Acquire the factual information pertaining to the case. If you are in a law class, this information will be presented to you as a judicial decision or case study. For classes in other disciplines, you might need to seek out the facts in academic journals, news sources or corporate reports. You can locate academic sources with searches like Academic Search Premier and JSTOR.
Interview people who were involved in the case. Although you may not be able to speak with the top people, you might be able to speak with employees who were involved in some way. These people will be able to provide you with information that published sources didn't divulge
Write a chronological summary of the case using bullet points. Take all the information you gleaned from journals, news stories, reports and interviews, and arrange the key points in order from first event to last event. You can present this initial time line in bullet points as it is merely there to help you write the fleshed-out report later.
Review the summary, data, and interview transcripts and identify the key problems in the case. The key problem areas are places where people faced setbacks and needed to make tough decisions. Identify all the problems that led to setbacks and tough decisions, and summarize these problems in one or two sentences.
Outline ways in which critical thinking skills can be used to solve the problems in the case. If the problems are financial, talk about mathematical skills like accounting logic and ratio analysis. If the problems are social, talk about using critical thinking in interpersonal psychology. If the problems are general in nature, talk about the use of logic and fallacies in general problem solving.
Type the final copy. It should contain an introduction, several body paragraphs and a conclusion. Each body paragraph should deal with a relevant piece of information, such as the time line, the problem identification or the problem analysis. The introduction and conclusion should each provide a condensed overview of the information; however, the conclusion should also provide a recommendation, e.g., a course of action or policy decision, that aims to remedy the key problems in the case.