Examples make clear the difference
between goals and objectives

To understand the difference between goals and objectives well enough to apply the concepts in teaching writing, you need to see some examples.

Example of goal for teaching writing

Here is an example of a goal for a writing class:

Students will be able to write short, timed essays in good English on topics with which they are familiar.

Any evaluation of whether the goal is met will depend on knowing who the students are and what the demonstration conditions are. Very likely, the evaluation standards for a sixth graders' essays would be different than those for graduate students.

Measurements of objectives

In order to measure whether the goal was achieved, we need to write a terminal objective. Terminal objectives sound fatal, but they are actually only the final or culminating objective.

Objectives can be measured one of three ways:

1. Through a yes/no decision
2. By counting
3. By a combination of 1 and 2.

One difference between goals and objectives is that goals can't be assessed by any of those three procedures.

Example objective that fits the goal

Carefully examining a terminal objective for that goal that meets assessment standards will help you see the difference between goals and objectives.

First year high school students will compose at a computer in an hour essays on language and literature topics discussed in their English class. The essays will be in the 400-750 word range. Each will be marked by a clear thesis and have 2-4 body paragraphs supported by 1 to 4 pieces of evidence. The essays will contain no more than 5 serious errors from the student's own error list.

Students will be considered to have meet the course objective when they meet the standard three times in a row.

If you compare this objective to its goal, you will see the objective specifically identifies four elements only hinted at in the goal statement, namely:

1. The audience or learners

The students are in their first year high school students.

2. The behavior the test requires

Students compose essays at a keyboard, not in handwriting. Using a computer implies students can use tools like spelling and grammar check.

3. The conditions of the test situation

Students have previous knowledge of the topic. They have only an hour to work.

4. The degree of skill/knowledge required

Students have five standards to meet. They must meet all five on three essays in a row to meet the course objective. Students either meet all five objectives three essays in a row or they do not.

You might note that it is fine to have an objective refer to to some other document with additional specifics. The goal above refers to the "student's own error list."

Another example shows how individual goals can be expressed through different writing objectives.

When you feel confident you've mastered the difference between goals and objectives, you are ready to move on to actually setting goals and writing objectives.

That's where the fun begins.