement should contain facts and evidence related to the topic. Include the method used, the findings, and discussion. The solution section should describe specific strategies for solving the problem. It should conclude with a call to action for the reader. When using quotations, be sure to cite them properly. The thesis statement must include the problem statement, the methods used, and the expected outcome of the study. The conclusion section should state the case study’s importance.

In the discussion section, state the limitations of the study and explain why they are not significant. In addition, mention any questions unanswered and issues that the study was unable to address. For more information, check out the APA, Harvard, Chicago, and MLA citation styles. Once you know how to structure a case study introduction, you’ll be ready to write it! And remember, there’s always a right and wrong way to write a case study introduction.

During the writing process, you’ll need to make notes on the problems and issues of the case. Write down any ideas and directions that come to mind. Avoid writing neatly. It may impede your creative process, so write down a rough draft first, and then draw it up for your educational instructor. The introduction is an overview of the case study. Include the thesis statement. If you’re writing a case study for an assignment, you’ll also need to provide an overview of the assignment.

Guidelines for writing a case study introduction

A case study is not a formal scientific research report, but it is written for a lay audience. It should be readable and follow the general narrative that was determined in the first step. The introduction should provide background information about the case and its main topic. It should be short, but should introduce the topic and explain its context in just one or two paragraphs. An ideal case study introduction is between three and five sentences.

The case study must be well-designed and logical. It cannot contain opinions or assumptions. The research question must be a logical conclusion based on the findings. This can be done through a spreadsheet program or by consulting a linguistics expert. Once you have identified the major issues, you need to revise the paper. Once you have revised it twice, it should be well-written, concise, and logical.

The conclusion should state the findings, explain their significance, and summarize the main points. The conclusion should move from the detailed to the general level of consideration. The conclusion should also briefly state the limitations of the case study and point out the need for further research in order to fully address the problem. This should be done in a manner that will keep the reader interested in reading the paper. It should be clear about what the case study found and what it means for the research community.

The case study begins with a cover page and an executive summary, depending on your professor’s instructions. It’s important to remember that this is not a mandatory element of the case study. Instead, the executive summary should be brief and include the key points of the study’s analysis. It should be written as if an executive would read it on the run. Ultimately, the executive summary should include all the key points of the case study.

Clarity in a case study introduction

Clarity in a case study introduction should be at the heart of the paper. This section should explain why the case was chosen and how you decided to use it. The case study introduction varies according to the type of subject you are studying and the goals of the study. Here are some examples of clear and effective case study introductions. Read on to find out how to write a successful one. Clarity in a case study introduction begins with a strong thesis statement and ends with a compelling conclusion.

The conclusion of the case study should restate the research question and emphasize its importance. Identify and restate the key findings and describe how they address the research question. If the case study has limitations, discuss the potential for further research. In addition, document the limitations of the case study. Include any limitations of the case study in the conclusion. This will allow readers to make informed decisions about whether or not the findings are relevant to their own practices.

A case study introduction should include a brief discussion of the topic and selected case. It should explain how the study fits into current knowledge. A reader may question the validity of the analysis if it fails to consider all possible outcomes. For example, a case study on railroad crossings may fail to document the obvious outcome of improving the signage at these intersections. Another example would be a study that failed to document the impact of warning signs and speed limits on railroad crossings.

As a conclusion, the case study should also contain a discussion of how the research was conducted. While it may be a case study, the results are not necessarily applicable to other situations. In addition to describing how a solution has solved the problem, a case study should also discuss the causes of the problem. A case study should be based on real data and information. If the case study is not valid, it will not be a good fit for the audience.

Sample of a case study introduction

A good case study introduction serves as a map for the reader to follow. It should identify the research problem and discuss its significance. It should be based on extensive research and should incorporate relevant issues and facts. For example, it may include a short but precise problem statement. The next section of the introduction should include a description of the solution. The final part of the introduction should conclude with the recommended action. Once the reader has a sense of the direction the study will take, they will feel confident in pursuing the study further.

In the case of social sciences, case studies cannot be purely empirical. The results of a case study can be compared with those of other studies, so that the case study’s findings can be assessed against previous research. A case study’s results can help support general conclusions and build theories, while their practical value lies in generating hypotheses. Despite their utility, case studies often contain a bias toward verification and tend to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions.

In the case of case studies, the conclusions section should state the significance of the findings, stating how the findings of the study differ from other previous studies. Likewise, the conclusion section should summarize the key findings, and make the reader understand how they address the research problem. In the case of a case study, it is crucial to document any limitations that have been identified. After all, a case study is not complete without further research.

After the introduction, the main body of the paper is the case presentation. It should provide information about the case, such as the history, examination results, working diagnosis, management, and outcome. It should conclude with a discussion, explaining the correlations, apparent inconsistencies, and lessons learned. Finally, the conclusion should state whether the case study presented the results in the desired way. The findings should not be overgeneralized, and the conclusions must be derived from this information.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Reviews / Why join our community?
• For companies
• Frequently asked questions

How to Write the Perfect Introduction to Your UX Case Study

It’s tough to write beginnings, isn’t it? It can be especially difficult to write the introduction of your UX case study, since it will determine the success of your job application. What should you include? How do you make a good first impression? Fret not! We’ve got you covered here. Your introduction should include 3 key components: a design problem that involves a business need, your approach to solving the problem as well as your role in the project. Let’s go through what exactly you should include in your UX case study’s introduction. We’ve even got a step-by-step exercise you can follow!

What’s the Role of Your UX Case Study’s Introduction?

Before we begin writing our UX case study introduction, we should first understand the role it plays. We can divide your UX case study into 5 parts, based on the German playwright Gustav Freytag’s 5-part dramatic structure:

Exposition : Where you introduce key information and set expectations for the rest of the story.

Rising action : Where you bring the reader through your strategies that lead to a climax.

Climax : The peak of your story, a “wow” moment where, for instance, you uncover an unexpected insight.

Falling action : Where things fall into place and lead to the final results.

Resolution : Where you reveal the final product of your project and round your story off in a satisfying conclusion.

Your UX case study should follow Freytag’s 5-part dramatic structure. Author / Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and the Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and license: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

We can group Freytag’s 5 parts into 3 main sections: an introduction, a middle and a conclusion. As you can see from the image above, your UX case study’s introduction should include “exposition”, where you set the stage for the rest of your story to happen.

In other words, your UX case study’s introduction should let your recruiters know the problem you’re solving, the strategies you adopt and your role in the project. This way, you’ll provide all the context your recruiters need to evaluate your skills and appreciate what you’ve achieved in your project.

3 Essential Components of Your Case Study Introduction

Your UX case study introduction should thus contain:

A problem statement : Highlight the key problem you’re going to solve—preferably in relation to business objectives or metrics. What motivates you to take on this problem? What are your thoughts and feelings about it? If you’re revamping an existing webpage or app, then show some screenshots of how it looked and point out the problems.

Your solution: Run through your approach to solving the problem. Give your readers a taste of what to expect at the end of your story—what deliverables or final output will you produce?

Your role: Let your readers know how you have contributed to the project. Your role in the project should be linked to the job you apply for. For example, if you apply for a UX researcher job, then ideally you should have played a UX research role in your case study project.

Your introduction should be 4–5 sentences long. This ensures that your UX case study is short and sweet, since recruiters usually spend no more than 5 minutes reading your case study. However, as we’ll go through below, you shouldn’t worry about word count when you begin to write your introduction. Focus on content first, then cut down on words later.

Next, we’ll go through the best way to write the problem, the solution and your role in your introduction. After that, we’ll take a step-by-step walkthrough of how to write your introduction, so you can get started immediately. Let’s begin!

1. How to Write Your Problem Statement

Your problem statement should explain what you’re trying to solve, provide you with a strong motivation and outline the main challenge involved. It should read something like: “I wanted to [solve this problem], because [of my motivations]. This problem is particularly challenging since [describe my main challenge].”

Tie your problem statement to a business problem whenever possible. Remember, recruiters hire you to bring value to a business. Show you understand that a designer’s role is not only to provide a great experience for users but also to create value for an enterprise.

Here’s a problem statement that’s tied to a business problem:

“We launched a feature ‘X’ 2 months ago, but realized that many people were not using it because they didn’t know it even existed. I wanted to increase its discoverability , because ‘X’ will help open a new stream of revenue for our app .”

The bolded part in the example above provides a strong link between your project and the business value it provides. Compare this with the following bad problem statement:

“I set out to do a complete visual overhaul of the Podcast App so that it looks fresh and provides an exciting user experience .”

Notice what’s missing? This problem statement lacks a business-oriented “why” to it—as a result, the designer has an unclear (i.e., poor) motivation. Why did the designer do a visual overhaul of the app, other than to make it look “fresh”?

Let’s improve this problem statement by adding a compelling, business-centric motivation:

“The Podcast App is a leading podcast app, but its design looks outdated compared to its competitors . With such tight competition in the industry , a visual overhaul is long overdue. I thus set out to reimagine the Podcast App so it can maintain its lead in the years to come .”

See how much more compelling it sounds? Now you understand why it’s so important to redesign the app—its market position will likely be overtaken by a better-designed competitor!

Of course, a personal motivation works, too. For instance, you might have designed a website to solve a personal problem you face every day. Personal motivations can be equally powerful drivers of your UX case study. However, we encourage you to include at least one case study in your portfolio that has a business-oriented motivation , because that’s what recruiters love to see.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to show your emotions ! Were you nervous to take on the project because of its high stakes or anxious because it was the first project you led? Showcase your humanity in your problem statement. A bit of vulnerability can make your story powerful and relatable.

2. How to Write Your Solution

In the solution portion of your introduction, give your readers a taste of what to expect. Since this is just the introduction, you don’t have to fully describe your design process or solution. Instead, briefly mention the design process you used.

Mention the key deliverables of the project. This serves as the light at the end of the tunnel, so readers know what to expect at the end. If you’ve created an interactive prototype , make it known right at the introduction to your UX case study.

Here’s a solution statement in the introduction of a case study:

“We ran 2 weeks of design sprints based on the design thinking methodology, which includes 5 stages: empathize , define, ideate , prototype and test. We eventually created and shipped a fully functional app where people can learn English in as little as 15 minutes a day.”

In the example above, we highlighted the design process we will use—namely, the design thinking methodology. We also briefly went through the 5 stages of the design thinking process and mentioned that the final product we created was a functional app. In 2 sentences, the reader can get a holistic summary of the project.

3. How to Write About Your Role in the Project

This is one of the most important parts of your introduction! If you remember just one thing, let it be this: clearly state your role . Your project might be amazing, but if the recruiter does not know how you’ve contributed to the final results, they’ll not know whether to hire you. In a field of equally qualified candidates, it can make that final difference as to whether you get invited to the interview or not. So, remember to include what you’ve contributed ( and what you did not contribute) to the project.

As UX designer Mike Curtis says, you’ve got to have a balance of “I” and “we” in your UX case studies . This means that in your introduction, you have to present yourself as a team player and also make it clear what you bring to the table. Your recruiter is going to hire you , not your team!

There’s a balance where you need to stay in the spotlight, but gracefully. So, don’t be overly generous with mentioning others (which looks fake), but don’t make yourself seem like a lone wolf. Recruiters like to see self-confident designers who can work well in teams. What if you’ve worked alone on a project? In such a case, give credit to anyone who’s helped you along the way—for instance, someone who critiqued your design.

At the same time, make sure your role in the project is crystal clear. For instance, if you helped to conduct user research and usability tests in a project, you could write something like:

“I conducted initial user research and defined key personas , and also helped evaluate our designs through usability tests before it was launched. The amazing Victor Johnson helped create the interaction design of the final product.”

A 5-Step Guide to Writing Your UX Case Study Introduction

Still feeling a little lost? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Follow these steps, and you’ll quickly get past the “blank page” wall that so many of us face when we start to write!

Step 1: Open an Empty Word Processor

Go ahead and open your favorite word processor.

Ah, the empty page: one of the most intimidating enemies of a writer. Author / Copyright holder: Google. Copyright terms and license: Fair use.

Step 2: Create 3 Subheadings

In your document, create the following subheadings:

The problem

The solution

As we’ve discussed above, these are the 3 main components you should include in your introduction. When you create the subheadings, you’ll not only guide yourself but also quickly move away from the blank slate of an empty document.

See? It’s much better already! Write down these subheadings to fight the “blank page” monster. Author / Copyright holder: Google. Copyright terms and license: Fair use.

Step 3: Fill the Subheadings Up

Start filling the 3 sections. Look at our guidelines for each section above or download our nifty template at the bottom. Type in full sentences. And, for the time being, don’t worry about your word count.

Remember to think about the visuals you can add to your introduction, too! For instance, if your case study is about a redesign of a page, it’ll be great if you include some screenshots of the existing design to highlight the design problem.

We’ll create a hypothetical UX case study introduction so you have a reference. In this made-up scenario, we want to write about a project where we created a new design system for a web-based app. We’ll focus purely on copywriting since we don’t have any visuals to provide (it is, after all, our hypothetical project), but you should also pay attention to screenshots and images in your introduction.

Here’s a rough draft of the introduction:

The problem: [Product] is one of the most established English-learning platforms in the world. However, the design of [Product] looks increasingly outdated when compared to its competitors, and parts of its user experience fell short of expectations. An overhaul feels long overdue and will help ensure that [Product] can remain competitive in the long run. The solution: We set out to completely overhaul [Product]’s look and feel and created a unifying design system that merges usability guidelines and aesthetic appeal. These changes impacted every corner of [Product]’s website, including key interactions. My role: I led the entire project and worked on creating the visual design of the new design system. I also revamped the UX of key pages and worked on motion design, while my developer colleagues applied their magic to help implement the entire project.

Step 4: Refine Your Draft

As you might have noticed, our first draft is a little long. Remember that we’re aiming for 4–5 sentences in the introduction. At this stage of the process, refine your draft. Cut down on words and improve your writing. Use the active voice and write in a conversational style. Add images and other visuals, if you haven’t already done so.

Here’s a second iteration of our introduction, this time polished and shortened to 5 sentences:

The problem: [Product] is an industry-leading English-learning platform, but its design looks outdated compared to its competitors and parts of its user experience are unpolished. An overhaul is overdue and will ensure [Product] remains competitive in the long run. The solution: We set out to create a brand-new design system to ensure [Product] encompasses best-in-class usability and aesthetics across all corners of the app. My role: I led the project and worked on all aspects of the new design system, including its visual, UX and motion design. I also revamped the UX of key pages while my developer colleagues helped implement my designs.

Step 5: Remove the Subheadings (Optional)

You can choose to leave the subheadings (The Problem, The Solution, My Role) if you like, but we feel they aren’t necessary and should be removed. In any case, you’re done! Congratulations on writing a great introduction for your UX case study!

Here’s what our hypothetical introduction looks like:

[Product] is an industry-leading English-learning platform, but its design looks outdated compared to its competitors and parts of its user experience are unpolished. An overhaul is overdue and will ensure [Product] remains competitive in the long run. We set out to create a brand-new design system to ensure [Product] encompasses best-in-class usability and aesthetics across all corners of the app. I led the project and worked on all aspects of the new design system, including its visual, UX and motion design. I also revamped the UX of key pages while my developer colleagues helped implement my designs.

In 5 sentences, our introduction:

lays out the problem we want to solve;

provides a business-oriented motivation behind the project;

briefly describes the scope of the project and its end result; and

clearly delineates my role in the project while acknowledging the support of my team.

Do a few more rounds of iteration on your introduction if you have time. There’s always room for improvement! Our sample introduction, for instance, did not contain any emotional aspects of taking on the project. Could we include that while keeping the word count at 5 sentences?

Download Our Step-by-Step Guide to Get Started Now

We know that it can be difficult to start a writing project. But the best way to get started is to do it—now! Download our step-by-step template and start working on your UX case study today:

As you write your UX case study’s introduction, know that it will mark an important milestone in your lifelong journey of writing. That’s because you’ll not only create a key artifact that will help you get a new job but also hone your craft in one of the most important elements of design: writing.

Good luck, and we hope you’ll fall in love with writing!

The Take Away

Your UX case study’s introduction should set up the context required for the reader to understand your project and evaluate your skills. Given that, you should include these 3 components:

The problem you’re solving in your project. This should include your motivations for taking on the project, which should preferably involve a business need.

The solution to the problem. You should bring your reader briefly through how you’ll solve the problem, and mention the final deliverables you’ve produced.

Your role in the project. You’ll rarely be the only contributor to a project, so you must be sure to highlight the specific things you brought to the table and give credit to your team-mates where it’s due.

References and Where to Learn More

If you need a quick lesson on how to write effectively, check out our handy guide here .

Mike Curtis shares 10 tips on how to write great UX case studies , including the need to look for “I” and “we”.

Hero image: Author / Copyright holder: Kaitlyn Baker. Copyright terms and license: Unsplash License.

Mobile UX Design: The Beginner's Guide

Get Weekly Design Insights

What you should read next, interaction design foundation reviews: answers to frequently asked questions by members.

10 UI Designer Portfolio Examples

• 2 weeks ago

What Tech Job is Right for Me? A Comprehensive Guide to Navigating Your Career Path

How to Succeed as a Designer on Agile Teams: Embrace Imperfection

Your Guide to Hamburger Menus

• 3 weeks ago

How to Design with AI: 5 Insights from the IxDF Course

Tree Testing: A Complete Guide

The Role of Micro-interactions in Modern UX

How to Design UI Forms in 2024: Your Best Guide

What is Eye Tracking in UX?

Open Access—Link to us!

We believe in Open Access and the  democratization of knowledge . Unfortunately, world-class educational materials such as this page are normally hidden behind paywalls or in expensive textbooks.

If you want this to change , cite this article , link to us, or join us to help us democratize design knowledge !

Privacy Settings

Our digital services use necessary tracking technologies, including third-party cookies, for security, functionality, and to uphold user rights. Optional cookies offer enhanced features, and analytics.

Experience the full potential of our site that remembers your preferences and supports secure sign-in.

Governs the storage of data necessary for maintaining website security, user authentication, and fraud prevention mechanisms.

Enhanced Functionality

Saves your settings and preferences, like your location, for a more personalized experience.

Referral Program

We use cookies to enable our referral program, giving you and your friends discounts.

Error Reporting

We share user ID with Bugsnag and NewRelic to help us track errors and fix issues.

Optimize your experience by allowing us to monitor site usage. You’ll enjoy a smoother, more personalized journey without compromising your privacy.

Analytics Storage

Collects anonymous data on how you navigate and interact, helping us make informed improvements.

Differentiates real visitors from automated bots, ensuring accurate usage data and improving your website experience.

Lets us tailor your digital ads to match your interests, making them more relevant and useful to you.

Advertising Storage

Stores information for better-targeted advertising, enhancing your online ad experience.

Personalization Storage

Permits storing data to personalize content and ads across Google services based on user behavior, enhancing overall user experience.

Advertising Personalization

Allows for content and ad personalization across Google services based on user behavior. This consent enhances user experiences.

Enables personalizing ads based on user data and interactions, allowing for more relevant advertising experiences across Google services.

Receive more relevant advertisements by sharing your interests and behavior with our trusted advertising partners.

Enables better ad targeting and measurement on Meta platforms, making ads you see more relevant.

Allows for improved ad effectiveness and measurement through Meta’s Conversions API, ensuring privacy-compliant data sharing.

LinkedIn Insights

Tracks conversions, retargeting, and web analytics for LinkedIn ad campaigns, enhancing ad relevance and performance.

LinkedIn CAPI

Enhances LinkedIn advertising through server-side event tracking, offering more accurate measurement and personalization.

Google Ads Tag

Tracks ad performance and user engagement, helping deliver ads that are most useful to you.

Share Knowledge, Get Respect!

or copy link

Cite according to academic standards

Simply copy and paste the text below into your bibliographic reference list, onto your blog, or anywhere else. You can also just hyperlink to this article.

New to UX Design? We’re giving you a free ebook!

Download our free ebook The Basics of User Experience Design to learn about core concepts of UX design.

In 9 chapters, we’ll cover: conducting user interviews, design thinking, interaction design, mobile UX design, usability, UX research, and many more!

New to UX Design? We’re Giving You a Free ebook!

All You Wanted to Know About How to Write a Case Study

What do you study in your college? If you are a psychology, sociology, or anthropology student, we bet you might be familiar with what a case study is. This research method is used to study a certain person, group, or situation. In this guide from our dissertation writing service , you will learn how to write a case study professionally, from researching to citing sources properly. Also, we will explore different types of case studies and show you examples — so that you won’t have any other questions left.

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is a subcategory of research design which investigates problems and offers solutions. Case studies can range from academic research studies to corporate promotional tools trying to sell an idea—their scope is quite vast.

What Is the Difference Between a Research Paper and a Case Study?

While research papers turn the reader’s attention to a certain problem, case studies go even further. Case study guidelines require students to pay attention to details, examining issues closely and in-depth using different research methods. For example, case studies may be used to examine court cases if you study Law, or a patient's health history if you study Medicine. Case studies are also used in Marketing, which are thorough, empirically supported analysis of a good or service's performance. Well-designed case studies can be valuable for prospective customers as they can identify and solve the potential customers pain point.

Case studies involve a lot of storytelling – they usually examine particular cases for a person or a group of people. This method of research is very helpful, as it is very practical and can give a lot of hands-on information. Most commonly, the length of the case study is about 500-900 words, which is much less than the length of an average research paper.

The structure of a case study is very similar to storytelling. It has a protagonist or main character, which in your case is actually a problem you are trying to solve. You can use the system of 3 Acts to make it a compelling story. It should have an introduction, rising action, a climax where transformation occurs, falling action, and a solution.

Here is a rough formula for you to use in your case study:

Problem (Act I): > Solution (Act II) > Result (Act III) > Conclusion.

Types of Case Studies

The purpose of a case study is to provide detailed reports on an event, an institution, a place, future customers, or pretty much anything. There are a few common types of case study, but the type depends on the topic. The following are the most common domains where case studies are needed:

• Historical case studies are great to learn from. Historical events have a multitude of source info offering different perspectives. There are always modern parallels where these perspectives can be applied, compared, and thoroughly analyzed.
• Problem-oriented case studies are usually used for solving problems. These are often assigned as theoretical situations where you need to immerse yourself in the situation to examine it. Imagine you’re working for a startup and you’ve just noticed a significant flaw in your product’s design. Before taking it to the senior manager, you want to do a comprehensive study on the issue and provide solutions. On a greater scale, problem-oriented case studies are a vital part of relevant socio-economic discussions.
• Cumulative case studies collect information and offer comparisons. In business, case studies are often used to tell people about the value of a product.
• Critical case studies explore the causes and effects of a certain case.
• Illustrative case studies describe certain events, investigating outcomes and lessons learned.

Need a compelling case study? EssayPro has got you covered. Our experts are ready to provide you with detailed, insightful case studies that capture the essence of real-world scenarios. Elevate your academic work with our professional assistance.

Case Study Format

The case study format is typically made up of eight parts:

• Executive Summary. Explain what you will examine in the case study. Write an overview of the field you’re researching. Make a thesis statement and sum up the results of your observation in a maximum of 2 sentences.
• Background. Provide background information and the most relevant facts. Isolate the issues.
• Case Evaluation. Isolate the sections of the study you want to focus on. In it, explain why something is working or is not working.
• Proposed Solutions. Offer realistic ways to solve what isn’t working or how to improve its current condition. Explain why these solutions work by offering testable evidence.
• Conclusion. Summarize the main points from the case evaluations and proposed solutions. 6. Recommendations. Talk about the strategy that you should choose. Explain why this choice is the most appropriate.
• Implementation. Explain how to put the specific strategies into action.
• References. Provide all the citations.

How to Write a Case Study

Let's discover how to write a case study.

Setting Up the Research

When writing a case study, remember that research should always come first. Reading many different sources and analyzing other points of view will help you come up with more creative solutions. You can also conduct an actual interview to thoroughly investigate the customer story that you'll need for your case study. Including all of the necessary research, writing a case study may take some time. The research process involves doing the following:

• Define your objective. Explain the reason why you’re presenting your subject. Figure out where you will feature your case study; whether it is written, on video, shown as an infographic, streamed as a podcast, etc.
• Determine who will be the right candidate for your case study. Get permission, quotes, and other features that will make your case study effective. Get in touch with your candidate to see if they approve of being part of your work. Study that candidate’s situation and note down what caused it.
• Identify which various consequences could result from the situation. Follow these guidelines on how to start a case study: surf the net to find some general information you might find useful.
• Make a list of credible sources and examine them. Seek out important facts and highlight problems. Always write down your ideas and make sure to brainstorm.
• Focus on several key issues – why they exist, and how they impact your research subject. Think of several unique solutions. Draw from class discussions, readings, and personal experience. When writing a case study, focus on the best solution and explore it in depth. After having all your research in place, writing a case study will be easy. You may first want to check the rubric and criteria of your assignment for the correct case study structure.

Read Also: ' WHAT IS A CREDIBLE SOURCES ?'

Although your instructor might be looking at slightly different criteria, every case study rubric essentially has the same standards. Your professor will want you to exhibit 8 different outcomes:

• Correctly identify the concepts, theories, and practices in the discipline.
• Identify the relevant theories and principles associated with the particular study.
• Evaluate legal and ethical principles and apply them to your decision-making.
• Recognize the global importance and contribution of your case.
• Construct a coherent summary and explanation of the study.
• Demonstrate analytical and critical-thinking skills.
• Explain the interrelationships between the environment and nature.
• Integrate theory and practice of the discipline within the analysis.

Need Case Study DONE FAST?

Pick a topic, tell us your requirements and get your paper on time.

Case Study Outline

Let's look at the structure of an outline based on the issue of the alcoholic addiction of 30 people.

Introduction

• Statement of the issue: Alcoholism is a disease rather than a weakness of character.
• Presentation of the problem: Alcoholism is affecting more than 14 million people in the USA, which makes it the third most common mental illness there.
• Explanation of the terms: In the past, alcoholism was commonly referred to as alcohol dependence or alcohol addiction. Alcoholism is now the more severe stage of this addiction in the disorder spectrum.
• Hypotheses: Drinking in excess can lead to the use of other drugs.
• Importance of your story: How the information you present can help people with their addictions.
• Background of the story: Include an explanation of why you chose this topic.
• Presentation of analysis and data: Describe the criteria for choosing 30 candidates, the structure of the interview, and the outcomes.
• Strong argument 1: ex. X% of candidates dealing with anxiety and depression...
• Strong argument 2: ex. X amount of people started drinking by their mid-teens.
• Strong argument 3: ex. X% of respondents’ parents had issues with alcohol.
• Concluding statement: I have researched if alcoholism is a disease and found out that…
• Recommendations: Ways and actions for preventing alcohol use.

Writing a Case Study Draft

After you’ve done your case study research and written the outline, it’s time to focus on the draft. In a draft, you have to develop and write your case study by using: the data which you collected throughout the research, interviews, and the analysis processes that were undertaken. Follow these rules for the draft:

• Your draft should contain at least 4 sections: an introduction; a body where you should include background information, an explanation of why you decided to do this case study, and a presentation of your main findings; a conclusion where you present data; and references.
• In the introduction, you should set the pace very clearly. You can even raise a question or quote someone you interviewed in the research phase. It must provide adequate background information on the topic. The background may include analyses of previous studies on your topic. Include the aim of your case here as well. Think of it as a thesis statement. The aim must describe the purpose of your work—presenting the issues that you want to tackle. Include background information, such as photos or videos you used when doing the research.
• Describe your unique research process, whether it was through interviews, observations, academic journals, etc. The next point includes providing the results of your research. Tell the audience what you found out. Why is this important, and what could be learned from it? Discuss the real implications of the problem and its significance in the world.
• Include quotes and data (such as findings, percentages, and awards). This will add a personal touch and better credibility to the case you present. Explain what results you find during your interviews in regards to the problem and how it developed. Also, write about solutions which have already been proposed by other people who have already written about this case.
• At the end of your case study, you should offer possible solutions, but don’t worry about solving them yourself.

Use Data to Illustrate Key Points in Your Case Study

Even though your case study is a story, it should be based on evidence. Use as much data as possible to illustrate your point. Without the right data, your case study may appear weak and the readers may not be able to relate to your issue as much as they should. Let's see the examples from essay writing service :

‍ With data: Alcoholism is affecting more than 14 million people in the USA, which makes it the third most common mental illness there. Without data: A lot of people suffer from alcoholism in the United States.

Try to include as many credible sources as possible. You may have terms or sources that could be hard for other cultures to understand. If this is the case, you should include them in the appendix or Notes for the Instructor or Professor.

Finalizing the Draft: Checklist

After you finish drafting your case study, polish it up by answering these ‘ask yourself’ questions and think about how to end your case study:

• Check that you follow the correct case study format, also in regards to text formatting.
• Check that your work is consistent with its referencing and citation style.
• Micro-editing — check for grammar and spelling issues.
• Macro-editing — does ‘the big picture’ come across to the reader? Is there enough raw data, such as real-life examples or personal experiences? Have you made your data collection process completely transparent? Does your analysis provide a clear conclusion, allowing for further research and practice?

Problems to avoid:

• Overgeneralization – Do not go into further research that deviates from the main problem.
• Failure to Document Limitations – Just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study, you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis.
• Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications – Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings.

How to Create a Title Page and Cite a Case Study

Let's see how to create an awesome title page.

Your title page depends on the prescribed citation format. The title page should include:

• A title that attracts some attention and describes your study
• The title should have the words “case study” in it
• The title should range between 5-9 words in length
• Your name and contact information
• Your finished paper should be only 500 to 1,500 words in length.With this type of assignment, write effectively and avoid fluff

Here is a template for the APA and MLA format title page:

There are some cases when you need to cite someone else's study in your own one – therefore, you need to master how to cite a case study. A case study is like a research paper when it comes to citations. You can cite it like you cite a book, depending on what style you need.

Citation Example in MLA ‍ Hill, Linda, Tarun Khanna, and Emily A. Stecker. HCL Technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing, 2008. Print.

Citation Example in APA ‍ Hill, L., Khanna, T., & Stecker, E. A. (2008). HCL Technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing.

Citation Example in Chicago Hill, Linda, Tarun Khanna, and Emily A. Stecker. HCL Technologies.

Case Study Examples

To give you an idea of a professional case study example, we gathered and linked some below.

Eastman Kodak Case Study

Case Study Example: Audi Trains Mexican Autoworkers in Germany

To conclude, a case study is one of the best methods of getting an overview of what happened to a person, a group, or a situation in practice. It allows you to have an in-depth glance at the real-life problems that businesses, healthcare industry, criminal justice, etc. may face. This insight helps us look at such situations in a different light. This is because we see scenarios that we otherwise would not, without necessarily being there. If you need custom essays , try our research paper writing services .

Get Help Form Qualified Writers

Crafting a case study is not easy. You might want to write one of high quality, but you don’t have the time or expertise. If you’re having trouble with your case study, help with essay request - we'll help. EssayPro writers have read and written countless case studies and are experts in endless disciplines. Request essay writing, editing, or proofreading assistance from our custom case study writing service , and all of your worries will be gone.

Don't Know Where to Start?

Crafting a case study is not easy. You might want to write one of high quality, but you don’t have the time or expertise. Request ' write my case study ' assistance from our service.

What Is A Case Study?

How to cite a case study in apa, how to write a case study, related articles.

Writing A Case Study

Case Study Examples

Brilliant Case Study Examples and Templates For Your Help

15 min read

People also read

A Complete Case Study Writing Guide With Examples

Simple Case Study Format for Students to Follow

Understand the Types of Case Study Here

It’s no surprise that writing a case study is one of the most challenging academic tasks for students. You’re definitely not alone here!

Most people don't realize that there are specific guidelines to follow when writing a case study. If you don't know where to start, it's easy to get overwhelmed and give up before you even begin.

Don't worry! Let us help you out!

We've collected over 25 free case study examples with solutions just for you. These samples with solutions will help you win over your panel and score high marks on your case studies.

So, what are you waiting for? Let's dive in and learn the secrets to writing a successful case study.

• 1. An Overview of Case Studies
• 2. Case Study Examples for Students
• 3. Business Case Study Examples
• 4. Medical Case Study Examples
• 5. Psychology Case Study Examples 
• 6. Sales Case Study Examples
• 7. Interview Case Study Examples
• 8. Marketing Case Study Examples
• 9. Tips to Write a Good Case Study

An Overview of Case Studies

A case study is a research method used to study a particular individual, group, or situation in depth. It involves analyzing and interpreting data from a variety of sources to gain insight into the subject being studied. 

Case studies are often used in psychology, business, and education to explore complicated problems and find solutions. They usually have detailed descriptions of the subject, background info, and an analysis of the main issues.

The goal of a case study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Typically, case studies can be divided into three parts, challenges, solutions, and results. 

Here is a case study sample PDF so you can have a clearer understanding of what a case study actually is:

Case Study Sample PDF

How to Write a Case Study Examples

Learn how to write a case study with the help of our comprehensive case study guide.

Case Study Examples for Students

Quite often, students are asked to present case studies in their academic journeys. The reason instructors assign case studies is for students to sharpen their critical analysis skills, understand how companies make profits, etc.

Below are some case study examples in research, suitable for students:

Case Study Example in Software Engineering

Qualitative Research Case Study Sample

Software Quality Assurance Case Study

Social Work Case Study Example

Ethical Case Study

Case Study Example PDF

These examples can guide you on how to structure and format your own case studies.

Struggling with formatting your case study? Check this case study format guide and perfect your document’s structure today.

Business Case Study Examples

A business case study examines a business’s specific challenge or goal and how it should be solved. Business case studies usually focus on several details related to the initial challenge and proposed solution. 

To help you out, here are some samples so you can create case studies that are related to businesses: 

Here are some more business case study examples:

Business Case Studies PDF

Business Case Studies Example

Typically, a business case study discovers one of your customer's stories and how you solved a problem for them. It allows your prospects to see how your solutions address their needs. 

Medical Case Study Examples

Medical case studies are an essential part of medical education. They help students to understand how to diagnose and treat patients. 

Here are some medical case study examples to help you.

Medical Case Study Example

Nursing Case Study Example

Want to understand the various types of case studies? Check out our types of case study blog to select the perfect type.

Psychology Case Study Examples 

Case studies are a great way of investigating individuals with psychological abnormalities. This is why it is a very common assignment in psychology courses. 

By examining all the aspects of your subject’s life, you discover the possible causes of exhibiting such behavior. 

For your help, here are some interesting psychology case study examples:

Psychology Case Study Example

Mental Health Case Study Example

Sales Case Study Examples

Case studies are important tools for sales teams’ performance improvement. By examining sales successes, teams can gain insights into effective strategies and create action plans to employ similar tactics.

By researching case studies of successful sales campaigns, sales teams can more accurately identify challenges and develop solutions.

Sales Case Study Example

Interview Case Study Examples

Interview case studies provide businesses with invaluable information. This data allows them to make informed decisions related to certain markets or subjects.

Interview Case Study Example

Marketing Case Study Examples

Marketing case studies are real-life stories that showcase how a business solves a problem. They typically discuss how a business achieves a goal using a specific marketing strategy or tactic.

They typically describe a challenge faced by a business, the solution implemented, and the results achieved.

This is a short sample marketing case study for you to get an idea of what an actual marketing case study looks like.

 Here are some more popular marketing studies that show how companies use case studies as a means of marketing and promotion:

“Chevrolet Discover the Unexpected” by Carol H. Williams

This case study explores Chevrolet's “ DTU Journalism Fellows ” program. The case study uses the initials “DTU” to generate interest and encourage readers to learn more. 

Multiple types of media, such as images and videos, are used to explain the challenges faced. The case study concludes with an overview of the achievements that were met.

Key points from the case study include:

• Using a well-known brand name in the title can create interest.
• Combining different media types, such as headings, images, and videos, can help engage readers and make the content more memorable.
• Providing a summary of the key achievements at the end of the case study can help readers better understand the project's impact.

“The Met” by Fantasy

“ The Met ” by Fantasy is a fictional redesign of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, created by the design studio Fantasy. The case study clearly and simply showcases the museum's website redesign.

The Met emphasizes the website’s features and interface by showcasing each section of the interface individually, allowing the readers to concentrate on the significant elements.

For those who prefer text, each feature includes an objective description. The case study also includes a “Contact Us” call-to-action at the bottom of the page, inviting visitors to contact the company.

Key points from this “The Met” include:

• Keeping the case study simple and clean can help readers focus on the most important aspects.
• Presenting the features and solutions with a visual showcase can be more effective than writing a lot of text.
• Including a clear call-to-action at the end of the case study can encourage visitors to contact the company for more information.

“Better Experiences for All” by Herman Miller

Herman Miller's minimalist approach to furniture design translates to their case study, “ Better Experiences for All ”, for a Dubai hospital. The page features a captivating video with closed-captioning and expandable text for accessibility.

The case study presents a wealth of information in a concise format, enabling users to grasp the complexities of the strategy with ease. It concludes with a client testimonial and a list of furniture items purchased from the brand.

Key points from the “Better Experiences” include:

• Make sure your case study is user-friendly by including accessibility features like closed captioning and expandable text.
• Include a list of products that were used in the project to guide potential customers.

“NetApp” by Evisort 

Evisort's case study on “ NetApp ” stands out for its informative and compelling approach. The study begins with a client-centric overview of NetApp, strategically directing attention to the client rather than the company or team involved.

The case study incorporates client quotes and explores NetApp’s challenges during COVID-19. Evisort showcases its value as a client partner by showing how its services supported NetApp through difficult times. 

• Provide an overview of the company in the client’s words, and put focus on the customer. 
• Highlight how your services can help clients during challenging times.
• Make your case study accessible by providing it in various formats.

“Red Sox Season Campaign,” by CTP Boston

The “ Red Sox Season Campaign ” showcases a perfect blend of different media, such as video, text, and images. Upon visiting the page, the video plays automatically, there are videos of Red Sox players, their images, and print ads that can be enlarged with a click.

The page features an intuitive design and invites viewers to appreciate CTP's well-rounded campaign for Boston's beloved baseball team. There’s also a CTA that prompts viewers to learn how CTP can create a similar campaign for their brand.

Some key points to take away from the “Red Sox Season Campaign”: 

• Including a variety of media such as video, images, and text can make your case study more engaging and compelling.
• Include a call-to-action at the end of your study that encourages viewers to take the next step towards becoming a customer or prospect.

“Airbnb + Zendesk” by Zendesk

The case study by Zendesk, titled “ Airbnb + Zendesk : Building a powerful solution together,” showcases a true partnership between Airbnb and Zendesk. 

The article begins with an intriguing opening statement, “Halfway around the globe is a place to stay with your name on it. At least for a weekend,” and uses stunning images of beautiful Airbnb locations to captivate readers.

Instead of solely highlighting Zendesk's product, the case study is crafted to tell a good story and highlight Airbnb's service in detail. This strategy makes the case study more authentic and relatable.

Some key points to take away from this case study are:

• Use client's offerings' images rather than just screenshots of your own product or service.
• To begin the case study, it is recommended to include a distinct CTA. For instance, Zendesk presents two alternatives, namely to initiate a trial or seek a solution.

“Influencer Marketing” by Trend and WarbyParker

The case study "Influencer Marketing" by Trend and Warby Parker highlights the potential of influencer content marketing, even when working with a limited budget. 

The “Wearing Warby” campaign involved influencers wearing Warby Parker glasses during their daily activities, providing a glimpse of the brand's products in use. 

This strategy enhanced the brand's relatability with influencers' followers. While not detailing specific tactics, the case study effectively illustrates the impact of third-person case studies in showcasing campaign results.

Key points to take away from this case study are:

• Influencer marketing can be effective even with a limited budget.
• Showcasing products being used in everyday life can make a brand more approachable and relatable.
• Third-person case studies can be useful in highlighting the success of a campaign.

Marketing Case Study Example

Marketing Case Study Template

Now that you have read multiple case study examples, hop on to our tips.

Tips to Write a Good Case Study

Here are some note-worthy tips to craft a winning case study 

• Define the purpose of the case study This will help you to focus on the most important aspects of the case. The case study objective helps to ensure that your finished product is concise and to the point.
• Choose a real-life example. One of the best ways to write a successful case study is to choose a real-life example. This will give your readers a chance to see how the concepts apply in a real-world setting.
• Keep it brief. This means that you should only include information that is directly relevant to your topic and avoid adding unnecessary details.
• Use strong evidence. To make your case study convincing, you will need to use strong evidence. This can include statistics, data from research studies, or quotes from experts in the field.
• Edit and proofread your work. Before you submit your case study, be sure to edit and proofread your work carefully. This will help to ensure that there are no errors and that your paper is clear and concise.

There you go!

We’re sure that now you have secrets to writing a great case study at your fingertips! This blog teaches the key guidelines of various case studies with samples. So grab your pen and start crafting a winning case study right away!

Having said that, we do understand that some of you might be having a hard time writing compelling case studies.

But worry not! Our expert case study writing service is here to take all your case-writing blues away! 

With 100% thorough research guaranteed, our professional essay writing service can craft an amazing case study within 6 hours! 

So why delay? Let us help you shine in the eyes of your instructor!

Write Essay Within 60 Seconds!

Dr. Barbara is a highly experienced writer and author who holds a Ph.D. degree in public health from an Ivy League school. She has worked in the medical field for many years, conducting extensive research on various health topics. Her writing has been featured in several top-tier publications.

Paper Due? Why Suffer? That’s our Job!

Keep reading

Business growth

Marketing tips

16 case study examples (+ 3 templates to make your own)

I like to think of case studies as a business's version of a resume. It highlights what the business can do, lends credibility to its offer, and contains only the positive bullet points that paint it in the best light possible.

Imagine if the guy running your favorite taco truck followed you home so that he could "really dig into how that burrito changed your life." I see the value in the practice. People naturally prefer a tried-and-true burrito just as they prefer tried-and-true products or services.

To help you showcase your success and flesh out your burrito questionnaire, I've put together some case study examples and key takeaways.

What is a case study?

A case study is an in-depth analysis of how your business, product, or service has helped past clients. It can be a document, a webpage, or a slide deck that showcases measurable, real-life results.

For example, if you're a SaaS company, you can analyze your customers' results after a few months of using your product to measure its effectiveness. You can then turn this analysis into a case study that further proves to potential customers what your product can do and how it can help them overcome their challenges.

It changes the narrative from "I promise that we can do X and Y for you" to "Here's what we've done for businesses like yours, and we can do it for you, too."

16 case study examples 

While most case studies follow the same structure, quite a few try to break the mold and create something unique. Some businesses lean heavily on design and presentation, while others pursue a detailed, stat-oriented approach. Some businesses try to mix both.

There's no set formula to follow, but I've found that the best case studies utilize impactful design to engage readers and leverage statistics and case details to drive the point home. A case study typically highlights the companies, the challenges, the solution, and the results. The examples below will help inspire you to do it, too.

1. .css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class]{all:unset;box-sizing:border-box;-webkit-text-fill-color:currentColor;cursor:pointer;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class]{all:unset;box-sizing:border-box;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;-webkit-transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;transition:all 300ms ease-in-out;outline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-fill-color:currentColor;outline:1px solid transparent;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='ocean']{color:#3d4592;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='ocean']:hover{color:#2b2358;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='ocean']:focus{color:#3d4592;outline-color:#3d4592;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='white']{color:#fffdf9;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='white']:hover{color:#a8a5a0;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='white']:focus{color:#fffdf9;outline-color:#fffdf9;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='primary']{color:#3d4592;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='primary']:hover{color:#2b2358;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='primary']:focus{color:#3d4592;outline-color:#3d4592;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='secondary']{color:#fffdf9;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='secondary']:hover{color:#a8a5a0;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-color='secondary']:focus{color:#fffdf9;outline-color:#fffdf9;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-weight='inherit']{font-weight:inherit;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-weight='normal']{font-weight:400;}.css-1l9i3yq-Link[class][class][class][class][class][data-weight='bold']{font-weight:700;} Volcanica Coffee and AdRoll

People love a good farm-to-table coffee story, and boy am I one of them. But I've shared this case study with you for more reasons than my love of coffee. I enjoyed this study because it was written as though it was a letter.

In this case study, the founder of Volcanica Coffee talks about the journey from founding the company to personally struggling with learning and applying digital marketing to finding and enlisting AdRoll's services.

It felt more authentic, less about AdRoll showcasing their worth and more like a testimonial from a grateful and appreciative client. After the story, the case study wraps up with successes, milestones, and achievements. Note that quite a few percentages are prominently displayed at the top, providing supporting evidence that backs up an inspiring story.

Takeaway: Highlight your goals and measurable results to draw the reader in and provide concise, easily digestible information.

2. Taylor Guitars and Airtable

This Airtable case study on Taylor Guitars comes as close as one can to an optimal structure. It features a video that represents the artistic nature of the client, highlighting key achievements and dissecting each element of Airtable's influence.

It also supplements each section with a testimonial or quote from the client, using their insights as a catalyst for the case study's narrative. For example, the case study quotes the social media manager and project manager's insights regarding team-wide communication and access before explaining in greater detail.

Takeaway: Highlight pain points your business solves for its client, and explore that influence in greater detail.

3. EndeavourX and Figma

My favorite part of Figma's case study is highlighting why EndeavourX chose its solution. You'll notice an entire section on what Figma does for teams and then specifically for EndeavourX.

It also places a heavy emphasis on numbers and stats. The study, as brief as it is, still manages to pack in a lot of compelling statistics about what's possible with Figma.

Takeaway: Showcase the "how" and "why" of your product's differentiators and how they benefit your customers.

4. ActiveCampaign and Zapier

Zapier's case study leans heavily on design, using graphics to present statistics and goals in a manner that not only remains consistent with the branding but also actively pushes it forward, drawing users' eyes to the information most important to them. 

The graphics, emphasis on branding elements, and cause/effect style tell the story without requiring long, drawn-out copy that risks boring readers. Instead, the cause and effect are concisely portrayed alongside the client company's information for a brief and easily scannable case study.

Takeaway: Lean on design to call attention to the most important elements of your case study, and make sure it stays consistent with your branding.

5. Ironclad and OpenAI

In true OpenAI fashion, this case study is a block of text. There's a distinct lack of imagery, but the study features a narrated video walking readers through the product.

The lack of imagery and color may not be the most inviting, but utilizing video format is commendable. It helps thoroughly communicate how OpenAI supported Ironclad in a way that allows the user to sit back, relax, listen, and be impressed. 

Takeaway: Get creative with the media you implement in your case study. Videos can be a very powerful addition when a case study requires more detailed storytelling.

6. Shopify and GitHub

GitHub's case study on Shopify is a light read. It addresses client pain points and discusses the different aspects its product considers and improves for clients. It touches on workflow issues, internal systems, automation, and security. It does a great job of representing what one company can do with GitHub.

To drive the point home, the case study features colorful quote callouts from the Shopify team, sharing their insights and perspectives on the partnership, the key issues, and how they were addressed.

Takeaway: Leverage quotes to boost the authoritativeness and trustworthiness of your case study. 

7 . Audible and Contentful

Contentful's case study on Audible features almost every element a case study should. It includes not one but two videos and clearly outlines the challenge, solution, and outcome before diving deeper into what Contentful did for Audible. The language is simple, and the writing is heavy with quotes and personal insights.

This case study is a uniquely original experience. The fact that the companies in question are perhaps two of the most creative brands out there may be the reason. I expected nothing short of a detailed analysis, a compelling story, and video content. 

Takeaway: Inject some brand voice into the case study, and create assets that tell the story for you.

8 . Zoom and Asana

Asana's case study on Zoom is longer than the average piece and features detailed data on Zoom's growth since 2020. Instead of relying on imagery and graphics, it features several quotes and testimonials. 

It's designed to be direct, informative, and promotional. At some point, the case study reads more like a feature list. There were a few sections that felt a tad too promotional for my liking, but to each their own burrito.

Takeaway: Maintain a balance between promotional and informative. You want to showcase the high-level goals your product helped achieve without losing the reader.

9 . Hickies and Mailchimp

I've always been a fan of Mailchimp's comic-like branding, and this case study does an excellent job of sticking to their tradition of making information easy to understand, casual, and inviting.

It features a short video that briefly covers Hickies as a company and Mailchimp's efforts to serve its needs for customer relationships and education processes. Overall, this case study is a concise overview of the partnership that manages to convey success data and tell a story at the same time. What sets it apart is that it does so in a uniquely colorful and brand-consistent manner.

Takeaway: Be concise to provide as much value in as little text as possible.

10. NVIDIA and Workday

The gaming industry is notoriously difficult to recruit for, as it requires a very specific set of skills and experience. This case study focuses on how Workday was able to help fill that recruitment gap for NVIDIA, one of the biggest names in the gaming world.

Though it doesn't feature videos or graphics, this case study stood out to me in how it structures information like "key products used" to give readers insight into which tools helped achieve these results.

Takeaway: If your company offers multiple products or services, outline exactly which ones were involved in your case study, so readers can assess each tool.

11. KFC and Contentful

I'm personally not a big KFC fan, but that's only because I refuse to eat out of a bucket. My aversion to the bucket format aside, Contentful follows its consistent case study format in this one, outlining challenges, solutions, and outcomes before diving into the nitty-gritty details of the project.

Say what you will about KFC, but their primary product (chicken) does present a unique opportunity for wordplay like "Continuing to march to the beat of a digital-first drum(stick)" or "Delivering deep-fried goodness to every channel."

Takeaway: Inject humor into your case study if there's room for it and if it fits your brand. 

12. Intuit and Twilio

Twilio does an excellent job of delivering achievements at the very beginning of the case study and going into detail in this two-minute read. While there aren't many graphics, the way quotes from the Intuit team are implemented adds a certain flair to the study and breaks up the sections nicely.

It's simple, concise, and manages to fit a lot of information in easily digestible sections.

Takeaway: Make sure each section is long enough to inform but brief enough to avoid boring readers. Break down information for each section, and don't go into so much detail that you lose the reader halfway through.

13. Spotify and Salesforce

Salesforce created a video that accurately summarizes the key points of the case study. Beyond that, the page itself is very light on content, and sections are as short as one paragraph.

I especially like how information is broken down into "What you need to know," "Why it matters," and "What the difference looks like." I'm not ashamed of being spoon-fed information. When it's structured so well and so simply, it makes for an entertaining read.

Takeaway: Invest in videos that capture and promote your partnership with your case study subject. Video content plays a promotional role that extends beyond the case study in social media and marketing initiatives .

14. Benchling and Airtable

Benchling is an impressive entity in its own right. Biotech R&D and health care nuances go right over my head. But the research and digging I've been doing in the name of these burritos (case studies) revealed that these products are immensely complex. 

And that's precisely why this case study deserves a read—it succeeds at explaining a complex project that readers outside the industry wouldn't know much about.

Takeaway: Simplify complex information, and walk readers through the company's operations and how your business helped streamline them.

15. Chipotle and Hubble

The concision of this case study is refreshing. It features two sections—the challenge and the solution—all in 316 words. This goes to show that your case study doesn't necessarily need to be a four-figure investment with video shoots and studio time. 

Sometimes, the message is simple and short enough to convey in a handful of paragraphs.

Takeaway: Consider what you should include instead of what you can include. Assess the time, resources, and effort you're able and willing to invest in a case study, and choose which elements you want to include from there.

16. Hudl and Zapier

I may be biased, but I'm a big fan of seeing metrics and achievements represented in branded graphics. It can be a jarring experience to navigate a website, then visit a case study page and feel as though you've gone to a completely different website.

The Zapier format provides nuggets of high-level insights, milestones, and achievements, as well as the challenge, solution, and results. My favorite part of this case study is how it's supplemented with a blog post detailing how Hudl uses Zapier automation to build a seamless user experience.

The case study is essentially the summary, and the blog article is the detailed analysis that provides context beyond X achievement or Y goal.

Takeaway: Keep your case study concise and informative. Create other resources to provide context under your blog, media or press, and product pages.

3 case study templates

Now that you've had your fill of case studies (if that's possible), I've got just what you need: an infinite number of case studies, which you can create yourself with these case study templates.

Case study template 1

If you've got a quick hit of stats you want to show off, try this template. The opening section gives space for a short summary and three visually appealing stats you can highlight, followed by a headline and body where you can break the case study down more thoroughly. This one's pretty simple, with only sections for solutions and results, but you can easily continue the formatting to add more sections as needed.

Case study template 2

For a case study template with a little more detail, use this one. Opening with a striking cover page for a quick overview, this one goes on to include context, stakeholders, challenges, multiple quote callouts, and quick-hit stats. 

Case study template 3

Whether you want a little structural variation or just like a nice dark green, this template has similar components to the last template but is designed to help tell a story. Move from the client overview through a description of your company before getting to the details of how you fixed said company's problems.

Tips for writing a case study

Examples are all well and good, but you don't learn how to make a burrito just by watching tutorials on YouTube without knowing what any of the ingredients are. You could , but it probably wouldn't be all that good.

Writing a good case study comes down to a mix of creativity, branding, and the capacity to invest in the project. With those details in mind, here are some case study tips to follow:

Have an objective: Define your objective by identifying the challenge, solution, and results. Assess your work with the client and focus on the most prominent wins. You're speaking to multiple businesses and industries through the case study, so make sure you know what you want to say to them.

Focus on persuasive data: Growth percentages and measurable results are your best friends. Extract your most compelling data and highlight it in your case study.

Use eye-grabbing graphics: Branded design goes a long way in accurately representing your brand and retaining readers as they review the study. Leverage unique and eye-catching graphics to keep readers engaged. 

Simplify data presentation: Some industries are more complex than others, and sometimes, data can be difficult to understand at a glance. Make sure you present your data in the simplest way possible. Make it concise, informative, and easy to understand.

Use automation to drive results for your case study

A case study example is a source of inspiration you can leverage to determine how to best position your brand's work. Find your unique angle, and refine it over time to help your business stand out. Ask anyone: the best burrito in town doesn't just appear at the number one spot. They find their angle (usually the house sauce) and leverage it to stand out.

In fact, with the right technology, it can be refined to work better . Explore how Zapier's automation features can help drive results for your case study by making your case study a part of a developed workflow that creates a user journey through your website, your case studies, and into the pipeline.

Case study FAQ

Got your case study template? Great—it's time to gather the team for an awkward semi-vague data collection task. While you do that, here are some case study quick answers for you to skim through while you contemplate what to call your team meeting.

What is an example of a case study?

An example of a case study is when a software company analyzes its results from a client project and creates a webpage, presentation, or document that focuses on high-level results, challenges, and solutions in an attempt to showcase effectiveness and promote the software.

How do you write a case study?

To write a good case study, you should have an objective, identify persuasive and compelling data, leverage graphics, and simplify data. Case studies typically include an analysis of the challenge, solution, and results of the partnership.

What is the format of a case study?

While case studies don't have a set format, they're often portrayed as reports or essays that inform readers about the partnership and its results. 

Related reading:

How Hudl uses automation to create a seamless user experience

How to make your case studies high-stakes—and why it matters

How experts write case studies that convert, not bore

Get productivity tips delivered straight to your inbox

We’ll email you 1-3 times per week—and never share your information.

Hachem Ramki

Hachem is a writer and digital marketer from Montreal. After graduating with a degree in English, Hachem spent seven years traveling around the world before moving to Canada. When he's not writing, he enjoys Basketball, Dungeons and Dragons, and playing music for friends and family.

• Content marketing

Related articles

17 testimonial advertising examples to inspire your next campaign

17 testimonial advertising examples to...

B2B email marketing: Proven strategies and examples

B2B email marketing: Proven strategies and...

10 social media advertising examples to inspire your next campaign

10 social media advertising examples to...

8 essential tips for maximizing TikTok ads ROI

8 essential tips for maximizing TikTok ads...

Improve your productivity automatically. Use Zapier to get your apps working together.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• J Can Chiropr Assoc
• v.52(4); 2008 Dec

Guidelines to the writing of case studies

Dr. brian budgell.

* Département chiropratique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351, boul des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Qc, Canada G9A 5H7

Dr. Brian Budgell, DC, PhD, JCCA Editorial Board

• Introduction

Case studies are an invaluable record of the clinical practices of a profession. While case studies cannot provide specific guidance for the management of successive patients, they are a record of clinical interactions which help us to frame questions for more rigorously designed clinical studies. Case studies also provide valuable teaching material, demonstrating both classical and unusual presentations which may confront the practitioner. Quite obviously, since the overwhelming majority of clinical interactions occur in the field, not in teaching or research facilities, it falls to the field practitioner to record and pass on their experiences. However, field practitioners generally are not well-practised in writing for publication, and so may hesitate to embark on the task of carrying a case study to publication. These guidelines are intended to assist the relatively novice writer – practitioner or student – in efficiently navigating the relatively easy course to publication of a quality case study. Guidelines are not intended to be proscriptive, and so throughout this document we advise what authors “may” or “should” do, rather than what they “must” do. Authors may decide that the particular circumstances of their case study justify digression from our recommendations.

Additional and useful resources for chiropractic case studies include:

• Waalen JK. Single subject research designs. J Can Chirop Assoc 1991; 35(2):95–97.
• Gleberzon BJ. A peer-reviewer’s plea. J Can Chirop Assoc 2006; 50(2):107.
• Merritt L. Case reports: an important contribution to chiropractic literature. J Can Chiropr Assoc 2007; 51(2):72–74.

Portions of these guidelines were derived from Budgell B. Writing a biomedical research paper. Tokyo: Springer Japan KK, 2008.

General Instructions

This set of guidelines provides both instructions and a template for the writing of case reports for publication. You might want to skip forward and take a quick look at the template now, as we will be using it as the basis for your own case study later on. While the guidelines and template contain much detail, your finished case study should be only 500 to 1,500 words in length. Therefore, you will need to write efficiently and avoid unnecessarily flowery language.

These guidelines for the writing of case studies are designed to be consistent with the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” referenced elsewhere in the JCCA instructions to authors.

After this brief introduction, the guidelines below will follow the headings of our template. Hence, it is possible to work section by section through the template to quickly produce a first draft of your study. To begin with, however, you must have a clear sense of the value of the study which you wish to describe. Therefore, before beginning to write the study itself, you should gather all of the materials relevant to the case – clinical notes, lab reports, x-rays etc. – and form a clear picture of the story that you wish to share with your profession. At the most superficial level, you may want to ask yourself “What is interesting about this case?” Keep your answer in mind as your write, because sometimes we become lost in our writing and forget the message that we want to convey.

Another important general rule for writing case studies is to stick to the facts. A case study should be a fairly modest description of what actually happened. Speculation about underlying mechanisms of the disease process or treatment should be restrained. Field practitioners and students are seldom well-prepared to discuss physiology or pathology. This is best left to experts in those fields. The thing of greatest value that you can provide to your colleagues is an honest record of clinical events.

Finally, remember that a case study is primarily a chronicle of a patient’s progress, not a story about chiropractic. Editorial or promotional remarks do not belong in a case study, no matter how great our enthusiasm. It is best to simply tell the story and let the outcome speak for itself. With these points in mind, let’s begin the process of writing the case study:

• Title: The title page will contain the full title of the article. Remember that many people may find our article by searching on the internet. They may have to decide, just by looking at the title, whether or not they want to access the full article. A title which is vague or non-specific may not attract their attention. Thus, our title should contain the phrase “case study,” “case report” or “case series” as is appropriate to the contents. The two most common formats of titles are nominal and compound. A nominal title is a single phrase, for example “A case study of hypertension which responded to spinal manipulation.” A compound title consists of two phrases in succession, for example “Response of hypertension to spinal manipulation: a case study.” Keep in mind that titles of articles in leading journals average between 8 and 9 words in length.
• Other contents for the title page should be as in the general JCCA instructions to authors. Remember that for a case study, we would not expect to have more than one or two authors. In order to be listed as an author, a person must have an intellectual stake in the writing – at the very least they must be able to explain and even defend the article. Someone who has only provided technical assistance, as valuable as that may be, may be acknowledged at the end of the article, but would not be listed as an author. Contact information – either home or institutional – should be provided for each author along with the authors’ academic qualifications. If there is more than one author, one author must be identified as the corresponding author – the person whom people should contact if they have questions or comments about the study.
• Key words: Provide key words under which the article will be listed. These are the words which would be used when searching for the article using a search engine such as Medline. When practical, we should choose key words from a standard list of keywords, such as MeSH (Medical subject headings). A copy of MeSH is available in most libraries. If we can’t access a copy and we want to make sure that our keywords are included in the MeSH library, we can visit this address: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/meshbrowser.cgi

A narrative abstract consists of a short version of the whole paper. There are no headings within the narrative abstract. The author simply tries to summarize the paper into a story which flows logically.

A structured abstract uses subheadings. Structured abstracts are becoming more popular for basic scientific and clinical studies, since they standardize the abstract and ensure that certain information is included. This is very useful for readers who search for articles on the internet. Often the abstract is displayed by a search engine, and on the basis of the abstract the reader will decide whether or not to download the full article (which may require payment of a fee). With a structured abstract, the reader is more likely to be given the information which they need to decide whether to go on to the full article, and so this style is encouraged. The JCCA recommends the use of structured abstracts for case studies.

Since they are summaries, both narrative and structured abstracts are easier to write once we have finished the rest of the article. We include a template for a structured abstract and encourage authors to make use of it. Our sub-headings will be:

• Introduction: This consists of one or two sentences to describe the context of the case and summarize the entire article.
• Case presentation: Several sentences describe the history and results of any examinations performed. The working diagnosis and management of the case are described.
• Management and Outcome: Simply describe the course of the patient’s complaint. Where possible, make reference to any outcome measures which you used to objectively demonstrate how the patient’s condition evolved through the course of management.
• Discussion: Synthesize the foregoing subsections and explain both correlations and apparent inconsistencies. If appropriate to the case, within one or two sentences describe the lessons to be learned.
• Introduction: At the beginning of these guidelines we suggested that we need to have a clear idea of what is particularly interesting about the case we want to describe. The introduction is where we convey this to the reader. It is useful to begin by placing the study in a historical or social context. If similar cases have been reported previously, we describe them briefly. If there is something especially challenging about the diagnosis or management of the condition that we are describing, now is our chance to bring that out. Each time we refer to a previous study, we cite the reference (usually at the end of the sentence). Our introduction doesn’t need to be more than a few paragraphs long, and our objective is to have the reader understand clearly, but in a general sense, why it is useful for them to be reading about this case.

The next step is to describe the results of our clinical examination. Again, we should write in an efficient narrative style, restricting ourselves to the relevant information. It is not necessary to include every detail in our clinical notes.

If we are using a named orthopedic or neurological test, it is best to both name and describe the test (since some people may know the test by a different name). Also, we should describe the actual results, since not all readers will have the same understanding of what constitutes a “positive” or “negative” result.

X-rays or other images are only helpful if they are clear enough to be easily reproduced and if they are accompanied by a legend. Be sure that any information that might identify a patient is removed before the image is submitted.

At this point, or at the beginning of the next section, we will want to present our working diagnosis or clinical impression of the patient.

It is useful for the reader to know how long the patient was under care and how many times they were treated. Additionally, we should be as specific as possible in describing the treatment that we used. It does not help the reader to simply say that the patient received “chiropractic care.” Exactly what treatment did we use? If we used spinal manipulation, it is best to name the technique, if a common name exists, and also to describe the manipulation. Remember that our case study may be read by people who are not familiar with spinal manipulation, and, even within chiropractic circles, nomenclature for technique is not well standardized.

We may want to include the patient’s own reports of improvement or worsening. However, whenever possible we should try to use a well-validated method of measuring their improvement. For case studies, it may be possible to use data from visual analogue scales (VAS) for pain, or a journal of medication usage.

It is useful to include in this section an indication of how and why treatment finished. Did we decide to terminate care, and if so, why? Did the patient withdraw from care or did we refer them to another practitioner?

• Discussion: In this section we may want to identify any questions that the case raises. It is not our duty to provide a complete physiological explanation for everything that we observed. This is usually impossible. Nor should we feel obligated to list or generate all of the possible hypotheses that might explain the course of the patient’s condition. If there is a well established item of physiology or pathology which illuminates the case, we certainly include it, but remember that we are writing what is primarily a clinical chronicle, not a basic scientific paper. Finally, we summarize the lessons learned from this case.
• Acknowledgments: If someone provided assistance with the preparation of the case study, we thank them briefly. It is neither necessary nor conventional to thank the patient (although we appreciate what they have taught us). It would generally be regarded as excessive and inappropriate to thank others, such as teachers or colleagues who did not directly participate in preparation of the paper.

A popular search engine for English-language references is Medline: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

• Legends: If we used any tables, figures or photographs, they should be accompanied by a succinct explanation. A good rule for graphs is that they should contain sufficient information to be generally decipherable without reference to a legend.
• Tables, figures and photographs should be included at the end of the manuscript.
• Permissions: If any tables, figures or photographs, or substantial quotations, have been borrowed from other publications, we must include a letter of permission from the publisher. Also, if we use any photographs which might identify a patient, we will need their written permission.

In addition, patient consent to publish the case report is also required.

Running Header:

• Name, academic degrees and affiliation

Name, address and telephone number of corresponding author

Disclaimers

Statement that patient consent was obtained

Sources of financial support, if any

Key words: (limit of five)

Abstract: (maximum of 150 words)

• Case Presentation
• Management and Outcome

Introduction:

Provide a context for the case and describe any similar cases previously reported.

Case Presentation:

• Introductory sentence: e.g. This 25 year old female office worker presented for the treatment of recurrent headaches.
• Describe the essential nature of the complaint, including location, intensity and associated symptoms: e.g. Her headaches are primarily in the suboccipital region, bilaterally but worse on the right. Sometimes there is radiation towards the right temple. She describes the pain as having an intensity of up to 5 out of ten, accompanied by a feeling of tension in the back of the head. When the pain is particularly bad, she feels that her vision is blurred.
• Further development of history including details of time and circumstances of onset, and the evolution of the complaint: e.g. This problem began to develop three years ago when she commenced work as a data entry clerk. Her headaches have increased in frequency in the past year, now occurring three to four days per week.
• Describe relieving and aggravating factors, including responses to other treatment: e.g. The pain seems to be worse towards the end of the work day and is aggravated by stress. Aspirin provides some relieve. She has not sought any other treatment.
• Include other health history, if relevant: e.g. Otherwise the patient reports that she is in good health.
• Include family history, if relevant: e.g. There is no family history of headaches.
• Summarize the results of examination, which might include general observation and postural analysis, orthopedic exam, neurological exam and chiropractic examination (static and motion palpation): e.g. Examination revealed an otherwise fit-looking young woman with slight anterior carriage of the head. Cervical active ranges of motion were full and painless except for some slight restriction of left lateral bending and rotation of the head to the left. These motions were accompanied by discomfort in the right side of the neck. Cervical compression of the neck in the neutral position did not create discomfort. However, compression of the neck in right rotation and extension produced some right suboccipital pain. Cranial nerve examination was normal. Upper limb motor, sensory and reflex functions were normal. With the patient in the supine position, static palpation revealed tender trigger points bilaterally in the cervical musculature and right trapezius. Motion palpation revealed restrictions of right and left rotation in the upper cervical spine, and restriction of left lateral bending in the mid to lower cervical spine. Blood pressure was 110/70. Houle’s test (holding the neck in extension and rotation for 30 seconds) did not produce nystagmus or dizziness. There were no carotid bruits.
• The patient was diagnosed with cervicogenic headache due to chronic postural strain.

Management and Outcome:

• Describe as specifically as possible the treatment provided, including the nature of the treatment, and the frequency and duration of care: e.g. The patient undertook a course of treatment consisting of cervical and upper thoracic spinal manipulation three times per week for two weeks. Manipulation was accompanied by trigger point therapy to the paraspinal muscles and stretching of the upper trapezius. Additionally, advice was provided concerning maintenance of proper posture at work. The patient was also instructed in the use of a cervical pillow.
• If possible, refer to objective measures of the patient’s progress: e.g. The patient maintained a headache diary indicating that she had two headaches during the first week of care, and one headache the following week. Furthermore the intensity of her headaches declined throughout the course of treatment.
• Describe the resolution of care: e.g. Based on the patient’s reported progress during the first two weeks of care, she received an additional two treatments in each of the subsequent two weeks. During the last week of care she experienced no headaches and reported feeling generally more energetic than before commencing care. Following a total of four weeks of care (10 treatments) she was discharged.

Discussion:

Synthesize foregoing sections: e.g. The distinction between migraine and cervicogenic headache is not always clear. However, this case demonstrates several features …

Summarize the case and any lessons learned: e.g. This case demonstrates a classical presentation of cervicogenic headache which resolved quickly with a course of spinal manipulation, supportive soft-tissue therapy and postural advice.

References: (using Vancouver style) e.g.

1 Terret AGJ. Vertebrogenic hearing deficit, the spine and spinal manipulation therapy: a search to validate the DD Palmer/Harvey Lillard experience. Chiropr J Aust 2002; 32:14–26.

Legends: (tables, figures or images are numbered according to the order in which they appear in the text.) e.g.

Figure 1: Intensity of headaches as recorded on a visual analogue scale (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis) during the four weeks that the patient was under care. Treatment was given on days 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 22 and 25. Headache frequency and intensity is seen to fall over time.

We use essential cookies to make Venngage work. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

Manage Cookies

Cookies and similar technologies collect certain information about how you’re using our website. Some of them are essential, and without them you wouldn’t be able to use Venngage. But others are optional, and you get to choose whether we use them or not.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are always on, as they’re essential for making Venngage work, and making it safe. Without these cookies, services you’ve asked for can’t be provided.

Show cookie providers

• Google Login

Functionality Cookies

These cookies help us provide enhanced functionality and personalisation, and remember your settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers.

Performance Cookies

These cookies help us analyze how many people are using Venngage, where they come from and how they're using it. If you opt out of these cookies, we can’t get feedback to make Venngage better for you and all our users.

• Google Analytics

Targeting Cookies

These cookies are set by our advertising partners to track your activity and show you relevant Venngage ads on other sites as you browse the internet.

• Google Tag Manager
• Infographics
• Daily Infographics
• Template Lists
• Graphic Design
• Graphs and Charts
• Data Visualization
• Human Resources
• Beginner Guides

Blog Graphic Design

15+ Professional Case Study Examples [Design Tips + Templates]

By Alice Corner , Jan 12, 2023

Have you ever bought something — within the last 10 years or so — without reading its reviews or without a recommendation or prior experience of using it?

If the answer is no — or at least, rarely — you get my point.

Positive reviews matter for selling to regular customers, and for B2B or SaaS businesses, detailed case studies are important too.

Wondering how to craft a compelling case study ? No worries—I’ve got you covered with 15 marketing case study templates , helpful tips, and examples to ensure your case study converts effectively.

Click to jump ahead:

• What is a Case Study?

Business Case Study Examples

Simple case study examples.

• Marketing Case Study Examples

Sales Case Study Examples

• Case Study FAQs

What is a case study?

A case study is an in-depth, detailed analysis of a specific real-world situation. For example, a case study can be about an individual, group, event, organization, or phenomenon. The purpose of a case study is to understand its complexities and gain insights into a particular instance or situation.

In the context of a business, however, case studies take customer success stories and explore how they use your product to help them achieve their business goals.

As well as being valuable marketing tools , case studies are a good way to evaluate your product as it allows you to objectively examine how others are using it.

It’s also a good way to interview your customers about why they work with you.

Related: What is a Case Study? [+6 Types of Case Studies]

Marketing Case Study Template

A marketing case study showcases how your product or services helped potential clients achieve their business goals. You can also create case studies of internal, successful marketing projects. A marketing case study typically includes:

• Company background and history
• The challenge
• How you helped
• Specific actions taken
• Visuals or Data
• Client testimonials

Here’s an example of a marketing case study template:

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, business case studies can be a powerful resource to help with your sales, marketing, and even internal departmental awareness.

Business and business management case studies should encompass strategic insights alongside anecdotal and qualitative findings, like in the business case study examples below.

Conduct a B2B case study by researching the company holistically

When it comes to writing a case study, make sure you approach the company holistically and analyze everything from their social media to their sales.

Think about every avenue your product or service has been of use to your case study company, and ask them about the impact this has had on their wider company goals.

In business case study examples like the one above, we can see that the company has been thought about holistically simply by the use of icons.

By combining social media icons with icons that show in-person communication we know that this is a well-researched and thorough case study.

This case study report example could also be used within an annual or end-of-year report.

Highlight the key takeaway from your marketing case study

To create a compelling case study, identify the key takeaways from your research. Use catchy language to sum up this information in a sentence, and present this sentence at the top of your page.

This is “at a glance” information and it allows people to gain a top-level understanding of the content immediately. 

You can use a large, bold, contrasting font to help this information stand out from the page and provide interest.

Learn  how to choose fonts  effectively with our Venngage guide and once you’ve done that.

Upload your fonts and  brand colors  to Venngage using the  My Brand Kit  tool and see them automatically applied to your designs.

The heading is the ideal place to put the most impactful information, as this is the first thing that people will read.

In this example, the stat of “Increase[d] lead quality by 90%” is used as the header. It makes customers want to read more to find out how exactly lead quality was increased by such a massive amount.

If you’re conducting an in-person interview, you could highlight a direct quote or insight provided by your interview subject.

Pick out a catchy sentence or phrase, or the key piece of information your interview subject provided and use that as a way to draw a potential customer in.

Use charts to visualize data in your business case studies

Charts are an excellent way to visualize data and to bring statistics and information to life. Charts make information easier to understand and to illustrate trends or patterns.

Making charts is even easier with Venngage.

In this consulting case study example, we can see that a chart has been used to demonstrate the difference in lead value within the Lead Elves case study.

Adding a chart here helps break up the information and add visual value to the case study. 

Using charts in your case study can also be useful if you’re creating a project management case study.

You could use a Gantt chart or a project timeline to show how you have managed the project successfully.

Use direct quotes to build trust in your marketing case study

To add an extra layer of authenticity you can include a direct quote from your customer within your case study.

According to research from Nielsen , 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer and 70% trust recommendations even if they’re from somebody they don’t know.

So if you have a customer or client who can’t stop singing your praises, make sure you get a direct quote from them and include it in your case study.

You can either lift part of the conversation or interview, or you can specifically request a quote. Make sure to ask for permission before using the quote.

This design uses a bright contrasting speech bubble to show that it includes a direct quote, and helps the quote stand out from the rest of the text.

This will help draw the customer’s attention directly to the quote, in turn influencing them to use your product or service.

Less is often more, and this is especially true when it comes to creating designs. Whilst you want to create a professional-looking, well-written and design case study – there’s no need to overcomplicate things.

These simple case study examples show that smart clean designs and informative content can be an effective way to showcase your successes.

Use colors and fonts to create a professional-looking case study

Business case studies shouldn’t be boring. In fact, they should be beautifully and professionally designed.

This means the normal rules of design apply. Use fonts, colors, and icons to create an interesting and visually appealing case study.

In this case study example, we can see how multiple fonts have been used to help differentiate between the headers and content, as well as complementary colors and eye-catching icons.

Marketing case study examples

Marketing case studies are incredibly useful for showing your marketing successes. Every successful marketing campaign relies on influencing a consumer’s behavior, and a great case study can be a great way to spotlight your biggest wins.

In the marketing case study examples below, a variety of designs and techniques to create impactful and effective case studies.

Show off impressive results with a bold marketing case study

Case studies are meant to show off your successes, so make sure you feature your positive results prominently. Using bold and bright colors as well as contrasting shapes, large bold fonts, and simple icons is a great way to highlight your wins.

In well-written case study examples like the one below, the big wins are highlighted on the second page with a bright orange color and are highlighted in circles.

Making the important data stand out is especially important when attracting a prospective customer with marketing case studies.

Use a simple but clear layout in your case study

Using a simple layout in your case study can be incredibly effective, like in the example of a case study below.

Keeping a clean white background, and using slim lines to help separate the sections is an easy way to format your case study.

Making the information clear helps draw attention to the important results, and it helps improve the  accessibility of the design .

Business case study examples like this would sit nicely within a larger report, with a consistent layout throughout.

Use visuals and icons to create an engaging and branded business case study

Nobody wants to read pages and pages of text — and that’s why Venngage wants to help you communicate your ideas visually.

Using icons, graphics, photos, or patterns helps create a much more engaging design. 

With this Blue Cap case study icons, colors, and impactful pattern designs have been used to create an engaging design that catches your eye.

Use a monochromatic color palette to create a professional and clean case study

Let your research shine by using a monochromatic and minimalistic color palette.

By sticking to one color, and leaving lots of blank space you can ensure your design doesn’t distract a potential customer from your case study content.

In this case study on Polygon Media, the design is simple and professional, and the layout allows the prospective customer to follow the flow of information.

The gradient effect on the left-hand column helps break up the white background and adds an interesting visual effect.

Did you know you can generate an accessible color palette with Venngage? Try our free accessible color palette generator today and create a case study that delivers and looks pleasant to the eye:

Add long term goals in your case study

When creating a case study it’s a great idea to look at both the short term and the long term goals of the company to gain the best understanding possible of the insights they provide.

Short-term goals will be what the company or person hopes to achieve in the next few months, and long-term goals are what the company hopes to achieve in the next few years.

Check out this modern pattern design example of a case study below:

In this case study example, the short and long-term goals are clearly distinguished by light blue boxes and placed side by side so that they are easy to compare.

Use a strong introductory paragraph to outline the overall strategy and goals before outlining the specific short-term and long-term goals to help with clarity.

This strategy can also be handy when creating a consulting case study.

Use data to make concrete points about your sales and successes

When conducting any sort of research stats, facts, and figures are like gold dust (aka, really valuable).

Being able to quantify your findings is important to help understand the information fully. Saying sales increased 10% is much more effective than saying sales increased.

While sales dashboards generally tend it make it all about the numbers and charts, in sales case study examples, like this one, the key data and findings can be presented with icons. This contributes to the potential customer’s better understanding of the report.

They can clearly comprehend the information and it shows that the case study has been well researched.

Use emotive, persuasive, or action based language in your marketing case study

Create a compelling case study by using emotive, persuasive and action-based language when customizing your case study template.

In this well-written case study example, we can see that phrases such as “Results that Speak Volumes” and “Drive Sales” have been used.

Using persuasive language like you would in a blog post. It helps inspire potential customers to take action now.

Keep your potential customers in mind when creating a customer case study for marketing

82% of marketers use case studies in their marketing  because it’s such an effective tool to help quickly gain customers’ trust and to showcase the potential of your product.

Why are case studies such an important tool in content marketing?

By writing a case study you’re telling potential customers that they can trust you because you’re showing them that other people do.

Not only that, but if you have a SaaS product, business case studies are a great way to show how other people are effectively using your product in their company.

In this case study, Network is demonstrating how their product has been used by Vortex Co. with great success; instantly showing other potential customers that their tool works and is worth using.

Related: 10+ Case Study Infographic Templates That Convert

Case studies are particularly effective as a sales technique.

A sales case study is like an extended customer testimonial, not only sharing opinions of your product – but showcasing the results you helped your customer achieve.

Make impactful statistics pop in your sales case study

Writing a case study doesn’t mean using text as the only medium for sharing results.

You should use icons to highlight areas of your research that are particularly interesting or relevant, like in this example of a case study:

Icons are a great way to help summarize information quickly and can act as visual cues to help draw the customer’s attention to certain areas of the page.

In some of the business case study examples above, icons are used to represent the impressive areas of growth and are presented in a way that grabs your attention.

Use high contrast shapes and colors to draw attention to key information in your sales case study

Help the key information stand out within your case study by using high contrast shapes and colors.

Use a complementary or contrasting color, or use a shape such as a rectangle or a circle for maximum impact.

This design has used dark blue rectangles to help separate the information and make it easier to read.

Coupled with icons and strong statistics, this information stands out on the page and is easily digestible and retainable for a potential customer.

Case Study Examples Summary

Once you have created your case study, it’s best practice to update your examples on a regular basis to include up-to-date statistics, data, and information.

You should update your business case study examples often if you are sharing them on your website .

It’s also important that your case study sits within your brand guidelines – find out how Venngage’s My Brand Kit tool can help you create consistently branded case study templates.

Case studies are important marketing tools – but they shouldn’t be the only tool in your toolbox. Content marketing is also a valuable way to earn consumer trust.

Case Study FAQ

Why should you write a case study.

Case studies are an effective marketing technique to engage potential customers and help build trust.

By producing case studies featuring your current clients or customers, you are showcasing how your tool or product can be used. You’re also showing that other people endorse your product.

In addition to being a good way to gather positive testimonials from existing customers , business case studies are good educational resources and can be shared amongst your company or team, and used as a reference for future projects.

How should you write a case study?

To create a great case study, you should think strategically. The first step, before starting your case study research, is to think about what you aim to learn or what you aim to prove.

You might be aiming to learn how a company makes sales or develops a new product. If this is the case, base your questions around this.

You can learn more about writing a case study  from our extensive guide.

Related: How to Present a Case Study like a Pro (With Examples)

Some good questions you could ask would be:

• Why do you use our tool or service?
• How often do you use our tool or service?
• What does the process of using our product look like to you?
• If our product didn’t exist, what would you be doing instead?
• What is the number one benefit you’ve found from using our tool?

You might also enjoy:

• 12 Essential Consulting Templates For Marketing, Planning and Branding
• Best Marketing Strategies for Consultants and Freelancers in 2019 [Study + Infographic]

Enhancing Procedural Writing Through Personalized Example Retrieval: A Case Study on Cooking Recipes

• Open access
• Published: 22 April 2024

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

• Paola Mejia-Domenzain   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1242-3134 1 ,
• Jibril Frej   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0009-0631-0636 1 ,
• Seyed Parsa Neshaei   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4794-395X 1 ,
• Luca Mouchel 1 ,
• Tanya Nazaretsky   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1343-0627 1 ,
• Thiemo Wambsganss 1 ,
• Antoine Bosselut   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8968-9649 1 &
• Tanja Käser   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0672-0415 1  

Writing high-quality procedural texts is a challenging task for many learners. While example-based learning has shown promise as a feedback approach, a limitation arises when all learners receive the same content without considering their individual input or prior knowledge. Consequently, some learners struggle to grasp or relate to the feedback, finding it redundant and unhelpful. To address this issue, we present RELEX , an adaptive learning system designed to enhance procedural writing through personalized example-based learning. The core of our system is a multi-step example retrieval pipeline that selects a higher quality and contextually relevant example for each learner based on their unique input. We instantiate our system in the domain of cooking recipes. Specifically, we leverage a fine-tuned Large Language Model to predict the quality score of the learner’s cooking recipe. Using this score, we retrieve recipes with higher quality from a vast database of over 180,000 recipes. Next, we apply BM25 to select the semantically most similar recipe in real-time. Finally, we use domain knowledge and regular expressions to enrich the selected example recipe with personalized instructional explanations. We evaluate RELEX in a 2 x 2 controlled study (personalized vs. non-personalized examples, reflective prompts vs. none) with 200 participants. Our results show that providing tailored examples contributes to better writing performance and user experience.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Writing, decomposing, and revising texts are critical skills in many daily domains and professional environments. Procedural writing is a form of expository writing that promotes the replicability of procedures and the transfer of knowledge (Ambarwati & Listyani, 2021 ). Procedural texts are ubiquitous in many professions, examples include instruction manuals, algorithmic code (Ambarwati & Listyani, 2021 ), lab protocols, and cooking recipes (Alviana, 2019 ). Unfortunately, many learners struggle to write complete and high-quality procedural texts (Mejia-Domenzain et al., 2022 ; Ambarwati & Listyani, 2021 ).

Procedural writing is a so-called heuristic domain (Renkl et al., 2009 ), requiring a combination of knowledge of the learning domain (e.g., how to structure a procedural text) and the application domain (e.g., chemistry in the case of lab protocols). This domain dependence prevents the development of a single algorithmic solution for writing good procedural texts. In this context, learners can benefit from learning from examples. Learning from examples enables learners to "borrow" knowledge from others (Sweller, 1994 ) and abstract general rules that can be used to solve similar problems in the future. Prior research has mainly focused on example-based learning applied to highly structured tasks like mathematics and physics (Sweller, 1994 ; Hilbert et al., 2008 ; van Gog et al., 2008 ). Nevertheless, example-based learning has been studied in heuristic domains with no single correct solution (Renkl et al., 2009 ). In these contexts, the examples are often enriched to include instructional explanations that can reduce the cognitive load by emphasizing relevant characteristics (Schworm & Renkl, 2007 ; van Gog et al., 2008 ). However, the provided examples and instructional explanations are commonly static (Renkl, 2002 ): all learners are provided with the exact same content (e.g., a worked-example by an expert with instructional explanation), independent of their actual skill level. Hence, the provided examples and instructions might be too complex or not relevant to the user, hindering learning and motivation (van Gog et al., 2008 ; Alamri et al., 2020 ).

Providing tailored examples and feedback timely, therefore, has the potential to increase learner performance and experience. While there exists a large body of research on optimal task selection in structured domains (e.g., Bassen et al. ( 2020 )), only a few works have focused on retrieving examples tailored to the user’s context in heuristic domains. Existing research has, for example, employed feature-based similarity metrics (Hosseini & Brusilovsky, 2017 ; Pelánek, 2020 ) or unsupervised semantic sentence similarity methods (Zlabinger et al., 2020 ) to retrieve similar educational items. However, the majority of these works focused on retrieving similar (in terms of the input text provided by the user) expert-created examples, disregarding the actual skill level of the user.

Furthermore, there is also a vast research on providing personalized explanations and instructions for various writing tasks. Existing tools visualize the revision history of the user’s text (Afrin et al., 2021 ) or use an underlying domain-specific structure to enrich the user’s text with feedback and explanations (Wang et al., 2020 ). However, they do not provide suggestions or examples on how to correct the shortcomings in the user’s text.

In this paper, we present RELEX (REcipe Learning through EXamples), an effective and scalable learning system for procedural writing using personalized example-based learning. We have instantiated RELEX in the domain of cooking recipes because of its familiarity and practical relevance to culinary students and chef apprentices, as identified by prior work (Mejia-Domenzain et al., 2022 ). RELEX features a multi-step pipeline retrieving an example that is 1) relevant for the learner (i.e., similar in terms of topic), 2) of better quality than the learner’s text (i.e., tailored to the learner’s skill level), and 3) annotated with explanations and suggestions that the learner’s text is lacking. Our pipeline takes as input the learner’s recipe and predicts its quality using a fine-tuned Large Language Model (LLM). Then, it retrieves a set of texts with a higher quality (than the predicted quality) from a database containing over \(180'000\) rated recipes. Finally, the most semantically similar recipe is extracted from the retrieved candidate set using BM25 .

To evaluate RELEX , we conduct a \(2\times 2\) controlled study with 200 participants, in which we manipulate a) the adaptiveness of the provided example and annotations (adaptive vs. non-adaptive example and feedback), and b) the prompts for reflection (reflective prompts vs. none). We also run the same task with a control group receiving static procedural writing support only. With our analyses, we aim to address the following three research questions: What are the effects of providing a personalized example along with adaptive feedback and reflective guidance on learners’ experience (RQ1), writing performance (RQ2) and revising behavior (RQ3)?

Our results indicate that participants who received tailored examples revised their cooking recipes more, wrote them with higher quality, and had a more positive perception of the tool than the users without adaptive feedback.

Related Work and Conceptual Background

In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a learning system for personalized example-based learning at scale, which is instantiated in the domain of procedural writing. Our study has therefore been influenced by related work in the areas of (1) learning procedural writing skills, (2) example-based learning in heuristic domains, and (3) adaptive learning.

Learning Procedural Writing Skills

Procedural writing, a form of expository writing, facilitates the transfer of knowledge and the replicability of procedures (Ambarwati & Listyani, 2021 ). This type of writing finds its applications in various fields, ranging from life sciences lab protocols to technical documentation and culinary recipes (Wieringa & Farkas, 1991 ; Mejia-Domenzain et al., 2022 ; Alviana, 2019 ).

While procedural writing is highly dependent on the subject matter, previous research (Wieringa & Farkas, 1991 ; Sato & Matsushima, 2006 ; Traga Philippakos, 2019 ; Adoniou, 2013 ) has identified three main qualities of high-quality procedural texts: structure, clarity, and specificity. Structure refers to the organization of the text like having appropriate sections. Clarity involves providing necessary details, and specificity refers to the use of appropriate, domain-specific vocabulary.

Previous research has found that learners often encounter difficulties when attempting to compose comprehensive and high-quality procedural texts (Mejia-Domenzain et al., 2022 ; Ambarwati & Listyani, 2021 ). Common mistakes, in the case of computer documentation and nuclear power plants procedures, are the incorrect order of steps, missing elements, lack of details, or ambiguous words that lead to confusion (Wieringa & Farkas, 1991 ). Similarly, the recipes documented by chef apprentices are often missing ingredients and exhibit a lack of detail and use of specific vocabulary (Mejia-Domenzain et al., 2022 ).

Given these challenges in writing procedural texts, the question arises: How can we effectively teach and instruct this skill? Effective feedback mechanisms for procedural writing have received limited attention. One notable investigated mechanism involved feedback through simulation: students were prompted to compose a procedural text detailing how to draw a geometrical figure and subsequently received feedback in the form of the figure drawn based on their instructions (Sato & Matsushima, 2006 ).

While there are general learning objectives (structure, clarity, and specificity), the dependence on the domain prevents the development of a single algorithmic solution for writing a good procedural text. In this context, learners can benefit from learning from examples. Previous research has investigated the efficacy of model-based instruction, where students observe a teacher demonstrating and verbally describing the procedure in action. Notably, studies have applied this approach in various scenarios, such as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (Traga Philippakos, 2019 ) and preparing a chicken sandwich (Alviana, 2019 ). Encouragingly, both works reported positive effects on the quality of procedural writing resulting from the implementation of the demonstration technique. Surprisingly, despite the proven benefits of using written worked examples in other genres, such as argumentation skills (Schworm & Renkl, 2007 ), their potential application in procedural writing remains largely unexplored.

Example-Based Learning in Heuristic Domains

Example-based learning is an effective method to acquire knowledge by observing and/or imitating what other people do, say, or write (Sweller, 1994 ). It allows learners to build a cognitive schema of how problems should be solved. In addition, learners can abstract general rules from the examples and ultimately transfer and adapt them to other problems (van Gog & Rummel, 2010 ). The vast majority of research on example-based learning has studied their effectiveness in well-structured tasks, such as algebra (Sweller, 1994 ) and physics (van Gog et al., 2008 ). More recently, worked-examples and solved-examples have been applied to non-algorithmic learning domains such as argumentative writing (Schworm & Renkl, 2007 ) and mathematical proof finding (Hilbert et al., 2008 ). In heuristic domains (Renkl et al., 2009 ), where no algorithmic solution can be provided (e.g. cooking recipes), learners acquire heuristics that help them find a solution. Examples in heuristic domains require learners to process two different content levels: (1) the learning domain (i.e., how to structure the solution) and (2) the exemplifying domain (i.e., the topic). In the case of cooking recipes, learners need to understand how to structure a procedural text (learning domain: procedural writing) and be familiar with the cooking domain (the exemplifying domain). Given the two content levels, these examples are referred to as double-content . In structural domains, worked-examples are usually annotated with the steps to solve the problem. In contrast, the double-content examples tend to be enriched with self-explanation prompts and/or additional instructional explanations.

Reflective Prompts . According to the self-explanation effect , learners benefit more from the examples if they can actively explain the examples to themselves (Wong et al., 2002 ). Furthermore, the quality of the self-explanations determines what is learned from the examples (Chi et al., 1989 ). However, frequently, learners’ self-explanations are superficial or passive. Thus, the application of prompts is a possible intervention to increase the quality and depth of the explanations. These prompts should stimulate the active processing of learning materials and direct attention to the central aspects (Schworm & Renkl, 2007 ). The use of self-regulated learning (SRL) prompts has been shown to foster conceptual knowledge (Roelle et al., 2012 ). Furthermore, SRL prompts (i.e., which aspects of the learning materials do you find interesting, useful, and convincing, and which not? ) have been used to help the learner focus on the central elements of examples (Nückles et al., 2009 ) or to guide learners to diagnose their deficiencies and be critical (Fan et al., 2017 ).

Instructional Explanations . Instructional explanations are another possibility to enrich examples. It has been demonstrated that in a first learning phase, instructional explanations improve the learning outcomes compared to when there are no explanations provided  (van Gog et al., 2008 ). However, these explanations can be detrimental later in the learning, since the provided information soon becomes redundant and the explanations increase the cognitive load and hinder learning. Instructional explanations have the following disadvantages in comparison to self-explanation (Renkl, 2002 ): (1) they are not adapted to the learner’s prior knowledge, so they can be redundant or too complex and hard to understand; (2) they are often not timely and therefore hard to integrate as part of the ongoing learner’s activities.

In a \(2\times 2\) study on the effect of self-explanation prompts and instructional explanations, the group that received only self-explanation prompts had the most favorable learning outcomes, whereas the group that received instructional explanations had the highest perception of learning (Schworm & Renkl, 2007 ). Nevertheless, the authors did not examine the use of adaptive instructional explanations. A first step in this direction has been taken by providing so-called faded examples in geometry learning (Schwonke et al., 2009 ). Students were shown complete worked-out examples at first; over time steps from the example were gradually removed. However, the missing steps and the selected examples were pre-determined and not chosen adaptively depending on the students.

To summarize, the provided examples, the reflective prompts, and the instructional explanations are commonly static: all learners are provided with the same content (e.g., a worked-example by an expert with instructional explanation). The examples and explanations are (1) not adapted to the learner’s prior knowledge, so they can be redundant and hence hinder learning (van Gog et al., 2008 ) and (2) not timely and relevant, hence decreasing engagement (Alamri et al., 2020 ). Providing personalized examples and instruction in a timely manner therefore has the potential to improve learning.

Adaptive Learning

Providing personalized examples and adaptive annotations and explanations translates into providing 1) personalized content (the example) and 2) personalized instruction.

Personalized Content . In content level adaptation, the learning objects (e.g., examples, tasks) are selected and adapted based on the content (e.g., current task, answer, knowledge state) of the user (Premlatha & Geetha, 2015 ). One approach to providing personalized content is to retrieve a tailored example from an existing collection. The collection consists of all the examples available, the query is the user’s context and the system ranks examples in the collection based on their similarity with the user’s context. Depending on the task to be learned, the user’s context can be the current task, the answer, the learner’s knowledge or any combination of these. Example retrieval involves three steps: (1) computing a similarity between the learner’s context and examples from the collection, (2) ranking the examples based on their similarity and (3) presenting the most similar or top- k examples to the learner. For instance, Hosseini and Brusilovsky ( 2017 ) used semantic-level similarity-based linking to recommend personalized examples to programming learners.  Pelánek ( 2020 ) explored feature-based (such as the occurrence of domain-specific keywords) and performance-based measures to compare the similarity of educational items in various domains. Furthermore,  Zlabinger et al. ( 2020 ) provided crowdworkers with personalized examples: they used unsupervised semantic sentence similarity methods to retrieve tailored expert-labeled examples.

Obtaining high-quality expert examples for learning purposes can be challenging and costly. In such cases, peer examples serve as an alternative, which, despite their potential loss in quality, can prove more effective in a learning scenario (Doroudi et al., 2016 ). However, evaluating the quality of peer examples poses its own challenge, as the perception of good quality varies among raters, tasks, and genres (Wilson et al., 2014 ). To address this issue, recent research has explored the application of LLMs, like BERT (Devlin et al., 2019 ) or GPT-models (Brown et al., 2020 ), for tasks such as automatically scoring essays (Mayfield & Black, 2020 ), rating recipe nutritional quality (Hu et al., 2022 ), and evaluating text generation (Sellam et al., 2020 ). These LLMs, being at the forefront of natural language processing (NLP) tasks (Devlin et al., 2019 ; Liu et al., 2019 ; Brown et al., 2020 ), offer a promising approach to predict the quality of examples in heuristic domains.

Personalized Instruction . In contrast to generic instruction, personalized instruction (or feedback or explanation) is dynamic, which means that different learners will receive different information (Bimba et al., 2017 ). While there is a range of research on providing personalized feedback and hints in structured domains such as mathematics (Paassen et al., 2018 ) or programming (Ahmed et al., 2020 ), less work has focused on giving automated fine-grained suggestions and explanations in heuristic domains such as expository writing.

Existing NLP-based writing support tools often provide holistic feedback on higher-level properties of the text such as grammar errors, fluency, or coherence (e.g., Grammarly  (Max et al., 2022 )). To provide more detailed guidance, other tools adopt alternative approaches. For instance, ArgRewrite (Afrin et al., 2021 ) visualizes revision histories by annotating a side-by-side comparison of two drafts, providing revision suggestions at the sentence and sub-sentence level. In contrast, ArguLens (Wang et al., 2020 ) utilizes a domain-specific structure by imposing an argumentation-enhanced representation, breaking the user text into argumentation components and standpoints. Despite these valuable contributions, none of the existing systems combine adaptive instruction with a comparison example that could leverage the potential of example-based learning.

RELEX - Learning With Personalized Examples

To study the effect of personalized example-based feedback on learners’ writing performance, revision behavior, and learning experience, we designed RELEX (REcipe Learning through EXamples). The primary purpose of RELEX is to facilitate procedural writing by providing students with tailored examples, accompanied by relevant annotations and reflective prompts. The tool aims to address three key aspects of procedural writing: (a) the organization and structure of texts, (b) the provision of requisite details for enhanced clarity, and (c) the appropriate utilization of specific vocabulary. In the following, we will describe the two main components of RELEX , the user interface and the personalized example retrieval pipeline.

Interaction flow: A learner requests feedback (F1) and receives a tailored example recipe (F2) with highlighted in-text elements (F3) and personalized explanations (F4). The learner is also prompted to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the recipes (F5)

User Interface

The user interface of RELEX is illustrated in Fig. 1 Footnote 1 . The main interface is shown on the upper part of the figure. The interface is split into two main panels: the Text Editor (left) where learners can write or edit recipes and request feedback by clicking "Analyze" ( \(F_1\) ) and the Personal Dashboard (right) displaying a selected example recipe with personalized annotations. This Personal Dashboard is again split vertically into two sections, listing suggestions to improve the recipe on the left ( \(F_4\) ) and showing the example recipe ( \(F_2\) ) with missing aspects in the learner’s recipe highlighted ( \(F_3\) ) on the right. Below the main interface (Fig. 1 bottom right), other types of recipe improvement tips together with a fragment of the example recipe that fulfills these suggestions are shown. More specifically, the bottom middle panel shows examples of tips on the specificity of ingredients and steps; and to the right, there are examples on the clarity of the steps. Finally, the Reflection Space ( \(F_5\) , bottom left) invites the user to carefully study the example recipe with the question What aspects of this example recipe do you find interesting, useful, convincing, and which not? ; and compare it to their own recipe with the question What deficiencies does your recipe have compared to the example recipe on the right? . The (synthetic) example in Fig.  1 illustrates these design functionalities. The learner has asked for feedback ( \(F_1\) ) on a recipe including chicken and is provided a similar recipe ("Louisiana Chicken") of higher quality (immediately visible by its clear structure) as an example ( \(F_2\) ). The highlights indicate the missing structural elements (for example, "List each ingredient separately", \(F_3\) ) and the left-hand pane of the personal dashboard suggests other tips on the structure like enumerating the steps ( \(F_4\) ). Other examples of \(F_3\) and \(F_4\) are shown below the main interface. In addition, the reflection panel ( \(F_5\) ) opens to the bottom left where the user answers the questions. The five design functionalities of RELEX (see Table 1 ) are based on design requirements derived from user interviews as well as from literature.

User Requirements . Given that the users should be the main focus of a design effort (Cooper et al., 2007 ), we conducted ten semi-structured user interviews (female-identifying: 6, male-identifying: 4) to better understand the specific user needs when using example-based learning in the context of procedural writing Footnote 2 . Participants described their past experiences with writing procedural texts, which included tutorials, lab protocols, technical manuals, and cooking recipes. One common difficulty they encountered when writing procedural texts was being too vague, missing steps, and having the readers struggle to reproduce the instructions they had written.

From these semi-structured interviews, we derived 22 user stories. The stories contained a multitude of detailed suggestions, such as the type of colors used for highlighting elements of the text or the request to see explanations for the highlighted elements. We clustered the different user stories based on the underlying topic and obtained five groups, from which we formed the following user requirements:

Examples should be relevant and similar so that the users can relate to them.

Users should be able to see more than one example in order to generalize and abstract the relevant elements.

The important elements of the text should be highlighted with different colors (indicating what each color means) to stimulate active processing.

The mechanism should have interactive explanations (e.g., when the mouse scrolls on top or clicks) of the highlighted text in the form of suggestions or questions (that can be dismissed) to help learners understand the underlying structure of the example.

The mechanism should include self-explanation and self-reflection prompts to foster active understanding of the example.

Literature Requirements . After deriving the user-centric requirements, we complemented them with the large body of literature on example-based learning (described in detail in “ Example-Based Learning in Heuristic Domains ”). The impact of this approach is highly dependent on the design of the examples utilized. With this regard, previous research examined various design aspects such as self-explanation prompts (Schworm & Renkl, 2007 ), content guidance (Renkl et al., 2009 ), and highlighting (Ringenberg & VanLehn, 2006 ). In their review paper, van Gog and Rummel ( 2010 ) synthesized these aspects and provide design guidelines for example processing. Similarly, Renkl ( 2002 ) derived design principles for instructional explanations. Drawing from the insights of these two review papers, we establish the literature-based design requirements of RELEX :

Active processing of examples should be stimulated by emphasizing important aspects of the procedure. This will help learners understand the underlying structure and transfer that knowledge to a different task (van Gog & Rummel, 2010 ).

Learners should be instructed to self-explain the example in order to foster active processing and understanding (van Gog & Rummel, 2010 ).

Examples and explanations should be presented on learners’ demand to ensure that they are appropriately timed and used in ongoing knowledge-building activities (Renkl, 2002 ).

Explanations should be short and minimalist to reduce the effort to process them (Renkl, 2002 ).

Explanations should not tell learners things that they already know or do not need to know (Renkl, 2002 ).

Table 1 illustrates the relationship between user and literature requirements and the corresponding functionalities of the tool. The design of these functionalities focused on meeting both the needs identified in the relevant literature and those expressed by users, with the goal of creating a tool that is both educationally effective and user-friendly. Specifically, we began by considering user requirements and then incorporated requirements derived from the literature where applicable. For instance, \(F_1\) caters to the users’ need for accessing multiple examples ( \(U_2\) ) and also aligns with the literature’s emphasis on the availability of on-demand examples ( \(L_3\) ). Similarly, \(F_3\) fulfills the requirement of highlighting important aspects of the learning material ( \(L_1\) ) by using different colors, a feature specifically requested by users ( \(U_3\) ), while also ensuring that redundancies are minimized ( \(L_5\) ). Furthermore, \(F_4\) supports the users’ desire for explanations ( \(U_4\) ) and the use of varied colors ( \(U_3\) ), while also adhering to the recommendation for brevity and minimalism in explanations ( \(L_4\) ). Additionally, \(F_5\) addresses the users’ preference for self-explanation prompts ( \(U_5\) ) in line with literature insights ( \(L_2\) ). Finally, \(F_2\) , which responds to the users’ desire for relevant and similar examples, represents an innovative aspect of our work.

Personalized Example Retrieval Pipeline

To retrieve tailored examples for learners, we propose a multi-step recipe selection pipeline. Our pipeline retrieves a personalized example recipe that satisfies the following constraints: 1) describing a similar dish, thus relevant to the learner, 2) of higher quality than the learner’s recipe, 3) annotated with explanations and suggestions based on identified weaknesses of the learner’s recipe, and 4) retrieved in real-time.

Hence, both the retrieved example and the highlighted suggestions are tailored to the learner’s content (e.g., the type of recipe) and skill level (e.g., the quality of the recipe). The pipeline is illustrated in Fig.  2 . It features an offline and an online component. The offline component (top, in green) consists of three main steps:

Preprocessing: a large cooking recipe database ( RecipeNLG ) is preprocessed to obtain the ratings for each recipe. We denote the resulting dataset of rated recipes as RELEXset .

Fine-Tuning: a general domain language model is fine-tuned on all recipes from RecipeNLG . This model is further fine-tuned on the regression task to predict the stars from RELEXset . We call this fine-tuned model RELEXset-predictor .

Recipe Annotation: the recipies from RELEXset are annotated using writing suggestions obtained from experts. We denote the resulting dataset of annotated, rated recipes as RELEX-sugg-set .

The online component (orange, Fig.  2 bottom), processes the learner’s recipe x in four steps:

Quality Prediction: the stars (quality) of x , denoted as S ( x ), is predicted using RELEXset-predictor .

Recipe Retrieval: all recipes of higher quality than x ( \(SB_x\) ) are retrieved from RELEX-sugg-set .

Relevance Filtering: only relevant recipes according to the missing suggestions are kept. We denote this filtered set as \(rel(SB_x)\) .

Recipe Similarity: recipe similarity is computed to output the most similar example recipe from \(rel(SB_x)\) .

In the following subsections, we describe each step of the offline and online components in detail.

Offline Training and Annotation

As seen in Fig. 2 , the offline phase consists of three steps: Preprocessing the database, training the cooking domain LLM for rating prediction, and annotating the recipes with improvement suggestions. Specifically, we quantify the quality of the recipes using crowd-sourced ratings, which allows us to sort the recipes based on the community’s perception. Then, we train a model to predict the rating (in the form of stars) a new recipe x would obtain, enabling us to extract recipes of higher quality than the recipe x from the database.

Preprocessing . We use RELEXset , a database composed of rated cooking recipes Footnote 3 . The recipes were extracted from RecipeNLG  (Bień et al., 2020 ), a publicly available dataset of clean and formatted versions of cooking recipes. Ratings are real numbers from 0 to 5. They were obtained from food.com , an online recipes site (Majumder et al., 2019 ). We remove from RELEXset all recipes with no ratings. As a result, RELEXset contains more than 180, 000 clean and formatted recipes with more than 700, 000 user ratings. One common problem with user ratings is that different users adopt different criteria and rating scales. Some users might, for example, be more tolerant than others and give higher ratings in general (Jin & Si, 2004 ). To mitigate this bias, following common practices in collaborative filtering models (Jin & Si, 2004 ), we standardize the ratings per user. We denote by \(R_y(x)\) the rating of user y for recipe x and by \(\hat{R}_y\) the average rating of user y across all recipes. Standardization consists in centering \(R_y(x)\) around \(\hat{R}_y\) with a unit standard deviation as follows: \(\widehat{R}_y\left( x\right) = \left( R_y\left( x\right) - \overline{R}_y\right) \bigg /\sqrt{\sum _{z \in \mathcal {X}} \frac{1}{|\mathcal {X}|} \left( R_y(z) - \overline{R}_y \right) ^2}\) with \(\mathcal {X}\) the set of all recipes in RELEXset . As the standardized rating cannot be computed when the standard deviation is 0, users who have only rated one recipe are automatically excluded from the analysis. To obtain a unique rating S ( x ) associated with each recipe, we average the standardized ratings across all users: \(S(x) = \sum _{y \in \mathcal {Y} }\widehat{R}_y\left( x\right) \big /|\mathcal {Y}|\) with \(\mathcal {Y}\) the set of all users in RELEXset . In the remaining part of the paper, we use “stars” to refer to the averaged user-standardized ratings.

Fine-Tuning on Recipes . Given that the recipes consist of text, we follow the recent advances in NLP (Devlin et al., 2019 ; Liu et al., 2019 ; Sanh et al., 2019 ; Brown et al., 2020 ) and use a pre-trained LLM to predict the quality (starts) of a recipe. The choice of pre-trained LLM is based on performance and efficiency. On the one hand, BERT, a widely-recognized LLM, employs self-attention mechanisms to generate context-aware word representations (Devlin et al., 2019 ). While BERT offers robust performance, RoBERTa, an enhanced version, surpasses it in various NLP benchmarks due to extensive training and hyperparameter optimization (Liu et al., 2019 ). On the other hand, RoBERTa’s computational demands are substantial, making it less ideal for real-time applications. To balance performance and efficiency, we opt for DistilRoBERTa, a streamlined version of RoBERTa (Sanh et al., 2019 ). Developed through knowledge distillation, DistilRoBERTa maintains much of RoBERTa’s efficacy but with reduced complexity, making it more suitable for our requirement of real-time prediction without relying on GPUs. This is in line with studies suggesting that increased prediction time can negatively impact user experience (Nah, 2003 ). Therefore, we initialize our predictor with the distilroberta-base checkpoint from HuggingFace’s transformers (Wolf et al., 2019 ).

It is worth noting that, distilroberta-base was trained on general texts from the internet and not specifically in the cooking domain. Following common practices (Gururangan et al., 2020 ; Sun et al., 2019 ), before fine-tuning the model for rating recipes, we first adapt distilroberta-base to the cooking domain by fine-tuning it on a Masked Language Modeling (MLM) task on the entire set of recipes from RecipeNLG . We will refer to the resulting model as RELEXset-MLM .

Fine-Tuning on a Regression Task . Given that we want to predict the averaged user-standardized rating (stars) of a recipe, we formulate the prediction stage as a regression task: for any given recipe denoted as x , the predictive model should output a real-valued star rating symbolized as S ( x ). Thus, we fine-tune RELEXset-MLM to predict the number of stars of recipes in RELEXset . We will refer to the obtained model as RELEXset-Predictor Footnote 4 . The model has six transformer layers, each with a hidden size of 768, and employs 12 attention heads. The intermediate layers in the transformers have a size of 3072. Moreover, the model uses GELU as its activation function and dropout rates for both attention probabilities and hidden layers are set to 0.1 Footnote 5 . Following, we use a fully connected neural network with one hidden layer that takes the [CLS] token final embedding as input and outputs the number of stars S ( x ). We optimize both RELEXset-MLM and RELEXset-Predictor using adam  (Kingma & Ba, 2015 ) with early stopping. Both RecipeNLG and RELEXset are split into train/validation/test sets with a ratio of 80/10/10. This ratio was chosen to provide sufficient data for training while also allowing adequate samples for validation and testing. Given the complexity of the model, the 80/10/10 split ensures that more data is available for training. Furthermore, given the large size of the dataset, \(10\%\) of the data points used for validation and testing are sufficient to validate and test effectively. We used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test Footnote 6 , a nonparametric test of the equality of continuous probability distributions, to verify that there were no significant differences (train vs validation: \(p=.36\) , train vs test: .91, validation vs test: \(p=.75\) ) between the label distributions in the train, validation and test sets Footnote 7 . Learning rate, batch size, and weight decay were selected on the validation set using grid search from {1e-6, 1e-5, 2e-5, 3e-5, 5e-5, 1e-4}, {32, 64, 128, 256, 512} and {0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.05, 0.08, 0.1} respectively. We chose the best model (hereafter referred as RELEXset-Predictor ) based on the validation loss and tested its performance on the hold-out test set. RELEXset-Predictor achieved a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.39 on the test set, which is slightly better than the baseline MAE of 0.42 (simply predicting the mean). Despite the difference not being significant, RELEXset-Predictor has the ability to generalize to new, unseen data, making it a more reliable tool for making predictions in real-world scenarios than the static baseline predictor. As outlined in “ Online Prediction and Selection ”, the subsequent stages of the pipeline are designed to address the prediction uncertainties by selecting recipes that fall within a quality range set above the MAE threshold to ensure that the recipe is perceived as better by the users.

Recipe Annotation . After choosing a targeted example recipe, we enrich the recipe with suggestions on how to improve the text. These suggestions are based on the three main aspects of high-quality procedural text (Wieringa & Farkas, 1991 ; Sato & Matsushima, 2006 ; Traga Philippakos, 2019 ): structure (i.e., clear organization of the text), clarity (i.e., appropriate degree of detail), and specificity (i.e., proper use of technical terms). The suggestions can be divided into general suggestions concerning the learning domain (i.e., how to write procedural text) and into suggestions specific to the exemplifying domain (cooking recipes). The domain-general suggestions are derived from the main qualities of good procedural text identified in previous work (Wieringa & Farkas, 1991 ; Sato & Matsushima, 2006 ; Traga Philippakos, 2019 ). The domain-specific suggestions are derived from "The Recipe Writer’s Handbook, Revised and Expanded" (Ostmann & Baker, 2001 ). In this handbook, two recipe book editors give punctual recommendations on how to write a good recipe in terms of the learning objectives (structure, specificity, and clarity). We use the keywords “specify” and “indicate” to retrieve 45 suggestions from the handbook. Table 2 lists all the domain-general suggestions as well as examples of domain-specific suggestions. There are four suggestions related to the structure and three suggestions related to the clarity of the text. For these two categories, there is a direct mapping between domain-general and domain-specific annotations. There are in total 38 recipe-specific suggestions related to the specificity of the steps and material Footnote 8 .

We transform the suggestions into explicit rules to be able to annotate each recipe for each of the 45 suggestions. Specifically, we classify each of the 45 suggestions as "followed", "missing", or "not relevant" for each recipe. For example, if the recipe does not require a pan, the suggestion to “ indicate the size and type of the pan ” is not relevant; on the other hand, if the recipe requires a “pan”, but the size (small, medium, large) or type (frying, skillet, non-stick, ceramic, etc) are not specified, the suggestion is “missing”. To facilitate this classification, we employ a rule-based system using regular expressions. This method allows for an automated annotation of the recipes. Our classification algorithm operates in two stages. Initially, it scans the recipe for keywords related to each suggestion (main keyword). Following the example, it would look for “pan” or synonyms. Subsequently, when a keyword is identified, the algorithm examines a 20-character range surrounding it to detect any mention of the specific characteristics detailed in the suggestion (supporting keywords). In our example, it would look for the size or type of the pan. This process is repeated for all suggestions, and the results are compiled into a dictionary. This dictionary reflects the status of each suggestion (followed, missing, or not relevant) for every recipe, including the specific locations where these criteria are met.

The previously described classification algorithm aims at ascertaining the presence of the specified keywords (supporting keywords) in proximity to another predetermined keyword (main keyword). We define “proximity” as a 20-character range to account for intervening descriptors (such as adjectives or qualifiers) that are typically positioned close to their corresponding nouns that might not be related to the suggestion. For example, for the suggestion about specifying the form of nuts (e.g., whole, halved, chopped, etc) in proximity to a nut’s name (e.g., walnut, almonds), a phrase like “slivered (form) blanched almonds (nut)” exemplifies a case where looking at the preceding or succeeding word fails to recognize the relationship due to the intervening descriptors. Given that the average word length in English is 4.8 Footnote 9 , we chose a 20-character range that is approximately 4 words apart. Empirical trials confirmed that this range effectively captures the necessary details in the majority of cases, striking a good balance between capturing essential information and excluding unrelated text that might pertain to other ingredients or elements rather than describing the main keyword.

To assess the rule-based annotation performance, we conducted an evaluation using a random sample of recipe segments. Two annotators, who are also authors of this work, were involved in this process. One of the annotators had participated in the generation of the rule-based regular expressions, while the other annotator was unfamiliar with the generation process. The choice of annotators was a pragmatic decision that allowed us to evaluate the rule-based model without the need for recruitment of external annotators. Per each suggestion, we randomly selected five recipe segments where the two-step annotation algorithm indicated that the suggestion was present and five segments where it was missing. The segments were shuffled and manually labeled to indicate whether the rule was being fulfilled or not. The Cohen’s Kappa score between the annotators was 0.85 (near perfect agreement (Landis & Koch, 1977 )) and the average accuracy was 0.95. We acknowledge that the choice of annotators could have induced a level of subjective interpretation. However, the random selection and shuffling of segments for annotation likely mitigated any subconscious biases. Moreover, the high inter-rater reliability indicates that the suggestions provided were clear and consistent, regardless of the annotators’ prior involvement in the process.

Online Prediction and Selection

The online part of the pipeline consists of retrieving a tailored comparison recipe for the user in real-time.

Quality Prediction . When a participant y asks for feedback on a recipe x , the first step consists in predicting the stars of the input recipe \(S_y(x)\) using RELEXset-Predictor .

Recipe Retrieval . In the next step, a candidate subset \(SB_x\) of recipes with higher quality (i.e., a higher stars value) is retrieved from RELEX-sugg-set . \(SB_x\) contains all the recipes with a rating withing the range \([S_y(x) + 0.4, S_y(x) + 0.8]\) . For example if the rating of the input recipe \(S_y(x)=1\) , \(SB_x\) will contain all the recipes with a standardized rating within the range [1.4, 1.8]. This range was chosen based on RELEXset-Predictor ’s MAE (0.39) as we did not want \(SB_x\) to contain recipes that fit within the error range of the predictor. Moreover, we wanted to show the user a peer recipe that is of better quality, but still similar enough for the user to relate to and not be discouraged by peer excellence (Rogers & Feller, 2016 ). We tested the selected range in a pilot study with 10 participants. We asked the participants to evaluate the level of the recipes seen in comparison to theirs, and the options were "much worse", "worse", "same level", "better" and "much better". None of the participants stated that the recipes were "much better", \(60\%\) perceived the recipe as better, and \(40\%\) as their same level.

Relevance Filtering . The next stage of the pipeline consists of filtering the candidate subset \(SB_x\) according to relevance. We consider that a recipe contains relevant feedback if it can exemplify how to successfully improve the input recipe x . To assess the relevance of the candidate recipe, we first identify the suggestions that are missing from the input recipe x . We then filter out from \(SB_x\) the recipes that do not contain relevant feedback. We postulate that a recipe contains relevant feedback if it follows at least one suggestion that is missing from x . We denote as \(rel\left( SB_x\right) \) the set of recipes from \(SB_x\) containing relevant feedback. To exemplify the filtering stage, let us consider the following minimal example: z is a recipe where the only suggestion classified as missing is " indicate the intensity of the heat ". Therefore, we will remove from \(SB_z\) all recipes that do not specify the intensity of the heat when they should have. Thus, the resulting set \(rel\left( SB_z\right) \) will contain only recipes that follow the suggestions: " indicate the intensity of the heat ".

Recipe Similarity . The final step of the online pipeline aims to retrieve from \(rel\left( SB_x\right) \) the recipe that is most similar to x . We compute the recipe-recipe similarity using BM25  (Robertson & Walker, 1994 ), a Bag-of-Word Information Retrieval model. Our main motivation for using BM25 instead of a LLM fine-tuned for text similarity such as cpt-text  (Neelakantan et al., 2022 ) is efficiency. Indeed, constraint \(C_5\) enforces our pipeline to work in real-time and because in some cases \(rel\left( SB_x\right) \) can contain more than 100, 000 recipes, we decided to use an efficient Bag-of-Word model. We evaluated the similarity computation time for 100 random recipes in the worst-case scenario (with 100, 000 comparisons) and we found that the computation time was on average 0.8 seconds ( \(\sigma = 0.1\) seconds) on a laptop with an Apple M1 processor. After computing the pair-wise similarities between x and all recipes in \(rel\left( SB_x\right) \) , we return the recipe with the highest similarity.

Experimental Design

To evaluate RELEX , we conducted a controlled user study, where we asked participants to complete three procedural writing tasks in the domain of cooking recipes using our system. In the following, we will describe the study design, participants, procedure, and the employed measures in detail.

We employed a fully randomized between-subjects design, encompassing two main factors: feedback type (adaptive vs. non-adaptive) and reflection guidance (with vs. without prompts). This resulted in four distinct treatment groups, each experiencing a specific combination of feedback and reflection instructions. To provide a basis for comparison, we also included a control group ( CG ), which received general static rules on how to write a cooking recipe, representing the traditional approach to support recipe writing without the provision of a peer example. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of the five conditions. The experiment task and questions were exactly the same for all groups; we only manipulated the adaptivity and the reflective prompts between participants. The adaptive feedback encompasses the tailored example recipe along with personalized in-text highlighting and explanations; and the reflective prompts refers to the Reflective Space where the learner is promoted to compare the recipes.

Each group used a different version of RELEX . Figure 3 shows the interface for the four treatment groups experiencing varying levels of adaptive feedback and reflection guidance. The grid has two axes: Reflective Prompts and Adaptive Feedback. Each axis has two options: With and without. Thus, each quadrant represents a distinct group differentiated by the presence or absence of adaptive feedback and reflection prompts. The interface for \(G_{R}^{A}\) including reflective prompts and adaptive feedback is displayed in the upper left quadrant. \(G_{R}^{A}\) used RELEX with all relevant functionalities including adaptive feedback (i.e., tailored example annotated with personalized in-text highlighting and explanations) and reflection prompts. The interface for \(G_{NR}^{A}\) is shown in the upper right quadrant. Accordingly, \(G_{NR}^{A}\) used RELEX without the reflection prompts. Next, as seen in the lower left quadrant, \(G_{R}^{NA}\) used RELEX without adaptive feedback, but with reflection prompts. Lastly, \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) (lower right quadrant) without reflective prompts and without adaptive feedback. Subjects in this group were displayed a pre-selected recipe from the database. Specifically, we pre-selected five complete (in terms of structure and level of detail, see “ Personalized Example Retrieval Pipeline ”), but not perfect recipes (in terms of stars, see also “ Personalized Example Retrieval Pipeline ”) from the database. We chose to not display perfect recipes in order to keep the impression of a peer recipe. Furthermore, we made sure that the five pre-selected recipes covered a range of cooking methods (e.g., dessert, hot dish, etc.). Finally, the CG did not see an example recipe; instead, an instruction manual on how to write recipes was displayed in the right pane of the tool.

Illustration of the study setup using a randomized 2 (feedback type: adaptive vs. non-adaptive) x 2 (reflection guidance: with vs. without prompts) between-subjects design resulting in four treatment groups

Participants

We recruited 200 paid participants from Prolific to conduct a controlled experiment. We chose Prolific as a platform since past research on behavioral research platforms reported the highest response quality and sample diversity for Prolific (Peer et al., 2017 ). To avoid an overlarge diversity in our sample, we recruited participants in the age range from \(18-30\) with at least an undergraduate degree as the highest completed education level. We excluded participants who did not complete the post-test or had technical problems, remaining with 187 participants for our analyses. Table  3 summarizes the demographic information per group. We did not find significant differences between the groups in terms of age ( \({\chi }^2(4) = 1.07, p = .90\) ) or gender ( \({\chi }^2(8) = 7.49, p = .48\) ) as indicated by a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test Footnote 10 . The median time spent on the study was 70 minutes. Participants were paid \(9\pounds \) per hour.

The experiment consisted of three main parts that were the same for all groups: (1) a pre-survey (including a pre-test), (2) three procedural writing tasks (in the domain of cooking recipes), and (3) a post-survey (including a post-test). Different from the three main tasks centered on composing cooking recipes, the pre-test and post-test were situated in a distinct domain: furniture assembly. The different domain was chosen in order to study whether the users could transfer the acquired procedural writing skills to another task.

Pre-Survey . The experiment began with a pre-survey, where we a) controlled the effectiveness of the randomization using two different constructs (see Table 4 ) and b) conducted a pre-test for procedural writing skills in the domain of furniture assembly. We started by asking each participant three questions about their previous cooking experience and documenting their recipes. Next, we captured participants’ attitudes towards technology (Agarwal & Karahanna, 2000 ). Both constructs were measured on a 7-point Likert scale (1: totally disagree to 7: totally agree, with 4 as a neutral statement). Finally, we assessed participants’ procedural writing skills in a transfer domain. Specifically, we asked participants to write the instructions to assemble an IKEA piece of furniture (a TINGBY table) based on a step-to-step diagram (illustration only, no text available). Participants were requested to spend five minutes solving the task.

Procedural writing assignment . In the procedural writing part of the experiments, we asked the participants to perform three cooking recipe writing tasks. The task was: "It’s a Sunday afternoon and your best friend calls you with a very hectic voice: they need to prepare a dish for their family who is going to visit in the evening. Your friend asks you to provide them with three different cooking recipes to choose from. Be aware that your friend has very little cooking experience and therefore you have to write the recipe as structured and understandable as possible." All groups were asked to watch an introduction video on the usage of the tool before the first recipe-writing task.

Post-Survey. The experiment ended with the post-survey. First, we conducted the post-test, where participants were asked to write instructions on how to assemble a different piece of IKEA furniture (an EKET cube) based on a step-by-step diagram (illustration only). We made sure that the difficulty of assembly was similar for both tests. As in the pre-test, participants were asked to spend five minutes on the task. Next, we measured the users’ perception using different constructs from literature (see Table 4 ). Again, all behavioral constructs were measured on a 7-point Likert scale (1: totally disagree to 7: totally agree, with 4 a neutral statement). Finally, participants answered five qualitative questions about the usage of the tool, the impact of RELEX on participants’ recipe writing, and user experience.

Measures and Analysis

To investigate the impact of our system, we studied learners’ writing performance on the task and the transfer task. Moreover, the impact on learners’ perception was assessed using a post-survey with qualitative questions. Finally, we assessed the impact on learners’ revision behavior using a keystroke analysis.

Task Performance . To assess participants’ progress in recipe writing skills, we used each participant’s first recipe (i.e., their first submission) as an initial evaluation and their last revised recipe (i.e., their last submission) as a final evaluation. Specifically, we computed two scores for each recipe: the predicted stars ( \(S_y(x)\) ) and the quality score ( \(Q_y(x)\) ). The first score, the predicted stars ( \(S_y(x)\) ), was obtained using the model fine-tuned to predict the recipes’ stars ( RELEXset-Predictor , see “ Offline Training and Annotation ”). We gave as input the recipe written by the participant and the model returned the predicted stars. The second score is a quality/completeness score based on the quality criteria (structure, clarity, specificity) implemented by the set of suggestions derived in “ Offline Training and Annotation ”. We computed the quality score \(Q_y(x)\) for a recipe x from a participant y based on \(A_{x}\) , the set of suggestions relevant to recipe x . For each suggestion \(r_i \in A_{x}\) , we computed a score \(s_{y,r_i} \in \{0,1\}\) , where 1 indicates that the suggestion was followed and 0 indicates that the suggestion was missing. We then computed the quality score as \(Q_y(x)=\sum s_{y,r_i}/|A_x|\) . The quality score, therefore, measures the ratio of followed rules for a recipe.

Transfer Performance . To evaluate the pre-and post-test tasks, we assessed the learning objectives of procedural texts. We thus adopted the subset of suggestions regarding structure, clarity, and specificity described in Table 2 . We made adjustments to \(r_8\) and \(r_9\) to better suit the context of furniture assembly. Specifically, for the specificity of materials ( \(r_8\) ), we examined the level of detail provided in describing the materials, such as explicitly naming them as wood or metal. For the specificity of steps ( \(r_9\) ), we assessed how accurately the components were referred to, including terms like screws, pegs, grooves, and knobs. Similar to measuring task performance in terms of suggestions, for each relevant suggestion \(r_i\) with, \(i \in \{1,...,9\}\) , we computed a quality score \(s_{y,r_i} \in \{0,1\}\) , where 1 indicates that the requested suggestion is followed and 0 indicates that the suggestion is missing. The overall transfer score of the task was then calculated as \(T_y(task)=\sum s_{y,r_i}/9\) .

Perception . We analyzed participants’ open responses with topic modeling. We used BERTTopic  (Grootendorst, 2022 ), a technique that incorporates the contextual information of the text by clustering embeddings generated by pre-trained transformer-based language models. We used Sentence-BERT  (Reimers & Gurevych, 2019 ) to embed the sentences in the fixed-size representation required by BERTTopic . More specifically, we used all-mpnet-base-v2 checkpoint from HuggingFace’s Transformers. We split the participants’ answers into sentences v and clustered them to obtain the topics z . The topics extracted by BERTTopic are described in terms of the most important words and their relevance. We interpreted them and assigned names to each cluster. In a next step, we computed for each sentence v the probability \(p_{v,z}\) of belonging to each cluster z . We considered that a sentence v belongs to a cluster z if \(p_{v,z} > 0.3\) to allow for sentences to be categorized into at most three topics. We then grouped the sentences by participant y to obtain the set of topics \(Z_y\) for their entire text answer. As an example, assume that the answer of a participant y consisted of three sentences \(v_1\) , \(v_2\) and \(v_3\) with assigned topics: \(v_1\) - topics A , B , \(v_2\) - topic B , and \(v_3\) - topics A , C , D . In this case, the set of topics associated with the text answer of participant y is \(Z_y = {A,B,C,D}\) .

Revision Behavior . To study users’ revision behavior, we analyzed the changes made to their recipes after receiving feedback. Based on this feedback, participants were instructed to refine their recipe. This process of analysis and improvement was not limited to a single iteration; participants could engage in multiple cycles of revision. Thus, we define a "revision" to be the set of edits (deletion, insertion, and changes) executed after receiving feedback on the recipe submission. For example, if a user requests feedback, reviews an example recipe, and subsequently makes several changes to their recipe, we consider the sequence of modifications as a single revision. If the user then proceeds to engage with the "Analyze" function once more, making additional edits to the recipe, this subsequent round of alterations is classified as a second revision. Following previous work on revision behavior and analyzing keystrokes (Mouchel et al., 2023 ; Zhu et al., 2019 ), we computed the following two features: revision time (time spent revising) and total number of revisions (number of times recipe was edited and re-submitted).

In this study, we sought to examine the effects of adaptive feedback and reflective prompts on learners’ perception (RQ1), procedural writing skills (RQ2), and revision behavior (RQ3). To achieve this, we conducted a comprehensive analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, on the data gathered from the post-survey, procedural writing assessments, and the pre- and post-test. In the following analyses we present the p -values resulting from the analysis, the effect sizes are available at: https://github.com/epfl-ml4ed/relex/tree/main/docs/effect-sizes.pdf . In a first preparatory step, we verified the randomization by checking for differences between the five groups at the beginning of the study. A Kruskal-Wallis test Footnote 11 confirmed that there were no differences in participants’ procedural writing skills as measured by their quality scores \(T_y(pre)\) (see “ Measures and Analysis ”) achieved on the pretest task ( \({\chi }^2(4) = 4.85\) , \(p = .30\) ). For the pre-survey, we obtained the construct score by averaging the items in each construct (all factor loadings were greater than 0.7) and found no significant differences either in participants’ previous experience with documenting cooking recipes ( \({\chi }^2(4) = 4.83\) , \(p = .30\) ) and attitudes towards technology ( \({\chi }^2(4) = 4.2\) , \(p =.37\) ). Lastly, we analyzed how long participants took to complete the study. On average, participants took 73 minutes. Again, we found no significant differences ( \({\chi }^2(4) = 8.15\) , \(p = .09\) ) between the average duration time per group (78 minutes for \(G_{R}^{A}\) ; 73 minutes for \(G_{NR}^{A}\) ; 64 minutes for \(G_{R}^{NA}\) ; 79 minutes for \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) ; and 70 minutes for CG .)

RQ1: Impact on Learners’ Experience

To answer our first research question, we analyzed participants’ user experience and perception. Based on the findings of Schworm and Renkl ( 2006 ), we hypothesized that the perceived learning gain, usefulness, behavioral intention, and attitude towards use would be higher in the groups with adaptive feedback: \(G_{R}^{A}\) , \(G_{NR}^{A}\) (H1-1) . In addition, in line with Venkatesh and Bala ( 2008 ), we hypothesized that the perceived ease of use would be the highest in the CG and the lowest in \(G_{R}^{A}\) given that the CG used the version with the simplest interface and functionality (H1-2) .

Quantitative Analysis . In a first analysis, we compared the post-survey constructs between groups using the Kruskal-Wallis test 11 . The results confirmed significant differences between groups concerning perceived usefulness ( \({\chi }^2(4) = 14.30\) , \(p < .01\) ) and behavioral intention ( \({\chi }^2(4) = 14.20\) , \(p < .01\) ). To further investigate the specific differences within these constructs, we performed a pairwise comparison using the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test, correcting for multiple comparisons via a Benjamini-Hochberg (BH) procedure.

Figure 4 depicts the distribution per group and construct, with statistically significant differences marked with * ( \(p < .05\) ) and ** ( \(p < .01\) ). We observe that participants from the group receiving both adaptive feedback and reflective prompts ( \(G_{R}^{A}\) ) perceived the tool as more useful than the participants from the groups without adaptive feedback ( \(G_{R}^{NA}\) and \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) ) and the control group ( CG ). Likewise, participants in \(G_{NR}^{A}\) (adaptive feedback, no reflective prompts) also reported higher perceived usefulness than participants in \(G_{R}^{NA}\) . It is worth mentioning that the only variant between these two groups was the presence of adaptive feedback. Moreover, regarding the behavioral intention, both \(G_{R}^{A}\) and \(G_{NR}^{A}\) (the groups with adaptive feedback) exhibit significantly higher scores than all other groups.

Post-survey answers comparison between control and treatment groups. Statistically significant differences between groups are indicated with * ( \(p < .05\) ) and ** ( \(p < .01\) )

In a subsequent analysis, we investigated the differences between the groups that received adaptive feedback ( \(G_{R}^{A}\) and \(G_{NR}^{A}\) ) and the ones that did not ( \(G_{R}^{NA}\) and \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) ). We found that the groups with adaptive feedback had significantly higher scores in four out of five constructs: perceived usefulness ( \({\chi }^2(1) = 11.46\) , \(p < .001\) ); attitudes toward use ( \({\chi }^2(1) = 5.2\) , \(p < .01\) ); behavioral intention ( \({\chi }^2(1) = 12.08\) , \(p < .001\) ); and perceived learning gain ( \({\chi }^2(1) = 6.07\) , \(p < 0.01\) ). Interestingly, there were no significant differences in the perceived ease of use.

Perception Analysis . In our subsequent analysis, we delved into participants’ open-text responses to gain deeper insights into the observed effects from the post-survey. Specifically, we first examined the responses to the question "What did you like?". The responses reflected a positive reception of the system’s features, including comparative viewing of recipes, in-text highlighting, ease of use, helpful suggestions, and educational insights. The most frequently mentioned aspect, noted by 16% of participants, was the opportunity to see other recipes. This feature was particularly appreciated for its comparative aspect, as highlighted by a participant from \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) : "[I liked] that I could compare my recipe with another, which makes you want to improve yours to a higher standard." The next notable aspect was in-text highlighting, valued by 11% of participants. A participant from \(G_{R}^{A}\) described this feature as "useful to quickly identify areas, and it helps you learn and observe things you can improve quite intuitively." Ease of use was also a significant point of appreciation. Participants described the system as "really intuitive, user-friendly" and "clear, easy to use and methodical ." Additionally, participants praised the quality of the suggestions offered. Comments like "I liked that it gave useful suggestions that are actually valuable to a beginner" and "It gives me tips and advice on how I can improve the wording and formatting of my recipe, so I can easily make these changes to improve the clarity and how clear my recipe is" were common. Finally, the educational insights provided by the system were highlighted. One participant mentioned, "it allowed me to gain a better perspective on how to write instructions in a clearer and more concise manner. It helped me to focus on problem areas that I subconsciously missed because it has become ingrained into my writing style. Overall, I would say that it made me more aware of my writing foibles and allowed me to thus tackle those problems and improve." Another added, "Despite reading a lot of recipes in the past, I do think that it very quickly guided me to writing more concise and easier to understand instructions. I like how quickly I learned using it, as well as how it leads you to figure out how to write good instructions rather than simply telling you a strict set of rules you must use."

Next, we examined participants’ feedback on potential improvements to the tool. Not surprisingly, \(12\%\) of participants in the control group ( CG ) proposed personalized content. One participant suggested, "I would change the recipe suggestions to be directly relevant for each written recipe. For example, after the first recipe, I added numbers to each step in the following two recipes, but still received the same feedback, so it became less useful." Similarly, \(16\%\) and \(4\%\) of the participants in \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) and \(G_{R}^{NA}\) , respectively, which were shown pre-selected recipes without using our pipeline, mentioned "adaptivity" as a potential area of improvement, suggesting to: "Limit the returned recipes to related dishes only." Interestingly, some participants in \(G_{R}^{A}\) , where participants received semantically similar examples, also expressed a desire for even more similar examples. One participant noted: "I would offer example recipes that have the same ingredients as the user’s recipe." . Another participant added "I may improve my recipe by adding ingredients that I did not previously add before to make it taste better." Furthermore, practical suggestions for future tool iterations included the ability to scan handwritten recipes, eliminating the need to retype them, and the integration of real-time tips and advice during recipe composition.

In summary, participants who received personalized examples ( \(G_{R}^{A}\) and \(G_{NR}^{A}\) ) reported significantly higher perceived usefulness, attitudes toward use, behavioral intention, and perceived learning gain compared to the other conditions, confirming (H1-1) . Interestingly, participants in the control group ( CG ), unaware of the other conditions, suggested the incorporation of adaptive feedback and content personalization, while participants in groups \(G_{R}^{NA}\) and \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) recommended showing more tailored and similar recipes. However, contrary to our expectations, there were no significant differences in the perceived ease of use between the conditions. As a result, we reject (H1-2) and conclude that the example-selection pipeline does not impose any perceivable burden or complexity on users.

RQ2: Effect on Learners’ Writing Performance

To answer the second research question, we analyzed learners’ writing performance (quantitatively) and participants’ open-text answers (qualitatively). We analyzed the users’ change in performance on the recipe task as well as on the furniture assembly task (transfer task). For the in-task performance, we hypothesized that learners who received adaptive feedback would outperform those who did not, because the highlighted elements and explanations reduce the cognitive load needed to capture the main elements (Sweller, 1994 ), enabling participants to learn faster and perform better on the task (H2-1) . In contrast, for the performance on the transfer task, we hypothesized that the participants who received reflective prompts would perform better, because of the generation effect that states that self-generated information is better retained and learned (Renkl, 2002 ) (H2-2) .

Effect on learners’ task performance . To test H2-1 , we used a repeated-measures ANOVA for the predicted stars \(S_y(x)\) and quality score \(Q_y(x)\) (see “ Measures and Analysis ”) with the conditions ( \(G_{R}^{A}\) , \(G_{NR}^{A}\) , \(G_{R}^{NA}\) , \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) and CG ) as the between-subjects and the test time (pre-score, post-score) as a within-subject factor. Subsequently, we proceeded with pairwise comparisons using the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test with BH corrections to investigate the differences between the various conditions.

In the quality score ( \(Q_y(x)\) ) analysis, we found a significant effect of test time ( \(F(1,186)=84.4, p<.0001\) ). Test time refers to the different measurements of the quality score through time, i.e., how the scores change from the first to the last recipe. Thus, a significant effect of test time means that the quality scores changed significantly over the course of the experiment. As seen in Fig.  5 (top left), the scores in general increased from the first to the last recipes. In addition, there was also a significant interaction effect ( \(F(4,186)=2.6, p<.05\) ), which indicates that the effect of time on quality scores differed depending on the experimental condition. This is also visible in Fig.  5 (top left) where some groups exhibit a steeper slope than others. This is further reinforced by a non-significant condition factor in the between-subjects analysis ( \(F(4,186)=1.65, p=.10\) ), which suggests that there were no inherent differences between the participants in the different groups. Planned pairwise comparisons confirmed the observed differences in Fig.  5 (top left). The users in \(G_{R}^{A}\) improved significantly more than the users in \(G_{R}^{NA}\) ( \(p<.05\) ). Likewise, users in \(G_{NR}^{A}\) performed significantly better than users in \(G_{R}^{NA}\) ( \(p<.05\) ) and CG ( \(p<.05\) ).

In a subsequent analysis, we investigated the differences between the groups with and without adaptive feedback (Fig. 5 top middle) as well as with and without reflective prompts (Fig. 5 top right). Planned comparisons revealed that the users with adaptive feedback improved significantly more than the users without ( \(p<.01\) ) from the first to the last recipe.

Regarding the predicted stars ( \(S_y(x)\) ) analysis, we found a significant effect of test time, with participants’ predicted stars improving significantly across recipes ( \(F(1,186)=19.2, p<.0001\) ). There was no main effect of the condition, and planned comparisons revealed no differences between the conditions.

Performance on recipe task (in terms of quality score) and transfer task. The error bars show the standard deviation

Effect on learners’ transfer performance . In a next analysis, we also used a repeated-measures ANOVA to assess performance improvements on the transfer task. Figure 5 (bottom left) illustrates the score change between participants’ pre- and post-test for the five conditions. While the CG seems to do worse than the other four conditions, we only found a significant effect of test time ( \(F(1,186)=104, p<.0001\) ). This suggests that on average, all the participants improved on the transfer task (see Fig. 5 (bottom left)). For example, \(24\%\) of the participants, who did not enumerate the steps in the pre-test, enumerated the steps in the post-test. Moreover, we reviewed the tests and noted that only two participants included a title in the pre-test, while 26 participants added it in the post-test. We also investigated the differences between the groups with and without adaptive feedback (Fig. 5 bottom middle) as well as with and without reflective prompts (Fig. 5 bottom right) and found no significant effects.

Perception Analysis . To relate the observed effects on performance to participants’ perceived performance, we again examined the survey’s open-text answers. After each recipe, participants were asked to describe the changes they made in their recipes. \(20\%\) of the participants referred to enumerating: "I numbered the steps to make the order clearer. It was a good point and will allow who is cooking to quickly find the step they need" ( \(G_{NR}^{A}\) ). Most of the consecutive popular topics referred to the recipe suggestions and explanations, for example, "specifying the size and type of pan" ( \(10\%\) ), "using more appropriate terms than add like mix, stir, beat" ( \(9\%\) ). Interestingly, despite not having direct suggestions, some participants in \(G_{R}^{NA}\) , \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) , and CG made similar changes. For example, a participant in \(G_{R}^{NA}\) mentioned: "I added a size measurement to my description of a baking pan because I realised it is helpful to have these details available for new bakers who are unsure of what sizes these things ought to be" .

In addition, as observed in the post-test, no participant in the CG mentioned adding a title and only \(3\%\) of the participants in \(G_{NR}^{A}\) mentioned it. In comparison, \(12\%\) and \(13\%\) of the participants from \(G_{R}^{NA}\) and \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) said they added a title; a participant from \(G_{R}^{NA}\) wrote: "I [originally] did not give my recipe a title. I saw that in the example recipe and realised stating the title would help the presentation" .

Additionally, to comprehend the impact of the reflective prompts, we examined how participants in groups \(G_{R}^{A}\) and \(G_{R}^{NA}\) responded regarding their utilization of these prompts. Among the participants, \(27\%\) mentioned that the prompts were useful in identifying areas of improvement, with one participant expressing, "I had to actually think about where I was going wrong and what was good about the example" . For \(12\%\) of the participants, the reflective prompts acted as a means of introspection, leading them to consider ways to enhance their own recipe writing. One participant explained, "It forced me to be introspective about my own recipe writing and thus think of ways to improve my instructions." However, a small percentage (7%) of the participants expressed a dislike for the prompts. For instance, one participant conveyed, "Not much, the reflective questions were just a part to write what I was already thinking." This observation could provide some insight into why we did not observe a significant effect of the reflective prompts on performance.

In summary, our findings support H2-1 as we observed significant differences in task performance between groups with and without adaptive feedback. However, contrary to our expectations, we did not find any significant differences in task performance between groups with and without reflective prompts, leading us to reject H2-2 . Furthermore, the results from the perception analyses indicate that participants from all groups demonstrated a good understanding of the basic elements of a procedural text.

RQ3: Effect on Learners’ Revision Behavior

In addressing our final research question, we studied how users revised their recipes after receiving feedback. We formulated two hypotheses to explore this aspect. Firstly, we hypothesized that the groups with reflection prompts would invest more time in the revision process. Participants in these groups were required to answer the reflective questions, and we anticipated that this reflective practice would lead them to approach revisions with a critical mindset, spending more time contemplating potential improvements ( H3-1 ). Additionally, we hypothesized that groups receiving adaptive feedback would continue revising over time, as the feedback provided would remain pertinent and applicable to their writing efforts ( H3-2 ).

Quantitative Analysis . Firstly, we investigated users’ average revision time (time spent revising the recipes). We compared the revision features between groups using the Kruskal-Wallis test 11 , confirming that there were significant differences between groups for time ( \({\chi }^2(4) = 12.2\) , \(p < .01\) ). Then, to investigate the differences between groups, we performed post-hoc Wilcox pairwise comparison Footnote 12 .

We found that users in group \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) spent significantly less time revising than users in \(G_{R}^{A}\) ( \(p < .05\) ) and \(G_{NR}^{A}\) ( \(p < .05\) ). However, we did not find any significant difference between the groups with and without reflecting prompts, thus rejecting H3-1 .

Next, we examined how the time spent varied between the three recipes users wrote. Figure 6 (left) illustrates the revision times of all five conditions for their first, second and third recipe. We observe that over time, users from all groups spend less time revising. It is worth noting that in the first recipe the users in \(G_{R}^{A}\) spent on average more than twice as much time (346 seconds) as the users in \(G_{R}^{NA}\) (166 seconds, \(p < .05\) ), suggesting that the adaptive features prolongated the time users revised the recipes.

Revision behavior: time spent revising, number of revisions, and the percentage of declared no changes

Furthermore, when analyzing the number of revisions, we also found significant differences in the overall number of revisions per group ( \({\chi }^2(4) = 23.6\) , \(p < .001\) ). In particular, group \(G_{NR}^{A}\) revised their recipes more than the rest of the groups ( \(G_{R}^{A}\) , \(p < .05\) ; \(G_{R}^{NA}\) , \(p < .001\) ; \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) , \(p < .001\) ; CG , \(p < .01\) ).

Moreover, we examined the number of revisions per recipe and found that there was also a general declining trend in the average number of revisions (see Fig. 6 (middle)). Analogously to the general results, in the first recipe, the users in \(G_{NR}^{A}\) revised their recipe significantly more than the groups with no adaptive feedback ( \(p < .01\) for \(G_{R}^{NA}\) and \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) ). Likewise, in the second recipe, \(G_{NR}^{A}\) had significantly more revisions than \(G_{R}^{NA}\) ( \(p = .005\) ), \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) ( \(p = .006\) ) and CG ( \(p = .02\) ). Despite the fact that users in \(G_{NR}^{A}\) also reduced their revision count throughout all three recipes, they consistently maintained a higher average number of revisions compared to the other groups. This finding supports hypothesis H3-2 , indicating that certain users who received adaptive feedback still perceived it as interesting or valuable enough to ask for it again. Nonetheless, it is notable that for the first recipe, users in \(G_{NR}^{A}\) revised more than users in \(G_{R}^{A}\) , despite both having adaptive feedback. It might be possible that the reflective prompts increased the cognitive load for \(G_{R}^{A}\) , leading to less revisions.

Perception Analysis . As mentioned earlier, after each submission, participants were asked to describe the changes they made to improve their recipes. Figure 6 (right) shows the percentage of participants reporting not making any changes for their first, second, and third recipes. We observe that for all groups, a large majority of users reported changes, with the percentage of participants not improving their recipe, increased from the first to the last recipe. Not surprisingly, group CG had the steepest increase: \(29\%\) of participants in this group reported making no changes to their last recipe. One participant in this group mentioned that The Analyze button just outputs the same suggestions every time, so I knew already what it wanted, and I didn’t need to make any changes . This suggests that the feedback became redundant as it was static and there were no changes. In contrast, \(88\%\) ( \(G_{R}^{A}\) ) and \(86\%\) ( \(G_{NR}^{A}\) ) of the participants in the adaptive feedback groups continued to report changes they made to the recipe. A big portion of the changes reported by the users (83%), came from (or were very similar to) the suggestion given by the system. Interestingly, in the first recipe, most changes were related to the structure of the recipe, for example: "I added the ingredients list and made it step by instructions. I made these steps to make it easier to follow." Whereas in the second and third recipes, most comments referred to the specificity of the instructions and the steps, for example, one participant of \(G_{NR}^{A}\) mentioned: "I described exactly when to move onto a next step and what to look out for in a mixture in order to proceed" .

In summary, we reject H3-1 as we did not see the groups with reflection prompts spending more time revising. Moreover, our quantitative and qualitative analyses support H3-2 indicating that groups with adaptive feedback perceive the example recipe and annotations as relevant, while suggestions for the other groups started to feel redundant.

Discussion and Conclusion

In this paper, we presented RELEX , an adaptive learning system for enhancing procedural writing skills. RELEX features a real-time retrieval pipeline, enabling personalized example-based learning at scale. Our multi-step pipeline selects higher quality and semantically relevant examples for learners based on their input and provides suggestions on how to improve their writing. We evaluated RELEX with 200 users to analyze the effects of personalized examples and reflective prompts on users’ writing performance, perceived experience, and revision behavior.

Impact on learners’ experience (RQ1) . Our results show that providing adaptive feedback on procedural writing skills has a positive impact on the user experience (RQ1). As we hypothesized ( H1-1: Adaptive feedback will lead to heightened perceptions of learning gain, usefulness, behavioral intention, and more positive attitudes towards usage among learners ), learners who received personalized recipes and adaptive feedback ( \(G_{R}^{A}\) and \(G_{NR}^{A}\) ) judged the perceived learning gain, the perceived usefulness, the behavioral intention for continuous use, and the attitude towards use significantly better than those who did not receive adaptive feedback ( \(G_{R}^{NA}\) and \(G_{NR}^{NA}\) ). These results are coherent with previous work (Wambsganss et al., 2020 ), where the group with adaptive feedback had a significantly higher intention to use. Moreover, our analysis of open answers exemplifies the positive reactions participants had towards seeing another recipe, in-text highlighted elements, and adaptive suggestions. A positive perception plays an important role in the long-term success of learning tools and their potential to foster learning (Kirkpatrick, 1994 ).

Against our expectations and different from Fan et al. ( 2017 ), we did not find any significant differences between the groups regarding the perceived ease of use ( H1-2: The ease of use will be perceived as most favorable in the groups with simpler interfaces ). We originally hypothesized that the users would find the complete interface (including the personalized example, adaptive explanations, in-text highlighting, and reflective prompts) hard to understand. Venkatesh and Bala ( 2008 ) define perceived ease of use as the degree to which a person believes that using the tool with be free of effort. Thus, we expected the extra features like reflection and suggestions to represent an effort for the users. Nevertheless, when analyzing the qualitative comments, the third highest-ranked topic was the "intuitiveness" of the tool. This suggests that the design iterations with users contributed to an intuitive design, where the special features and elements do not hinder the ease of use.

Impact on learners’ writing performance (RQ2) . Moreover, we investigated the effects of the design elements (personalized example, adaptive feedback and prompts) on performance (RQ2). Our results confirm our hypothesis ( H2-1: Adaptive feedback will improve in-task writing performance ), showing that participants in the adaptive feedback groups improved their recipe quality and completeness significantly more than the participants in the non-adaptive groups. The perception analysis suggests that the in-text highlighted elements helped identify the areas of opportunity quickly. Previous work (van Gog et al., 2008 ) found that extra information and explanations were beneficial in terms of learning gains at first, but hindered performance later on as the information quickly became redundant. In our study, we overcome that challenge in \(G_{R}^{A}\) and \(G_{NR}^{A}\) by only showing explanations that are relevant based on the user’s recipe. This adaptivity could also explain the observed performance differences given that \(G_{R}^{NA}\) - CG received redundant explanations regardless of the user’s input. This is in line with the perception analysis, where the participants in the CG mentioned that the suggestions became less useful when they were redundant.

We also studied whether participants in the groups with reflective prompts were able to generalize better when asked to transfer the skills to another domain ( H2-2: Reflective prompts will improve the writing performance in a transfer task ). Our results reject our hypothesis. We hypothesize that the duration of the user study was too short (only three recipes) to unfold the self-explanation effect (Wong et al., 2002 ). Alternatively, as noted by one of the participants, it is possible that even without writing, the participants were already explaining the example to themselves.

Surprisingly, all groups improved on the transfer task (furniture assembly). We observed that, on average, participants improved their text \(15\%\) in terms of quality (structure and specificity). This suggests that participants were able to grasp the principles of the learning domain (procedural writing) and apply them to a different exemplifying domain (furniture assembly). Furthermore, our results from H2-1 and the perception analysis indicate that participants also learned elements specific to the cooking domain (e.g., specifying the heat intensity). In H2-1 we observed significant differences when measuring the improvements from both content levels. We therefore hypothesize that the five approaches (experimental conditions) are similarly effective in teaching general procedural writing skills (from the learning domain). Yet, the conditions incorporating adaptive feedback also enhance learners’ understanding in a specialized area within procedural writing: cooking recipe writing (exemplifying domain). On average, participants improved the structure and organization of their procedural text by \(15\%\) , including enumerating the steps, listing the materials, having separate sections for materials and steps, and adding appropriate sub-headings. According to the double-content description provided by Renkl et al. ( 2009 ), these elements belong to the content level of the learning domain of procedural writing (i.e., how to structure a procedural text in general), i.e. participants were able to grasp the fundamental structural elements of procedural writing by practicing only in the example domain.

Impact on learners’ revision behavior (RQ3) . In the last analysis, against our expectations, we did not find that the use of reflective questions led to extended periods of revision. On the contrary, we found that users who received adaptive feedback spent more time revising ( H3-1: Reflective prompts will increase the duration of revision times ) than the users without adaptive feedback. Moreover, we observed that in general the time spent revising, as well as the number of revisions, decreased from the first to the last recipe. It is indeed interesting that despite the users spending less time revising, the recipes are of higher quality (as seen in RQ2 ). As the perception analysis revealed, the users made fewer changes because they had already incorporated some of the feedback. Zhu et al. ( 2020 ) also observed a decline in the revision time with multiple tasks and hypothesized that the users became more familiar with the content and the feedback resulting in less time reading feedback and making changes.

As expected, users with adaptive feedback continued to revise more in their second and third recipes ( H3-2: Adaptive feedback will result in an increased number of revisions ). The percentage of users in groups with adaptive feedback that report making no changes in the last recipe is lower than in the other groups. van Gog and Rummel ( 2010 ) observed instructional explanations becoming redundant and irrelevant over time; it seems that providing personalized examples and annotations indeed helps reducing this effect. These results complement the results from RQ1 , it is possible that the users perceived the tool as more useful if they engaged more with the feedback and spent more time making changes.

Literature Contributions . Our study contributes to and expands prior research in two main literature streams.

First, we contribute to the literature stream of artificial intelligence (AI) for example-based learning in heuristic domains. Most prior research (van Gog et al., 2008 ; van Gog & Rummel, 2010 ; Renkl et al., 2009 ; Renkl, 2002 ) on example-based learning uses static examples: both the examples and explanations are created by experts and all the learners see the exact same content, independent of their input. In contrast to past literature, RELEX provides examples tailored to the needs of the learner in terms of topic (i.e. similar content) and skill level. Instead of providing a perfect expert example, we provide a peer example of better quality, but still attainable. Furthermore, we also personalize the instructional explanations based on the input text of the learner. Additionally, we enhance the adaptive feedback by incorporating reflective prompts, leveraging the documented benefits found in the existing literature (Schworm & Renkl, 2007 ; Wong et al., 2002 ; Chi et al., 1989 ; Roelle et al., 2012 ).

Second, we contribute to the literature around SRL in AI systems. By including prompts for self-evaluation within the design of RELEX , we shed light on the combination of reflective prompts and personalized content and their effect on learning experiences and learning outcomes. Despite the qualitative comments on the helpfulness of the prompts and the positive effects from previous work (Roelle et al., 2012 ; Schworm & Renkl, 2007 ; van Gog & Rummel, 2010 ), we did not see a significant effect on our quantitative outcome variables for perception or performance. This opens new lines of future research to investigate how to best integrate reflective prompts into adaptive systems.

RELEX contrasts with previous approaches to instruct procedural writing skills by focusing on personalization and adaptivity. In comparison to previous works (Traga Philippakos, 2019 ; Sato & Matsushima, 2006 ; Alviana, 2019 ) where the instructional materials are static, meaning that all students received the same examples, in RELEX the example is chosen to cater to individual learning needs. Moreover, in comparison to instructional group approaches (Traga Philippakos, 2019 ), in RELEX each student can learn at their own pace and different from (Sato & Matsushima, 2006 ), it does not require external readers to give feedback. Furthermore, in contrast to other approaches of example-based learning (Sweller, 1994 ; van Gog et al., 2008 ; Renkl et al., 2009 ; Renkl, 2002 ), in our work, not only do we provide a personalized example, but we also offset the common disadvantage of instructional explanations being redundant or too complex. By annotating the examples with instructional explanations adapted to the learner’s prior text, we ensure their relevance.

Limitations and Future Work . One of the big challenges of enriching examples in example-based learning is the relevance of the explanations (Renkl, 2002 ). Despite the participants’ positive perception of the suggestions, they were extracted from "The Recipe Writer’s Handbook, Revised and Expanded" (Ostmann & Baker, 2001 ) and inevitably include the authors’ bias. For example, there are more suggestions for ingredients used in Western cuisine. The implication of this is that at scale, learners who write recipes from Western cuisine could benefit more from relevant suggestions. Future lines of work should investigate these biases and how to mitigate them.

Another limitation emerging from the database is that the prediction model was trained on user ratings that can be subjective. In addition, the ratings were given for a recipe as a whole, combining writing quality and taste. We examined the comments associated with the ratings and found that high-rated recipes (five stars) often had comments appreciating the clarity of instructions, as exemplified by remarks like " I really appreciate the instructions about using the spoon when cutting the potatoes. This is a well-written recipe." ; and "This was easy enough to prepare on a worknight and assembly was so easy when following the well-written directions" . Conversely, recipes with low ratings were often criticized for their lack of clarity and order, as indicated by comments such as "This recipe is written in a way that is impossible to attempt to follow or understand. It is a disaster." ; and "Very frustrated with the directions. They are not orderly whatsoever." . This suggests that even if a recipe is tasty, unclear writing can hinder its reproducibility, leading to low ratings. However, we acknowledge that a recipe with excellent writing but an unfamiliar or unappealing taste might also receive low ratings. In future studies, it would be beneficial to separate the variables taste and writing quality to more accurately assess their individual impacts on user ratings.

This complexity extends to the predictive task, where RELEXset-Predictor attempts to account for both taste and writing quality, leading to only minor improvement over a static baseline. We have therefore made our code and models publicly available Footnote 13 , encouraging future research to enhance predictive accuracy, for example through the integration of new SOTA models. The design of the subsequent stages of the pipeline attempts to mitigate the limitations of RELEXset-Predictor . Overall, participants perceived the adaptive recipes as useful and edited the recipes accordingly. However more rigorous, quantitative assessments are needed to investigate the influence of the model performance and the chosen quality range on user perception. Furthermore, RELEX offers a promising approach for learners to improve their recipe writing skills by integrating both the learning domain (procedural writing) and the exemplifying domain (cooking). Despite its effectiveness, its scope is limited to these specific areas. One main takeaway for the research community is the demonstrated importance of adaptivity and personalization in example-based learning, particularly in enhancing user engagement and performance outcomes. In future work, the example-selection pipeline can be adapted to cater to other learning domains. For instance, journal writing (Roelle et al., 2012 ), high school instruction (Hilbert et al., 2008 ), or argumentative writing (Schworm & Renkl, 2007 ). Transferring RELEX to a different exemplifying or learning domain requires two main ingredients: 1) multiple examples with associated evaluations, ratings, or grades, and 2) domain-specific suggestions regarding example annotation. The selection pipeline (see “ Personalized Example Retrieval Pipeline ”) can be used to fine-tune an NLP model to predict the evaluations of the examples. Then, the model name and domain-specific suggestions can be added to the code base of RELEX to run the application. By extending the tool’s capabilities to various educational contexts, we anticipate a broader impact and potential benefits for learners across different domains Footnote 14 .

In the future, we envision expanding the scope and applicability of our findings by conducting replication studies in real-world settings, such as classrooms with chef apprentices. This approach would help address the ecological validity of the results and provide insights into the effectiveness of RELEX in practical educational contexts. Additionally, we plan to explore the long-term effects of RELEX by conducting a longitudinal study, assessing how repeated usage of the tool impacts learners’ procedural writing skills over an extended period.

The demo version of RELEX is available at https://go.epfl.ch/relex

The detailed interview questions can be found on https://github.com/epfl-ml4ed/relex/blob/main/docs/user-interviews.pdf

RELEXset can be downloaded from https://github.com/epfl-ml4ed/relex/readme.md

RELEXset-MLM is available at https://huggingface.co/paola-md/RELEXset-MLM and RELEXset-Predictor is available at https://huggingface.co/paola-md/RELEXset-Predictor/

The architecture configuration is available at https://huggingface.co/paola-md/RELEXset-Predictor/blob/main/config.json

After a significant Shapiro-Wilk test on the three sets ( \(p=0\) )

Visual validation available at: https://github.com/epfl-ml4ed/relex/blob/main/docs/split-verification.ipynb

Complete list of suggestions and classification rules available at https://github.com/epfl-ml4ed/relex/docs/recipe-suggestions-rules.pdf .

https://norvig.com/mayzner.html

We checked for normality using a Shapiro-Wilk test and verified equal variances using Levene’s test and found that for both age and gender, the assumptions of ANOVA were not satisfied.

We checked for normality using a Shapiro-Wilk test and verified equal variances using Levene’s test and found the assumptions of ANOVA were not satisfied.

correcting for multiple comparisons via BH procedure.

For those interested in replicating or building upon our work, we have made the implementation code and instructions for domain transfer available at https://github.com/epfl-ml4ed/relex/readme.md

For those interested in replicating or building upon our work, we have made the implementation code and instructions for domain transfer available at https://github.com/epfl-ml4ed/relex/readme.md .

Adoniou, M. (2013). Drawing to support writing development in english language learners. Language and Education , 27 (3), 261–277. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2012.704047

Afrin, T., Kashefi, O., Olshefski, C., Litman, D., Hwa, R., & Godley, A. (2021). Effective interfaces for student-driven revision sessions for argumentative writing. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–13). ACM. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445683

Agarwal, R., & Karahanna, E. (2000). Time flies when you’re having fun: cognitive absorption and beliefs about information technology usage. MIS Quarterly , 24 (4), 665–694. Retrieved 2022-09-13 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3250951

Ahmed, U.Z., Srivastava, N., Sindhgatta, R., & Karkare, A. (2020). Characterizing the pedagogical benefits of adaptive feedback for compilation errors by novice programmers. In: Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (pp. 139–150). ACM. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/3377814.3381703

Alamri, H., Lowell, V., Watson, W., & Watson, S.L. (2020). Using personalized learning as an instructional approach to motivate learners in online higher education: Learner self-determination and intrinsic motivation. Journal of Research on Technology in Education , 52 (3), 322–352. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2020.1728449

Alviana, V. (2019). The effect of recipe demonstration technique on students’ writing competence in procedural text. Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, 7 (2), 128–131.

Article   Google Scholar  

Ambarwati, S., & Listyani, L. (2021). Procedural essay writing: Students’ problems and strategies. LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 24 (2), 364–379.

Bassen, J., Balaji, B., Schaarschmidt, M., Thille, C., Painter, J., Zimmaro, D. & Mitchell, J.C. (2020). Reinforcement learning for the adaptive scheduling of educational activities. In: CHI ’20: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–12). ACM. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376518

Bień, M., Gilski, M., Maciejewska, M., Taisner, W., Wisniewski, D., & Lawrynowicz, A. (2020). RecipeNLG: A cooking recipes dataset for semi-structured text generation. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Natural Language Generation (pp. 22–28). ACL. Retrieved from https://aclanthology.org/2020.inlg-1.4

Bimba, A.T., Idris, N., Al-Hunaiyyan, A., Mahmud, R.B., & Shuib, N.L.B.M. (2017). Adaptive feedback in computer-based learning environments: a review. Adaptive Behavior , 25 (5), 217–234. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712317727590

Brown, T.B., & et al. (2020). Language models are few-shot learners. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 33 . Retrieved from https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2020/hash/1457c0d6bfcb4967418bfb8ac142f64a-Abstract.html

Chi, M.T., Bassok, M., Lewis, M.W., Reimann, P., & Glaser, R. (1989). Self-explanations: How students study and use examples in learning to solve problems. Cognitive Science , 13 (2), 145–182. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/0364-0213(89)90002-5

Compeau, D.R., & Higgins, C.A. (1995). Computer self-efficacy: Development of a measure and initial test. MIS Quarterly , 19 (2), 189–211. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/249688

Cooper, A., Reimann, R., & Cronin, D. (2007). About face 3: the essentials of interaction design (3rd edition). Wiley Pub.

Davis, F.D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly , 13 (3), 319–340. Retrieved 2022-09-13 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/249008

Devlin, J., Chang, M., Lee, K., & Toutanova, K. (2019). BERT: pre-training of deep bidirectional transformers for language understanding. In: Proceedings of the 2019 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (pp. 4171–4186). Association for Computational Linguistics. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/n19-1423

Doroudi, S., Kamar, E., Brunskill, E., & Horvitz, E. (2016). Toward a learning science for complex crowdsourcing tasks. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2623–2634). ACM. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858268

Fan, X., Luo, W., Menekse, M., Litman, D., & Wang, J. (2017). Scaling reflection prompts in large classrooms via mobile interfaces and natural language processing. Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (pp. 363–374). ACM. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/3025171.3025204

Grootendorst, M. (2022). BERTopic: Neural topic modeling with a class-based TF-IDF procedure . Retrieved from arXiv:2203.05794

Gururangan, S., Marasovic, A., Swayamdipta, S., Lo, K., Beltagy, I., Downey, D., & Smith, N.A. (2020). Don’t stop pretraining: Adapt language models to domains and tasks. Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (pp. 8342–8360). ACL. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2020.acl-main.740

Hilbert, T.S., Renkl, A., Kessler, S., & Reiss, K. (2008). Learning to prove in geometry: Learning from heuristic examples and how it can be supported. Learning and Instruction , 18 (1), 54–65. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2006.10.008

Hosseini, R., & Brusilovsky, P. (2017). A study of concept-based similarity approaches for recommending program examples. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia , 23 (3), 161–188. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/13614568.2017.1356878

Hu, G., Ahmed, M., & L’Abbé, M.R. (2022). Natural language processing and machine learning approaches for food categorization and nutrition quality prediction compared to traditional methods. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , 553–563. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.11.022

Jin, R., & Si, L. (2004). A study of methods for normalizing user ratings in collaborative filtering. Proceedings of the 27th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (pp. 568–569). ACM. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/1008992.1009124

Kingma, D.P., & Ba, J. (2015). Adam: A method for stochastic optimization. 3rd International Conference on Learning Representations . Retrieved from arXiv:1412.6980

Kirkpatrick, D. L. (1994). Evaluating training programs: The four levels . San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Google Scholar  

Landis, J.R., & Koch, G.G. (1977). An application of hierarchical kappa-type statistics in the assessment of majority agreement among multiple observers. Biometrics , 33 (2), 363–374. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2529786

Liu, Y., Ott, M., Goyal, N., Du, J., Joshi, M., Chen, D. & Stoyanov, V. (2019). RoBERTa: A Robustly Optimized BERT Pretraining Approach . Retrieved from arXiv:1907.11692

Majumder, B.P., Li, S., Ni, J., & McAuley, J. (2019). Generating personalized recipes from historical user preferences. In: Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing and the 9th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (pp. 5976–5982). ACL. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/D19-1613

Max, L., Alex, S., & Dmytro, L. (2022). Grammarly . Retrieved from https://app.grammarly.com/

Mayfield, E., & Black, A.W. (2020). Should you fine-tune bert for automated essay scoring? In: Proceedings of the Fifteenth Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (pp. 151–162). Association for Computational Linguistics. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2020.bea-1.15

Mejia-Domenzain, P., Marras, M., Giang, C., Cattaneo, A., & Käser, T. (2022). Evolutionary clustering of apprentices’ self- regulated learning behavior in learning journals. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies , 1–14. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2022.3195881

Mouchel, L., Wambsganss, T., Mejia-Domenzain, P., & Käser, T. (2023). Understanding revision behavior in adaptive writing support systems for education. International Conference on Educational Data Mining , 445–452. Retrieved from arXiv:2306.10304

Nah, F.F. (2003). A study on tolerable waiting time: How long are web users willing to wait? 9th Americas Conference on Information Systems (p. 285). AIS. Retrieved from http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2003/285

Neelakantan, A., Xu, T., Puri, R., Radford, A., Han, J.M., Tworek, J. & et al. (2022). Text and code embeddings by contrastive pre-training. Retrieved from arXiv:2201.10005

Nückles, M., Hübner, S., & Renkl, A. (2009). Enhancing self-regulated learning by writing learning protocols. Learning and Instruction , 19 (3), 259–271. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2008.05.002

Ostmann, B.G.O., & Baker, J.L. (2001). The recipe writer’s handbook, revised and expanded . Harvest.

Paassen, B., Hammer, B., Price, T.W., Barnes, T., Gross, S., & Pinkwart, N. (2018). The Continuous Hint Factory - Providing Hints in Vast and Sparsely Populated Edit Distance Spaces. Journal of Educational Data Mining , 10 (1), 1–35. Retrieved from arXiv:1708.06564

Peer, E., Brandimarte, L., Samat, S., & Acquisti, A. (2017). Beyond the turk: Alternative platforms for crowdsourcing behavioral research. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70 , 153–163.

Pelánek, R. (2020). Measuring similarity of educational items: An overview. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies , 13 (2), 354–366. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2019.2896086

Premlatha, K.R., & Geetha, T.V. (2015). Learning content design and learner adaptation for adaptive e-learning environment: a survey. Artificial Intelligence Review , 44 (4), 443–465. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-015-9432-z

Reimers, N., & Gurevych, I. (2019). Sentence-bert: Sentence embeddings using siamese bert-networks. Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing and the 9th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (pp. 3980–3990). ACL. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/D19-1410

Renkl, A. (2002). Worked-out examples: instructional explanations support learning by self-explanations. Learning and Instruction , 12 (5), 529–556. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4752(01)00030-5

Renkl, A., Hilbert, T., & Schworm, S. (2009). Example-based learning in heuristic domains: A cognitive load theory account. Educational Psychology Review , 21 (1), 67–78. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-008-9093-4

Ringenberg, M.A., & VanLehn, K. (2006). Scaffolding problem solving with annotated, worked-out examples to promote deep learning. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (pp. 625–634). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Robertson, S.E., & Walker, S. (1994). Some simple effective approximations to the 2-poisson model for probabilistic weighted retrieval. Proceedings of the 17th Annual International Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval. (pp. 232–241). ACM. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2099-5_24

Roelle, J., Krüger, S., Jansen, C., & Berthold, K. (2012). The use of solved example problems for fostering strategies of self-regulated learning in journal writing. Education Research International. (2012). 751625. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/751625

Rogers, T., & Feller, A. (2016). Discouraged by peer excellence: Exposure to exemplary peer performance causes quitting. Psychological Science , 27 (3), 365–374. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615623770

Sanh, V., Debut, L., Chaumond, J., & Wolf, T. (2019). DistilBERT, a distilled version of BERT: smaller, faster, cheaper and lighter . Retrieved from arXiv:1910.01108

Sato, K., & Matsushima, K. (2006). Effects of audience awareness on procedural text writing. Psychological Reports , 99 (1), 51–73. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.99.1.51-73

Schwonke, R., Renkl, A., Krieg, C., Wittwer, J., Aleven, V., & Salden, R. (2009). The worked-example effect: Not an artefact of lousy control conditions. Computers in Human Behavior , 25 (2), 258–266. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.12.011

Schworm, S., & Renkl, A. (2006). Computer-supported example-based learning: When instructional explanations reduce self-explanations. Computers & Education , 46 (4), 426–445. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2004.08.011

Schworm, S., & Renkl, A. (2007). Learning argumentation skills through the use of prompts for self-explaining examples. Journal of Educational Psychology , 99 (2), 285–296. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.99.2.285

Sellam, T., Das, D., & Parikh, A.P. (2020). BLEURT: learning robust metrics for text generation. Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (pp. 7881–7892). ACL. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2020.acl-main.704

Slade, C., & Downer, T. (2020). Students’ conceptual understanding and attitudes towards technology and user experience before and after use of an eportfolio. Journal of Computing in Higher Education , 32 (3), 529–552. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-019-09245-8

Sun, C., Qiu, X., & Xu, Y. (2019). How to fine-tune BERT for text classification? Chinese Computational Linguistics - 18th China National Conference (Vol. 11856, pp. 194–206). Springer. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32381-3_16

Sweller, J. (1994). Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learning and Instruction , 4 (4), 295–312. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-4752(94)90003-5

Traga Philippakos, Z.A. (2019). Effects of strategy instruction with an emphasis on oral language and dramatization on the quality of first graders’ procedural writing. Reading & Writing Quarterly , 35 (5), 409–426. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2018.1547233

van Gog, T., & Rummel, N. (2010). Example-based learning: Integrating cognitive and social-cognitive research perspectives. Educational Psychology Review , 22 (2), 155–174. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-010-9134-7

van Gog, T., Paas, F., & van Merriënboer, J.J. (2008). Effects of studying sequences of process-oriented and product-oriented worked examples on troubleshooting transfer efficiency. Learning and Instruction , 18 (3), 211–222. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.03.003

Venkatesh, V., & Bala, H. (2008). Technology acceptance model 3 and a research agenda on interventions. Decision Sciences , 39 (2), 273–315. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.2008.00192.x

Wang, W., Arya, D.M., Novielli, N., Cheng, J., & Guo, J.L.C. (2020). Argulens: Anatomy of community opinions on usability issues using argumentation models. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–14). ACM. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376218

Wambsganss, T., Niklaus, C., Cetto, M., Söllner, M., Handschuh, S., Leimeister, J.M. (2020). AL: an adaptive learning support system for argumentation skills. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1–14)

Wieringa, D.R., & Farkas, D.K. (1991). Procedure writing across domains: nuclear power plant procedures and computer documentation. Proceedings of the 9th Annual International Conference on Systems Documentation (pp. 49–58).

Wilson, J., Olinghouse, N.G., & Andrada, G.N. (2014). Does automated feedback improve writing quality? Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal , 12 (1), 93–118. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1039856

Wolf, T., Debut, L., Sanh, V., Chaumond, J., Delangue, C., Moi, A., & Brew, J. (2019). Huggingface’s transformers: State-of-the-art natural language processing. Retrieved from arXiv:1910.03771

Wong, R.M., Lawson, M.J., & Keeves, J. (2002). The effects of self-explanation training on students’ problem solving in high-school mathematics. Learning and Instruction , 12 (2), 233–262. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4752(01)00027-5

Zhu, M., Liu, O.L., & Lee, H.-S. (2020). The effect of automated feedback on revision behavior and learning gains in formative assessment of scientific argument writing. Computers & Education , 143 , 103668. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103668

Zhu, M., Zhang, M., & Deane, P. (2019). Analysis of Keystroke Sequences in Writing Logs. ETS Research Report Series , 2019 (1), 1–16. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1002/ets2.12247

Zlabinger, M., Sabou, M., Hofstätter, S., Sertkan, M., & Hanbury, A. (2020). DEXA: supporting non-expert annotators with dynamic examples from experts. Proceedings of the 43rd International conference on research and development in Information Retrieval (pp. 2109–2112). ACM. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1145/3397271.3401334

Download references

Open access funding provided by EPFL Lausanne. This project was substantially co-financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Computer and Communication Sciences, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

Paola Mejia-Domenzain, Jibril Frej, Seyed Parsa Neshaei, Luca Mouchel, Tanya Nazaretsky, Thiemo Wambsganss, Antoine Bosselut & Tanja Käser

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paola Mejia-Domenzain .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Mejia-Domenzain, P., Frej, J., Neshaei, S.P. et al. Enhancing Procedural Writing Through Personalized Example Retrieval: A Case Study on Cooking Recipes. Int J Artif Intell Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-024-00405-1

Download citation

Accepted : 10 April 2024

Published : 22 April 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-024-00405-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Example-based learning
• Procedural writing
• Large language models
• Text quality evaluation
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research