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7.10 Writing up the study 179

the literature, this report introduces the methodological approach of combining
traditional participatory design methods with measures aimed at encouraging the
learning that would need to happen for the project to continue to succeed after the
research team ceased to be actively involved. The report continues by providing
detailed background of the organization, including its context, goals, and staff re-
sources. The data collection methods and analytic methods were then discussed. The
case study data were discussed chronologically, with analysis interspersed, leading
to a discussion of implications of the results. The resulting report has details that
might be of interest to a wide range of users, including HCI researchers, technology
experts, and community organizers.
When appropriate, your case study report should also discuss rival explanations.
Having taken the time to consider alternative explanations for any of your analytic
results, you should document the results of this effort. Introducing the rival theo-
ries and explaining why the available evidence better supports your conclusions can
bolster the credibility of your report. If you do not find any evidence in favor of the
alternatives say so (Yin, 2011, 2014).
Your write-up of your case study should reflect the limitations of case study re-
search. Any discussions of observations that may apply to the community as a whole
should be phrased so as to avoid claims of generality. If you make the same obser-
vation for several cases, you might say that your observation appears to apply to a
broader population, but you should not claim that your conclusion is definitively
general. You might also say that these recurring trends merit further investigation,
implying the need for a more rigorously sampled study that would determine whether
the findings were generally applicable. Proper attention to the validity of the claims
that you are making will help defend you from critics who may feel that you are be-
ing overly broad in your interpretation.
Once you have written a draft of your report, you might consider letting your
participants read it. This can be a valuable reality check—if your participants believe
that you have the facts wrong, you may have a problem that needs to be revisited.
If this happens, you may need to collect some more evidence to clarify the situation
(Yin, 2014). Participants may also provide alternative viewpoints on the data, pos-
sibly including explanations or theories that might (or might not) complement yours.
You may not agree with all of the comments that your participants make, particularly
with regards to interpretation of the data, but you should do your best to be receptive
to constructive criticisms from your participants. Having taken the time to work with
you, they are likely to have some interest in helping make your work and your report
as accurate as possible.
Case study write-ups often face the troubling question of anonymity. When
you're dealing with an individual or a specific group, concerns about privacy are
very real: particularly for unique cases, your write-up may be too revealing for
comfort. In some cases, protocols for the protection of human research subjects
(see Chapter 15) might require that you do not identify the participants in a research
study. A good rule of thumb might be to be conservative—when in doubt, protect
your participants.