aims and objectives – what’s the difference?

Posted on June 9, 2014 by pat thomson

You’re ready, you’re aimed, and now you have to fire off the objectives. But you’re a bit
confused. What”s the difference between the two?

An aims-objectives confusion might arise when you are writing thesis proposal and the
introductory thesis chapter. It’s always an issue in research bids. The what’s-the-difference
question can have you going around in ever smaller unproductive circles if you can’t figure
out a way to differentiate between the two things. And the difference is something I’ve
recently been asked about, so I’ve decided to post something of an answer.

Dictionaries are only vaguely helpful when thinking about aims and objectives. My desk
dictionary says that an aim is to do with giving direction. An aim is “something intended or
desired to be obtained by one’s efforts”. On the other hand an objective is to do with
achieving an object, it’s about actions, “pertaining to that whose delineation is known”. Now
who actually speaks like this? The fact that these definitions are offered in this very formal
language doesn’t help clarify matters. But, once past the antiquated expression, you might
discern that the difference between the two is somehow related to a hope or ambition (aim)
versus a material action (objective). Or we might say – and it is what is commonly said about
aims and objectives – the aim is the what of the research, and the objective is the how.

So taking this what-how as a kind of loose and sloppy differentiation between the two, the
rough rule of thumb with aims and objectives is generally that:

(1) The aim is about what you hope to do, your overall intention in the project. It signals
what and/or where you aspire to be by the end. It’s what you want to know. It is the point of
doing the research. An aim is therefore generally broad. It is ambitious, but not beyond
possibility.

The convention is that an aim is usually written using an infinitive verb – that is, it’s a to +
action. So aims often start something like.. My aim in this project is … to map, to develop, to
design, to track, to generate, to theorise, to build … Sometimes in the humanities and social
sciences we have aims which attempt to acknowledge the inevitable partiality of what we do,
so we aim ‘to investigate, to understand, and to explore… ‘ But lots of project reviewers and
supervisors prefer to see something less tentative than this – they want something much less
ambivalent, something more like to synthesise, to catalogue, to challenge, to critically
interrogate ….

(2) The objectives, and there are usually more than one, are the specific steps you will take
to achieve your aim. This is where you make the project tangible by saying how you are
going to go about it.

Objectives are often expressed through active sentences. So, objectives often start something
like In order to achieve this aim, I will… collect, construct, produce, test, trial, measure,
document, pilot, deconstruct, analyse… Objectives are often presented as a (1) (2) (3)
formatted list – this makes visible the sequence of big steps in the project. The list of
objectives spells out what you actually and really will do to get to the point of it all.
You have to make the objectives relatively precise. Having a bunch of vague statements isn’t
very helpful – so ‘I will investigate’ or ‘I will explore’ for example aren’t particularly useful
ways to think about the research objectives. How will you know when an investigation has
ended? How will you draw boundaries around an exploration? In thinking about the answer
to these questions, you are likely to come up with the actual objectives.

Objectives have to be practical, do-able and achievable. Research reviewers generally look
to see if the time and money available for the research will genuinely allow the researcher to
achieve their objectives. They also look to see if the objectives are possible, actually
research-able.

Because the objectives also act as project milestones, it’s helpful to express them as things
that are able to be completed – so for example scoping an archive of materials will have an
end point which may then lead on to a next stage/objective. Even if objectives are to occur
simultaneously, rather than one after the other, it is important to be clear about what the end
point of each step/objective will be, and how it will help achieve the aim.

What not to do

It’s really helpful to think about what can go wrong with aims and objectives. There are some
predictable problems that you want to avoid when writing them. These are some common
aims-objectives issues:

• There are too many aims. One or two is usually enough. (I might stretch to three for other
people’s projects if pushed, but I usually have only one for my own projects.)

• Aims and objectives waffle around, they don’t get to the point and the reader doesn’t have a
clue what is actually intended and will be done – aims and objectives need to be concise and
economically expressed.

• Aims and objectives don’t connect – the steps that are to be taken don’t match up with the
overall intention.

• The aims and the objectives are not differentiated, they are basically the same things but
said in different words.

• The objectives are a detailed laundry list rather than a set of stages in the research.

• The objectives don’t stack up with the research methods – in other words they are either not
do-able, or what is to be done won’t achieve the desired results.

The final thing to say is that aims and objectives can’t be rushed. Because they generate the
research questions and underpin the research design, sorting the aims and objectives are a
crucial early stage in planning a research project. Aims and objectives are a foundation on
which the entire project is constructed, so they need to be sturdy and durable.