FORMUALTION OF RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

In your study, objectives are the goals you aim to achieve. As these objectives provide information to the reader of what you intend to attain through your study, it is very important to express them evidently and precisely.

Objectives should be listed under two main headings

r  Main objectives

r  Subobjectives

The main objective is an entire statement of the heart of your study. It is also a statement of the main relationships that you seek to explore or establish. The subobjectives are the specific aspects of the topic that you need to investigate within the main framework of your inquiry.

Subobjectives should be listed numerically. They should be expressed evidently and precisely. Ascertain that each subobjective includes only a single aspect of the study. Use- oriented words or verbs when stating your objectives. These objectives should begin with words; as, “to determine”, “to find out”, “to ascertain”, “to measure” and “to explore”.

 The way how your main objectives and subobjectives are expressed identify how your research is classified (e.g. descriptive, correlational or experimental). In other words, the formulation of your objectives determines the type of your research design you need to adopt to attain them. Therefore, be careful about the way you formulate your objectives. Figure 4.5. Shows the characteristics of the formulation of wording of objectives in relation to the type of research study.