Assigning Business Writing to Increase the Learning Potential of Case Courses

Abstract

Many business instructors use the case method and accompany classroom learning by asking students to write analyses of cases. However, students typically write from an "outsider's" perspective from which they propose unrealistic solutions, spend much of their writing space repeating case details, and fail to see interpersonal and organizational consequences of what appears to them to be a rational solution to a case problem. The article explores the learning potential of asking students to adopt an insider's perspective by assuming the role of a particular character in assigned cases. They then write case analyses, in the form of business documents directed to one of the other characters in each case. This approach has a number of advantages, including (a) increasing students' understanding of the organizational realities of their proposed solutions by putting them in the center of the action, where they experience a more intimate involvement with the characters and realities of the cases; (b) providing students with the opportunity to develop proficiency in the writing skills they will need in their future jobs.