How to Write an Objective With Action Verbs

Objectives are often used in education and business to set clear goals that can be easily understood and achieved. In order to be worthwhile, objectives must be actionable. That is, they need to state something an individual or group must do to achieve a goal. Using action verbs, or verbs which indicate action, helps to ensure that the objectives state exactly what should be done in order to achieve the goal, thus making the objectives stronger.

Things You'll Need

  • Pen
  • Paper
  • Word Processing program
  • Computer
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Instructions

    • 1

      Determine the basic objective that you wish to reach. You may write it down or simply formulate it in your head. This is just a rough idea and does not need to be worded as a complete sentence. For example, if the objective is for a science class, it might involve student's knowing all the major parts of a frog.

    • 2

      Determine the condition under which the objective will be met. For example, learning frog anatomy may happen after a lab experiment involving frogs.

    • 3

      Determine the type of action involved. Is it evaluative? knowledge based? an application? For example, if you wish your students to learn about frog anatomy, you would chose knowledge- or understanding-based action.

    • 4

      List several action verbs appropriate to your task. You may also find lists of appropriate action verbs online or in grammar books. For example, for frog anatomy an action verb list may include words like "identify," "label," "indicate" and "locate."

    • 5

      Chose the most appropriate word from the list. Think of the exact action you wish the objective to indicate. For example, if you wish your students to be able to find the frog's organs when they are named, "locate" would be appropriate. If, however, you wish your students to be able to chose the correct name for a specific organ, "identify" would be a better choice.

    • 6

      Combine the basic objective, the condition and the action verb into a single sentence. The condition is usually placed at the beginning of the objective. For example, "After completing the frog anatomy lab, the student will identify all major parts of a frog."

    • 7

      Review the objective. Is it both specific and realistic? Does it clearly state an achievable goal within a reasonable time frame? If not, determine which criteria it does not meet and revise accordingly.

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