Case Writing Office: Stanford GSB

About CWO

CWO develops materials to support the academic agenda of the School's faculty. We assist faculty in developing new cases and updating earlier versions of cases by assigning writers and ensuring timely and professional completion of the case.

In the classroom, our faculty use cases to provide a contextual background, connect theory with application, or develop insight. Case subjects are selected by faculty, but faculty may be supportive of students who are interested in writing about a company for which they have worked or in which they are interested.

Writing A Case

A case is a description of a business situation faced by someone in an organization or a broad description of related firms in a specific sector. Cases contain the relevant data available to the key person or companies in the case about the issues, plus background information about the organizations involved. Cases may vary in length, but normally range between 5 to 20 pages of text and 1 to 10 pages of exhibits.

On this website student and temporary case writers can access:

the case template and related templates
helpful tools for preparing cases
resources to help develop and complete cases

First Steps

Before beginning, make sure that:

If you are writing a case for course credit, your 390 enrollment is complete.
If you are receiving payment, your hiring paperwork is complete.

First steps in writing a case may include:

meeting with the faculty member to scope out the case
drafting an outline
collecting background information
preparing for interviews

Writers work on a first draft after conducting interviews and/or collecting information. Writing the case is an iterative process—conducting additional research, clarifying information from interviews, and obtaining feedback from CWO staff and faculty occur throughout the case writing process.

Once the case has been finalized and the appropriate release forms and paperwork have been completed, the case is filed in Jackson Library. For more information on the case writing process see Road Map for Case Writing .