James Drogan

The title of this post is taken from Ellet, William. The Case Study Handbook : How to Read, Discuss, and Write Persuasively About Cases. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 2007, 978-1-4221-0158-2.

Cases have a particular meaning in the American education scheme; multiple page descriptions of situations that cause students to read, analyze, draw conclusions, and express the results of their efforts.

After reading the text, however, I believe it has applicability to much more than case work.  The suggestions made by Ellet are appropriate for reviewing and commenting on far less expansive source material such as classroom and online discussions.  Ellet's recommendations are very complementary to the fact-based hypothesis-driven thinking I discuss in Ethics, Critical Thinking, and Communications.

It matters little what one knows (as I have said before) if one cannot use that knowledge to think appropriately about situations requiring resolution, and to then express the results of that thinking a relevant and clear manner.

Ellet can help.