In this article, we explore five plain‑language principles that make learning objectives clearer, sharper, and far more useful. This piece is part of a series based on my latest book, which reframes learning objectives as practical tools for people working in training and talent development — tools that improve clarity, strengthen credibility, and make learning design more effective.
General Principles for Writing Clear, Useful Learning Objectives
I’ve lost count of how many learning objectives I’ve seen stuffed into course outlines that make no sense. And others that are simply cumbersome to read. It’s a shame, because taking a little extra time to frame tasks and write the objectives clearly, makes them far more useful for training and talent professionals.
When objectives are crisp and easy to understand, they speed up design decisions, give facilitators clearer guidelines to pivot to learner needs, and give stakeholders confidence in what people will be able to do after a learning experience. But when they’re vague, abstract, or overloaded with jargon, they make it harder to teach the task, evaluate the training, and give learners consistent, helpful feedback.
That’s where plain language principles come in. Plain language aims to make writing easy to understand the first time it’s read. It’s legislated in government, widely used in business, legal, and technical communication — and it applies beautifully to learning objectives.
Here are five plain‑language principles that make objectives clearer, more consistent, and more actionable.
- Use Concrete Language
A common enemy of useful learning objectives is vague language. Concrete words describe things you can see, hear, or touch. Abstract words are conceptual and open to interpretation. Hot and cold are concrete; comfortable is abstract.
Abstract words show up in learning objectives all the time.
For example:
“Describe three qualities required for effective management.”
Qualities and effective can mean almost anything. They don’t tell the trainer what to teach.
Concrete language removes the ambiguity.
Consider this objective from a leadership seminar run by a well-known seminar company:
“Foster a productive environment that drives towards a shared purpose.”
What does productive mean? More widgets? Better widgets? Faster output? Higher quality?
Without clarity, the trainer is left guessing. A more concrete version might be:
“Foster an environment that produces 25 widgets an hour.”
I think we should reconsider the words foster and environment and in fact there are many ways to improve this statement, but the point is clear: concrete language gives direction. If you want your objectives to be more than window dressing, use concrete language in all three elements — the action element, the condition element, and the standard element.
- Be Specific With Terminology
Choosing specific words feels similar to choosing concrete words, but there is an important difference. Concrete words describe things you can see, hear, or touch, while specific words narrow the focus. For example, screwdriver is concrete, but Phillips‑head screwdriver is concrete and specific. Writing an email is concrete, but writing a customer‑response email is concrete and specific.
General words create general expectations; specific words create alignment. If we want to help organizations build capability, we need to be specific.
Consider this example from a leadership course I saw in a client organization: “Discuss aspects of motivation.” It’s vague. But if we write, “Discuss the three elements of McClelland’s need theory,” it becomes specific. Specificity reduces guesswork and prevents trainers from teaching the wrong thing simply because the objective was unclear. And when multiple trainers teach the same course, lack of specificity could lead them to teaching different theories and rob the program of consistency.
- Focus on a Single Task
One objective = one verb. When objectives combine multiple tasks, for example, “Track and report project progress”, they become harder to teach and impossible to assess cleanly. What if someone can track progress but not report it? Did they meet the objective?
When you review your learning objectives, look for the verbs. If you see more than one, you likely have more than one objective. For example, this objective from the seminar company: “Define and leverage your communication style.” Two verbs mean we have two objectives.
Even if the wording were perfect (it isn’t), the one objective should become the following two objectives:
- Define your communication style…
- Leverage your communication style…
One task per objective makes design, facilitation, assessment, and evaluation far easier.
- Write Short Phrases
Short sentences are easier to understand. Long, bloated objectives often signal that the writer isn’t clear on the task — and they take trainers and stakeholders longer to interpret.
Consider this real example: “Strengthen leaders’ capacity for strategic planning by equipping them to analyze situations, anticipate challenges, and make decisions aligned with long-term goals.” It doesn’t just define the task — it lists the enabling objectives.
A clearer version might be: “Strengthen leaders’ capacity for planning decisions.”
Or even: “Conduct business planning…,” which is concrete. We can be more specific and write, “Conduct contingency business planning,” or “Conduct strategic business planning,” then list the enabling objectives separately.
As writing teacher Crawford Killian said, every word must fight for its life. That’s especially true for learning objectives.
- Choose Meaningful Words
If you’re writing objectives just to meet a compliance requirement or fill a box on a template, the words won’t matter much. But if you want objectives to support real capability building, the words matter a great deal.
Meaningful words are usually simple, familiar, and direct. Sometimes they’re technical — but only when the audience needs them. For example, “Start hiring team members” is clearer than “start the acquisition process.” And Capital expenditure is clearer than CAPEX for most audiences.
The goal isn’t to follow rules for the sake of rules. It’s to make objectives easy to understand for everyone.
The Bottom Line
For learning objectives to be useful to trainers and talent development professionals, they must be easy to understand. Objectives become sharper, more consistent, and more credible when following plain language principles. The principles reduce ambiguity, strengthen alignment, and make design and facilitation easier. And when objectives are easier to understand, they’re easier to use — across the entire talent development ecosystem.
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