How to Write an Aims Statement

Rob Freishtat gave us a great tutorial on how to think about and structure an aims statement recently. Below is the text from the handout he gave us on the specifics of the aims statement. The pdf is attached as well if you're into that kind of thing. For those interested, Rob also provided in an earlier post a useful document on "How to Make PowerPoints that Don't Suck," again if you're into that thing. Thanks, Rob!

Generic Aims Statement

Intro paragraph (5-6 sentences).

·      What is the problem?  E.g. what are you trying to study, and why is it important?

·      Why are you the best to address this problem?  E.g. preliminary data; citations of your work.

Hypothesis (can be a single one, or one per aim).

Specific aim 1.  Declarative title (like a figure legend; what you will prove).

o   Sentence or two of rationale for going about it the way you are planning to; why your approach is innovative, significant.

o   Aim 1A. (sub-aims).  Experiment 1.  This should be an actual experiment or group of experiments.  There needs to be enough methods so the reader knows what you are going to do, but only allowed 1-3 sentences.

o   Aim 1B.  etc.

There should be 3 specific aims, and 2-4 sub-aims per aim.

End each Aim and/or page with sentence or two of ‘anticipated results’.

Can end with sentence or two of ‘future aims’ and/or “impact”.  E.g. these are experiments or methods of research that you want the reader to realize that you have thought about, but are delegating to future studies.  Impact is why your research will make an impact on the field in general.