QUESTION: Differentiate among Aims, Objectives and Goals.

ANSWER:
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Introduction:
An aims-objectives-goals confusion might arise when writing technical, academic,
business, or other documents such as thesis and proposal; especially in the introductory
thesis chapter. Its always an issue in research bids.
A dictionary definition says that an aim is to do with giving direction. An aim is something
intended or desired to be obtained by ones efforts. On the other hand an objective is to
do with achieving an object, its about actions, pertaining to that whose delineation is
known. It can be discerned that the difference between the two is somehow related to a
hope or ambition (aim) versus a material action (objective). Or we might say that the
aim is the what of the research, and the objective is the how. On the other hand, goal
can be safely understood as the endpoint or end result of the research or project which
could involve the achievement of a number of specific objectives.

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Description and differentiation of the terms:

Taking this what-how-result relationship as a kind of loose differentiation among the three
terms, we can define or describe aims, objectives and goals as follows:
(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. Its 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, its 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 theorize, to build .
(2) The objectives,
These are concrete attainments that can be achieved by following a certain number of
steps. They are the specific steps you will take to achieve your aim. This is where the
project is made tangible by clearly stating how it will be achieved.

Objectives are often expressed through active sentences such as: In order to achieve
this aim, I will collect, construct, produce, test, trial, measure, document, pilot,
deconstruct, analyse Objectives are also often presented in bulleted or numbered
points like - (1) (2) (3) formatted list this makes visible the sequence of big steps in
the project. The list of objectives spells out what will actually and really be done to
achieve the aim of the research or project.
Objectives should be relatively precise as well as being practical, do-able and
achievable and consequently Research reviewers generally look to see if the research
methodology or resources cited for the research will genuinely allow the researcher to
achieve their objectives. They also look to see if the objectives are possible and/or
actually research-able.
Because the objectives also act as project milestones, its 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.
(3) The Goals
Goals can also be defined as observable and measurable long-term end results having
one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed time frame.
Having stated the aim, it is important to set both goals and objectives. Goals without
objectives can never be accomplished while objectives without goals will never get you
to the envisioned end-result.
Example of a goal usage is as follows: the team has already met its sales volume
objectives and now just needs to convert 15new customers to meet the companys
overall goal.
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Summary/conclusion
Aims and objectives appear to be two very similar words, very often used loosely to
represent goals but are actually significantly different from each other.
In a nutshell the three terms can be differentiated in a statement thus An aim is the general
statement or sentence that identifies the goal to be achieved through a set of SMART
objectives.
By the word SMART it means that the set of objects must be S-specific, M-measurable,
A-achievable, R-realistic and T-timely.