The Purpose Statement

Letenah Ejigu, BDU 1

 Introduction

Whereas introduction focus on the problem leading to the

study, the purpose statement establish direction for the
study
In journal articles, purpose statements are placed at the
introduction whereas in dissertation it is written in a
separate section.
The purpose statement indicates why you want to do the
study and what you intend to accomplish

Letenah Ejigu, BDU 2

 A qualitative purpose statement
 Focus on a single phenomenon (or concept or ideas). This focus means that the
purpose doesn’t convey “relating” two or more variables or “comparing” two or
more groups as typically found in quantitative studies
 Example: a project might begin by exploring “chairperson roles” in enhancing
faculty development
 Use action verbs to convey how learning will take place. Action verbs such as
“describe”, “understand”, “develop”, “examine the meaning of” or “discover”
 An emerging design is also enhanced by no directional language rather than
predetermined outcomes. Use neutral words and phrases such as exploring the
“experience of individuals” rather than the “successful experience of individuals”
 Provide general working definition of the central phenomenon or idea. The
definition should be tentative that will evolve through out the study
 Include words denoting the strategy of inquiry to be used such as ethnographies,
grounded theory, case study, phenomenological, or narrative studies
 Mention the participants in the study such as whether the participants might be one
or more individuals, a group of people or an entire organization
 Identify the site for the research such as homes, classrooms, organizations, programs
or events

Letenah Ejigu, BDU 3

 A quantitative purpose statement
 Quantitative purpose statements differ markedly from the qualitative model in terms
of the language and focus on relating or comparing variables
 Major components
 Words to signal the major intent of the study such as “purpose”, “intent” or
“objective”
 Identification of the theory, model or conceptual framework to test in the study.
No detail is needed here as it will be discussed in a “separate theoretical
perspective” section of the study
 Identification of the independent, dependent, intervening, control and
confounding variables used in the study
 Words that connect the independent and dependent variables such as “the
relationship between” two or more variables or a “comparison of two or more
groups”
 A position of ordering of the variables from left to right beginning with IV
followed by DV. Place control variables immediately following the DV in a
phrase such as “controlling for……”
 Mention the specific strategy of inquiry such as experiment or surveys
 Reference to the participants (unit of analysis) and mention the research site for
the study
 A general definition for each key variables preferably using established
definition. This definitions should not be the same as operational definitions
( i.e. detail about how variables will be measured)
Letenah Ejigu, BDU 4
 A mixed purpose statement
Indicate the type of mixed method design such as sequential,
concurrent or transformational design
Discuss the rationale for combining both quantitative and qualitative
data. The rationale could be
 To better understand the research problem by converging (triangulating)
both sources
 To explore participant views with the intent of using these views to
develop & test an instrument. A sequential strategy of qualitative-
quantitative order
 To obtain statistical results from a sample & then follow up with a few
individual to explore in depth. A sequential strategy of quantitative-
qualitative order
Include the characteristics of a good qualitative purpose statement
Include the characteristics of a good quantitative purpose statement

Letenah Ejigu, BDU 5