Research Objective

• Demarcates your research,
• Defines what you will contribute towards the answering of the question or the problem, and
• How you will do so.
• Must be Useful, Realistic, Feasible, Clear, and Informative
• Takes context (The circumstances that form the setting for your research. ) into account

Formulation of a Research Objective

A Research objective should be formulated as:

The research objective is

… (a) …

by … (b)…

with

(a)   the contribution of the project to the solution of the problem

(b)    description of the way the contribution will be provided

Note: without (b), statement (a) is too generic!!

[based on Verschuren en Doorewaard, Designing a research Project, 2nd edition, Eleven international publishing, The Netherlands, 2010]