What is Case Study Question / Paragraph Based Question?
A case study is a scenario in a particular academic / professional context which students are expected to analyse and respond to, guided by specific questions posed concerning the situation. In many cases, the scenario or case study involves a number of issues or problems that must be dealt with in a academic / professional workplace.
Why Case Study Questions are included in academics?
Case study assignments usually require students to identify problems and issues in a scenario, to demonstrate their developing knowledge of theories and academic / professional policies and to make decisions and recommendations based on these to either prevent or solve some of the issues in that scenario.
How to solve Case Study Questions?
There are several steps to writing an answer to a case study assignment:
STEP 1: Read the case study and questions carefully.
- Read the case and associated questions carefully.
- Highlight the main points of the case and any issues that you can identify.
- Read the questions closely and analyse what they are requiring you to do.
- Read the case again, linking the information that is relevant to each question you have been asked.
STEP 2: Identify the issues in the case study.
Case studies describe a situation which may arise in a particular profession or social context. They often involve a number of people in a complex situation. They will often describe a situation which is problematic, possibly in how it is dealt with, or in its complexity. An important part of your answer is to analyse the situation and to identify the issues/actions described in the case which may be problematic. The following questions may help you to do this:
- What actions were taken in the case?
- Were these actions the most appropriate and why?
- Were there any consequences of the actions taken?
- Was anything omitted or not considered?
- Were actions/procedures in line with existing codes of practice, policy or theories?
STEP 3: Link theory to practice.
Use your knowledge of existing codes of practice, theories and/or other academic / professional documents and behaviours to decide what was done appropriately and what was not.
STEP 4: Plan your answer.
It can be useful to use the questions you have been set as headings and to answer each part in turn, reducing the chance of omitting set questions. You can always take out the headings before you submit if you wish. Lecturers usually set questions in a logical order, so answer in the order they are written in your question.
STEP 5: Start writing your case study answer (for theory only)
Like any assignment, you will need an introduction, body sections in which you answer the questions put to you regarding the case study, and a conclusion.
STEP 6: Edit and proofread.
Read through your paper yourself to detect and correct other errors and omissions.
Check you have answered all questions and backed up your answer with relevant passage.
Types of Case Study Questions / Paragraph Based Questions
Case Study Questions / Paragraph Based Questions can be broadly classified into two types:
- MCQs type: In this type, student has to tick the correct option from various options.
- Theory type: In this type, student has to write proper solution / answer in cotext to the case study.
Case Study/ Passage Based Questions Chapter 5 Print Culture and the Modern World
Type 1: MCQ type
Case Study Question 01
Read the text given below and answer the questions that follow:
By the mid-eighteenth century, was a common conviction that books were a means of spreading progress and enlightenment. Many believed that books could change the world, liberate society from despotism and tyranny, and herald a time when reason and intellect would rule. Louise-Sebastien Mercier, a novelist in eighteenth century France, declared: “The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.” In many of Mercier’s novels, the heroes are transformed by acts of reading. They devour books are lost in the world of books, and become enlightened in the process. Convinced of the power of print in bringing enlightenment and destroying the basis of despotism, Mercier proclaimed: Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!
Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option:
Question.1. What was the main reason behind the thinking that books were a means of spreading progress and enlightenment?
(a) Books would transfer the logical thinking of philosophers to the common people.
(b) Books would help people to develop their skills.
(c) By reading books ruling society would come to know what was right and what was wrong.
(d) Books would establish cordial relations between rulers and ruled.
Question.2. What was the common conviction about books in mid-18th century?
(a) Books would help to increase earning.
(b) Books would help to increase knowledge.
(c) Monarchy would be changed by an accountable government.
(d) People would be able to convince the rulers that what they were doing wrong with their sublets.
Question.3. Mercier wrote that printing press was the most powerful engine because:
(a) Latest technology would increase the volume of books.
(b) Printing press would solve the problem of unemployment.
(c) Printing press would help to form public opinion to draw any conclusion.
(d) Printing press would help them to know what wrong was going with them and how could it be corrected.
Question.4. The following is the real meaning behind the words “Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!”:
(a) Monarchy would agree with what was written in the books.
(b) Tyrants would surrender their power against the virtual writer.
(c) Books would help to convince the people about what wrong was happening with them.
(d) Virtual writer would be able to establish their supremacy over rulers through knowledge.
Ans.1. (a) Books would transfer the logical thinking of philosophers to the common people.
Ans.2. (c) Monarchy would be changed by an accountable government.
Ans.3. (d) Printing press would help them to know what wrong was going with them and how could it be corrected.
Ans.4. (c) Books would help to convince the people about what wrong was happening with them.
Case Study Question 02
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow:
From the early nineteenth century, as you know, there were intense debates around religious issues. Different groups confronted the changes happening within colonial society in different ways, and offered a variety of new interpretations of the beliefs of different religions. Some criticized existing practices and campaigned for reform, while others countered the arguments of reformers. These debates were carried out in public and in print. Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but they shaped the nature of the debate. A wider public could now participate in these public discussions and express their views. New ideas emerged through these clashes of opinions.
Answer the following MCQs by choosing the most appropriate option:
Question.1. Following is not true about the 19th century religious issues in India:
(a) Differences between Hindu and Catholics were not having major issue.
(b) Hindu religion did not have any major internal issue.
(c) Some people wanted to have some changes in Hindu rituals.
(d) Both Hindu and Muslim religions were having their own internal issues.
Question.2. Which of the following was not the work of print?
(a) Spreading the liberal religious ideas.
(b) People started debate and discussion after different ideas reached to them through books.
(c) Print provided them a platform to express their view.
(d) Religious leaders successfully conveyed what was written in religious books.
Question.3. Who among the following is known for his efforts to remove Sati system from India?
(a) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
(b) Raja Ram Mohan Roy
(c) Mahatma Gandhi
(d) Jyotiba Phule
Question.4. Which of the following was/were main controversy within Hindu religion in 19th century?
(a) How to establish cordial relations with Muslims.
(b) Conversion of Hindus by missionaries.
(c) Widow immolation, monotheism, idolatry.
(d) How to establish supremacy of Hindu religion over the world.
Ans.1. (b) Hindu religion did not have any major internal issue.
Ans.2. (d) Religious leaders successfully conveyed what was written in religious books.
Ans.3. (b) Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
Ans.4. (c) Widow immolation, monotheism, idolatry.
Type 2: Theory Type
Case Study Question 03
Read the source given below and answer the question that follows:
Source — 1: Religious Reform and Public Debates
There were intense controversies between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, brahmanical priesthood, and idolatry. In Bengal, as the debate developed, tracts and newspapers proliferated, circulating a variety of argument.
Source—2: New Forms of Publication
New literary forms also entered the world of reading lyrics, short stories, essays about social and political matters. In different ways, they reinforced the new emphasis on human lives and intimate feelings, about the political and social rules that shaped such things.
Source—3: Women and Print
Since social reforms and novels had already created a great interest in women‘s lives and emotions, there was also an interest in what women would have to say about their own lives.
Source—1: Religious Reform and Public Debates
Question.1. Evaluate how did the print shape the nature of the debate in the early nineteenth century in India.
Source—2: New Forms of Publication
Question.2. To what extent do you agree that print opened up a new worlds of experience and gave a vivid sense of diversity of human lives?
Source—3: Women and Print
Question.3. To what extent did the print culture reflect a great interest in women‘s lives and emotions? Explain.
Ans.1. From the early nineteenth century there were intensive debates around religious issues. Different religious groups confronted the changes happening within colonial society in different ways and offered a variety of new interpretations of the beliefs of different religions.
Ans.2. The print opened up a new world of experience and a vivid sense of diversity because of following reasons:
(i) It created a new culture of reading because earlier there was a hearing public, now a reading public came into being.
(ii) It created the possibility of wide circulation of ideas, and introduced a new world of debate and discussion.
Ans.3. The print culture reflects a great interest in women’s lives and emotions in the following ways:
(i) Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny magazines were especially meant for women, as these were the manuals for teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping.
(ii) When novels began to be written in the nineteenth century, women were seen as important readers. Some of the best known women novelists were: Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot.
Case Study Question 04
Read the source given below and answer the question that follows:
The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea. This was a system of hand printing. From AD 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper — also invented there — against the inked surface of woodblocks. As both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, the traditional Chinese ‘accordion book’ was folded and stitched at the side.
Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable accuracy, the beauty of calligraphy (art of beautiful and stylised writing). The imperial state in China was, for a very long time, the major producer of printed material. China possessed a huge bureaucratic system which recruited its personnel through civil service examinations. Textbooks for this examination were printed in vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial state. From the sixteenth century, the number of examination candidates went up and that increased the volume of print. By the seventeenth century, as urban culture bloomed in China, the uses of print diversified. Print was no longer used just by scholar officials. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected trade information. Reading increasingly became a leisure activity.
Question.1. What do you mean by calligraphy? Which state in China was the major producer of printed material?
Question.2. Who developed the earliest kind of print technology?
Question.3. Which country in the world started recruitment of bureaucracy through civil service examinations? What classes of people used printing technology?
Ans.1. Calligraphy is an art of beautiful and stylised writing. The imperial state in China was the major producer of printed material for a very long time.
Ans.2. China, Japan and Korea developed the earliest kind of print technology.
Ans.3.
(i) China possessed a huge bureaucratic system which recruited its personnel through civil service examinations.
(ii) Print was used by scholar and merchants in their every day life.
