How to write grant objectives a reviewer can score
How do I write good objectives for a grant proposal?
Give every objective an endpoint. An objective says what will be true when the work is done, so a reviewer can tell whether you got there. "To study" and "to better understand" describe activities with no finish line. Ask why you want to do the activity, and the answer is usually the objective. For example, "to study program completion" becomes "to identify the program features that predict completion". Keep each objective independent, so one can succeed even if another does not.
Last reviewed October 2, 2026.
Turning an activity into an objective
Write down what you plan to do
Study, compare, develop, evaluate. Most people think about their work as a list of activities like these, and that is the right place to start.
Ask why
Why compare the two programs? To identify what the successful one does differently. That answer is the objective.
Check for an endpoint
Could a reviewer tell, at the end of the award, whether the objective was met? If not, keep asking why. Work that could go on forever is still an activity, however carefully it is described.
Check that each one stands alone
If the second objective only works when the first succeeds, a reviewer will score the whole proposal on the first. Give each its own path to a result.
Words that weaken an objective
Proposal reviewers notice these, and each has a stronger replacement.
- Study, explore, investigate, understand
- Activities without an endpoint. Say what you will identify, determine, show or build.
- If and whether
- They frame the work as an open question. State what you expect to show and how you will know.
- Research shows
- Studies do not show anything; researchers do. Say who found what, and cite it.
- Unique, compelling, internationally recognized
- Claims a reviewer cannot check. Give the evidence and let the reviewer reach the adjective.
- To the best of our knowledge
- Cut it. Reviewers already assume everything in a proposal is written to the best of your knowledge, so the phrase only adds doubt to the claim that follows.
Testing them before you submit
Give the objectives to two colleagues in your field and one outside it, at least a month before the deadline. If the outsider cannot say what you will deliver, a reviewer outside your field cannot either.
Quillify grades a finished draft against the announcement the way a reviewer would and returns a prioritized list of what is weak, so your colleagues can spend their time on the substance.
The endpoint test and the word list are taught by Grant Writers' Seminars and Workshops.
Who asks this most
The answer above is the same whoever you are. What Quillify does about it is not.
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