A purpose statement says, in one or two sentences, what a piece of work or an organization sets out to do. In a research paper or thesis it names the aim, the approach, the people or sources studied and the setting, and it usually begins “The purpose of this study is to…”. In an essay, report or speech it tells the audience what the piece will do for them. For a company or a person, it says what the work is for.
Pick by where the sentence will live. For a thesis, proposal or paper, you need a research purpose statement. For a company, nonprofit or team, you need an organization's purpose statement. If a graduate application asks for a “statement of purpose,” that is a one-to-two-page essay, not a sentence, and the short section on it near the end points to fuller examples. Examples marked original were written for this page; the company statements are quoted from each company's own website.
Four kinds of purpose statement
All four share a shape: a verb that commits to an action, the thing acted on, and a reason or a boundary. They differ in where they live and who reads them. Start with the row that matches what you are writing.
| Kind | Where it goes | Typical opening | It answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| KindResearch | Where it goesEnd of the introduction; its own subsection in many dissertations | Typical opening“The purpose of this study is to…” | It answersWhat will this study do, with whom, and how? |
| KindEssay, report or speech | Where it goesThe introduction or the first paragraph | Typical opening“This report recommends…” or “To inform my audience…” | It answersWhat will this document do for the reader? |
| KindCompany or nonprofit | Where it goesAbout page, annual report, strategy documents | Typical opening“We exist to…” or “Our purpose is…” | It answersWhy does the organization exist, beyond making money? |
| KindPersonal | Where it goesYour own notes or career plan; rarely published | Typical opening“To… so that…” | It answersWhat is my work for, and what will I say no to? |
A weak purpose statement often has no verb that commits to anything, or hides it behind “aims to attempt to” and “strives to.” Find the verb first; the rest of the sentence is easier to build around it.
Research purpose statement examples
In a research paper, thesis or proposal, the purpose statement turns the problem into a plan. A reader should know what kind of study follows before the methods section begins.
In an IMRaD paper it closes the introduction, just before the research questions or hypotheses. Many dissertations give it a subsection of its own in Chapter 1, often headed “Purpose of the Study,” between the problem statement and the research questions. Its verb usually signals the design. Explore and understand point to a qualitative study that is after an account. Test, examine the relationship and compare point to a quantitative one that is after a number. Describe works for both: a case study describes in words, a survey in numbers. A mixed-methods statement names both strands and says why they are combined. In the examples below, bold marks the words that carry the design: its name and the verb.
Research purpose statement formulas
Quantitative
The purpose of this [experimental / correlational / survey] study is to
[test / examine / compare] [the effect of X on Y / the relationship between X and Y]
among [participants] at [site], [controlling for Z].
Qualitative
The purpose of this [case study / phenomenological / grounded theory] study is to
[explore / understand / describe] [the central phenomenon]
for [participants] at [site].
Mixed methods
The purpose of this [convergent / explanatory sequential] mixed-methods study is to
[aim], collecting [quantitative data] and [qualitative data]
so that [the reason for combining them].The purpose of this correlational study is to examine whether the number of consecutive night shifts registered nurses work is associated with the rate of medication errors they report, on the medical-surgical units of three hospitals in western Pennsylvania from January 2024 to December 2025, controlling for years of experience and patient load.
Both variables can be counted: shifts in a row and reported errors. The population, sites and dates set the limits of the claim, and the controls show the obvious alternative explanations were considered. The verb is “is associated with,” not “causes,” because a correlational design can't show cause.
The purpose of this case study is to explore how Harrow Bay Credit Union, a member-owned lender in coastal Maine, decided to close four of its eleven branches between 2022 and 2025, and how members over 65 and branch staff describe the change.
“Explore” and “describe” signal an open design: the study wants an account, not a measurement. One organization, two groups and a three-year window keep the case small enough to study in depth, and the last clause says whose voices the interviews will collect.
The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study is to identify which adult programs at public libraries in Ohio's Appalachian counties drew the highest attendance from 2021 to 2025, using program records, and then to explain those patterns through interviews with branch managers and regular attendees.
It names both strands and their order: records first, then interviews that explain what the records show. A reviewer could sketch the design from this sentence alone. Mixed-methods statements that skip the reason for mixing can read like two studies stapled together.
This thesis examines the letters three Union Army nurses wrote home between 1862 and 1865, to show what they told their families about hospital work and what they chose to leave out.
Humanities writing rarely says “the purpose of this study is.” The purpose arrives as “This thesis examines…” or “This essay argues…” and often merges with the thesis statement. It still names sources, dates and a question, and the second clause promises an argument, not a summary of the letters.
More research purpose statements by design
| Design | Purpose statement | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
| DesignQuasi-experimental (education) | Purpose statementThe purpose of this quasi-experimental study is to compare reading fluency gains between second graders who receive 20 minutes of daily paired reading and those who receive standard instruction, in four elementary schools in one Oklahoma district during the 2026–27 school year. | What to noticeTwo named groups, one outcome, one school year. |
| DesignSurvey (public health) | Purpose statementThe purpose of this cross-sectional survey is to describe where adults aged 18 to 29 in Maricopa County get information about heat safety, and which sources they trust most. | What to notice“Describe” is honest: one survey can report what people do, not why. |
| DesignGrounded theory (social work) | Purpose statementThe purpose of this grounded theory study is to develop an explanation of how volunteer firefighters in rural Oregon decide whether to seek counseling after a fatal call. | What to noticeGrounded theory promises a theory, so the verb is “develop.” |
| DesignSystematic review (medicine) | Purpose statementThe purpose of this systematic review is to summarize randomized trials published since 2010 on text-message reminders for childhood vaccination and to estimate their effect on on-time vaccination. | What to noticeA review's participants are studies: say which ones, and from when. |
| DesignQuality improvement (nursing) | Purpose statementThe purpose of this quality improvement project is to reduce missed follow-up visits after asthma-related emergency visits among children at one pediatric clinic, by adding a text reminder with a rescheduling link for 12 weeks. | What to noticeImprovement projects promise a change in practice, so the verb is “reduce” or “increase.” |
| DesignUndergraduate research paper | Purpose statementThe purpose of this paper is to compare how two mid-sized cities in the same state fund their public libraries, and to explain why one spends more per resident than the other. | What to noticeEven a class paper names its comparison and its question. |
Problem, purpose, questions and hypotheses
The purpose statement is the second link in a chain that runs through the whole introduction. Here is the night-shift study from above, link by link.
| Part | What it does | In the night-shift study |
|---|---|---|
| PartProblem statement | What it doesSays what is wrong or unknown | In the night-shift studyThe three hospitals schedule nurses for runs of up to five night shifts, and nobody has checked whether error reports rise across a run. |
| PartPurpose statement | What it doesSays what this study will do about it | In the night-shift studyExamine whether consecutive night shifts are associated with reported medication errors. |
| PartResearch questions | What it doesAsk exactly what the data will answer | In the night-shift studyIs the error rate on the fourth and fifth nights higher than on the first? Does the pattern differ for nurses with under two years of experience? |
| PartHypotheses | What it doesPredict the answers (quantitative studies) | In the night-shift studyReported errors rise with each consecutive night after the second. |
If the research questions ask about something the purpose statement never mentions, one of them has to change. For questions in a dozen fields, see these research question examples; for the predictions, the hypothesis examples; and for where the purpose sits in a full plan, the thesis outline template.
Essay, report and speech examples
Outside research, a purpose statement tells the reader what the document will do. It is most at home in reports, memos, lab reports and speeches. In an argumentative essay, the thesis usually does the job instead.
Purpose statement vs thesis statement
A purpose statement announces the task. A thesis statement states the claim. Many instructors discourage “In this essay I will…” in argumentative essays, because the reader wants the argument, not the plan. In expository essays, reports and research papers, announcing the plan is normal and often expected.
Purpose statement: This essay examines why Frederick Douglass, in Chapter XI of his Narrative, refuses to say how he escaped from slavery.
Thesis statement: Douglass's silence about his escape protects the people still using his route, and it also tells his Northern readers that his trust in them has limits.
The chapter opens with the refusal itself: “I deem it proper to make known my intention not to state all the facts connected with the transaction.” A full account, Douglass explains, would involve others in “the most embarrassing difficulties” and make slaveholders more watchful. The purpose statement could open a first draft about that passage; the thesis is what the finished essay argues. In a short argumentative essay the thesis alone is usually enough, and in a longer paper one sentence of each can close the introduction. The thesis statement examples show the second kind in every essay type.
Report, memo and lab report purpose statements
| Document | Purpose statement | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| DocumentRecommendation report | Purpose statementThis report recommends whether the clinic should replace reminder phone calls with text messages, based on a three-month pilot at the Alder Street site. | Why it worksNames the decision the reader faces and the evidence behind it. |
| DocumentMemo | Purpose statementThis memo asks the board to approve $18,400 to replace the newsroom's 2017 laptops before election season. | Why it worksThe ask and the amount come in the first line. |
| DocumentLab report | Purpose statementThe purpose of this experiment was to determine the specific heat of an unknown metal by calorimetry and to identify the metal by comparing the result with published values. | Why it worksPast tense, because the experiment is finished. |
| DocumentLiterature review | Purpose statementThis review maps research published since 2018 on remote proctoring for online exams and identifies what is still unknown about its effect on test anxiety. | Why it worksA scope (topic and dates) and the gap it is looking for. |
Speech purpose statements
Public speaking courses usually ask for the purpose in two parts. The general purpose is the kind of speech: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain or mark an occasion. The specific purpose finishes the sentence with the audience and the result you want.
- Informative: To inform my audience how a bill becomes law in the Texas Legislature, from filing to the governor's desk.
- Persuasive: To persuade my audience to register as organ donors before they next renew their driver's licenses.
- Persuasive: To persuade the city council to keep the Eastside pool open until Labor Day.
- Special occasion: To honor my grandmother's 40 years as a school crossing guard at her retirement lunch.
Each names an audience and a result you could check afterward. “About organ donation” is a topic; “to register as organ donors” is a purpose. Once the purpose is set, the guide to writing a speech takes it from outline to delivery.
Company and nonprofit purpose statements
An organization's purpose statement says why it exists, beyond making money. It is usually a single sentence, meant to settle arguments about what the organization should and shouldn't do.
The idea has a well-known corporate milestone. On August 19, 2019, 181 chief executives signed the Business Roundtable's Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. It replaced the group's position since 1997, that corporations exist principally to serve shareholders, with a commitment to customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders.
Purpose, mission and vision overlap, and many organizations publish only one of them. Roughly: the purpose is why you exist, the mission is what you do every day and for whom, and the vision is the future you are working toward. The vision statement examples page sets all of them side by side.
| Organization | Purpose statement | What it does well |
|---|---|---|
| OrganizationPatagonia | Purpose statement“We're in business to save our home planet.” | What it does wellEight words, and “in business” admits it is a company. A purpose this large tells staff what the company will refuse to do as much as what it will do. |
| OrganizationWalmart | Purpose statement“saving people money so they can live better” | What it does wellTwo halves: what the company does and what that is for. The first half can be checked against a price tag. |
| OrganizationSouthwest Airlines | Purpose statement“To connect People to what's important in their lives,” followed by how: friendly, reliable, low-cost flights | What it does wellAir travel appears only as the means. The point is whoever is waiting at the other end. (The capital P is Southwest's.) |
| OrganizationBlackRock | Purpose statement“to help more and more people experience financial well-being” | What it does wellNames the beneficiary as people rather than assets, and “more and more” builds growth into the purpose. |
| OrganizationProcter & Gamble | Purpose statementProducts and services that “improve the lives of the world's consumers, now and for generations to come” | What it does wellThe full statement goes on to say consumers will reward the company with sales and profit, which is unusually frank about how purpose and profit connect. |
Notice what none of them says: best, leading, world-class, innovative. A purpose statement names a beneficiary and a change, not a ranking.
Purpose statements for small organizations and teams
| Organization | Purpose statement | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| OrganizationRural hospital | Purpose statementWe exist so that nobody in Lake County has to drive two hours to have a baby or a broken bone set. | Why it worksA promise the community can hold it to. |
| OrganizationGhostwriting agency | Purpose statementWe help people with something worth saying get it into a book that still sounds like them. | Why it worksNames the client and the hardest part of the job: the voice. |
| OrganizationLiterary magazine | Purpose statementWe publish writers who haven't had a book yet, and we pay them. | Why it worksTwo commitments, both easy to check. |
| OrganizationTranslation agency | Purpose statementWe make sure a family can read every document a hospital, a court or a school hands them. | Why it worksPurpose seen from the reader's side of the page. |
| OrganizationHospice nonprofit | Purpose statementSo that no one in our county dies alone, or in pain they didn't have to feel. | Why it worksPlain words for a hard subject. |
| OrganizationInternal communications team | Purpose statementEvery employee hears important news from us before they read it anywhere else. | Why it worksSmall enough for the team to own outright. |
Personal purpose statement examples
A personal purpose statement is one or two sentences about what your work, or your life, is for. Nobody else has to read it. Its job is to help you choose, and a good test is whether it would help you turn something down.
A shape that works: “To [verb] [for whom or what] so that [the change].” The examples start with writers, since many readers of this page write for a living.
- Novelist: To write novels about work, the jobs people actually do all day, so that readers who do those jobs find themselves in fiction.
- Journalist: To make the county government's decisions impossible to miss for the people they affect.
- Technical writer: To write documentation that lets a tired engineer fix the problem at 2 a.m. without calling anyone.
- Academic: To study how small towns lose their institutions, and to write it up so the towns can read it too.
- Ghostwriter: To help people who have lived something worth telling get it on the page in their own voice.
- Speechwriter: To give leaders sentences they can say with a straight face and their audience will repeat.
- Content writer: To answer the question a customer is too embarrassed to ask a salesperson.
- Nurse: To make the worst week of a patient's life a little less frightening.
- Teacher: To send every class into the next grade able to write a page they're proud of.
- Career changer: To spend the second half of my career on work I could explain to my kids without changing the subject.
- A life: To be the person my friends call when something goes wrong, and to have the time to answer.
Each names a beneficiary and a result you would notice. None uses passionate, impact or make a difference, which fit everyone and so guide no one. Keep the statement for yourself: a résumé summary or a LinkedIn About section has a different job, and the professional bio examples cover that one.
The graduate school statement of purpose
If a graduate application asks for a statement of purpose, you need a different document: an essay, usually one to two pages, about what you want to study, how you prepared and why this program is the place to do it.
As of November 2026, Stanford's graduate admissions office asks applicants to describe their reasons for applying to the program, their preparation, research interests and career plans, and recommends a maximum of 1,000 words. Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences wants a focused, informative statement of research interests and qualifications, no longer than 1,000 words unless a program says otherwise. Berkeley's Graduate Division asks for it alongside a separate Personal History Statement about how your background led you to graduate study. Individual programs can change the prompt and the limit, so read the one on your application.
For three years I taught English to adults at a community center in Lowell, Massachusetts, where most of my students worked night shifts at a commercial bakery and came to class at nine in the morning. I learned to plan lessons around what they needed that week: a lease renewal, a parent-teacher conference, a pharmacy label. I did not learn why some of them stalled at the same level for a year while others moved up every term, and I want to.
The MA in TESOL at [University] would give me the second language acquisition and assessment courses I lack, and [Professor Name]'s research on adult learners with interrupted schooling is the reason I am applying here rather than elsewhere.
It opens on work, not a childhood memory. It names the gap between what the applicant can do and what they can't yet, and the last sentence could only be sent to one program. For more graduate excerpts and the difference between the two statements, see the personal statement examples.
How to write a purpose statement
- Name the kind and the reader
Decide which of the four you are writing and who will read it: a committee, an instructor, a customer or only you. Check the assignment or program template first. Many research methods courses and dissertation templates expect the exact phrase “The purpose of this study is.”
- Choose the verb first
The verb carries the commitment. Research: explore, describe, compare, test, evaluate, develop. Essays and reports: examine, explain, recommend, propose. Organizations and people: build, protect, teach, save. If no verb fits yet, the aim of the work probably isn't settled, and that is worth sorting out first.
The general shape
[Verb] + [what] + [for whom / where / when] + [so that / to show / in order to …] - Add the boundaries
Who, where, when, and which sources. For an organization, for whom. A purpose with no boundary is still a topic.
- Say what it's for
Add the reason in a clause: “so that,” “to show,” “in order to decide.” In research, this is where the purpose touches the problem statement.
- Cut the padding
Delete “aims to attempt to,” “seeks to” and “strives to,” and any adjective about quality. Read the sentence aloud. If you run out of breath, split it.
- Check it against everything else
The research questions should follow from the purpose. An essay's paragraphs should do what it promises. A company should be able to explain its budget with it. When they disagree, change one of them.
In a thesis or proposal, you can ask the Strokes Assistant to read the introduction and methods against the purpose statement and list any research question or method the purpose never mentions. Check your school's policy before you use an assistant on graded work.
Weak purpose statements, rewritten
| Weak | What's wrong | Stronger |
|---|---|---|
| WeakThis paper will discuss climate change. | What's wrongA topic with “discuss” attached. | StrongerThis paper explains how one coastal county decided how high new houses must be built, and what the rule adds to the cost of a home. |
| WeakThe purpose of this study is to prove that peer tutoring works. | What's wrong“Prove” assumes the answer, and “works” can't be measured. | StrongerThe purpose of this study is to compare final exam scores of students who attended at least five peer tutoring sessions with those who attended none, in three sections of introductory chemistry. |
| WeakIn this essay I will talk about Hamlet. | What's wrongAnnounces a subject, not a task. | StrongerThis essay examines why Hamlet still delays killing Claudius after the play scene in Act 3, when he finally has the proof he wanted. |
| WeakThe purpose of this report is to provide information about the project. | What's wrongEvery report provides information. | StrongerThis report tells the steering group whether the project will meet its March deadline, and what it needs if it won't. |
| WeakWe strive to be the leading provider of innovative solutions. | What's wrongA ranking, not a reason. Any competitor could sign it. | StrongerWe make sure every restaurant worker in the county is paid correctly and on time. |
| WeakMy purpose is to make a difference in people's lives. | What's wrongTrue of everyone, so it guides no one. | StrongerTo teach adults who left school early to read well enough to help their children with homework. |
Frequently asked questions
What is an example of a purpose statement?
In research: “The purpose of this case study is to explore how one credit union decided to close four of its branches, and how members over 65 and staff describe the change.” For a company: Patagonia's “We're in business to save our home planet.” Both say what will be done and what it is for; the research version also sets its limits.
What is the difference between a purpose statement and a thesis statement?
A purpose statement says what a paper will do: examine, compare, recommend. A thesis statement says what the paper argues. “This essay examines why Hamlet delays” is a purpose; “Hamlet delays because…” is a thesis. Argumentative essays usually need only the thesis, while reports and research papers often state a purpose, sometimes alongside a hypothesis.
How long should a purpose statement be?
Usually one sentence, sometimes two. Research purpose statements run longer because they name the design, the participants and the setting: the research examples on this page run from about 30 to just over 50 words. Company purpose statements are shorter. Patagonia's and Walmart's are eight words each.
Is a statement of purpose the same as a purpose statement?
No. A purpose statement is a sentence or two inside a larger document. A statement of purpose is a whole essay for a graduate application, usually one to two pages; Stanford recommends no more than 1,000 words. It covers what you want to study, how you prepared and why the program fits.
