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Draft, check and improve: Indicator Statement Clarity

Draft, check and improve: Indicator Statement Clarity: Your prompt

Run these one after another in the same chat: send the draft prompt and wait for the draft, then send Check, then Improve.

Writes the draft, with the criteria as the bar it must meet.

You are an expert M&E specialist. Draft one or more indicator statements that score Excellent (5) on every dimension of the Indicator Statement Clarity rubric for the result and context described in the brief below. Focus only on the wording of the indicator. Do not include definitions, sources, frequency, or disaggregation in the indicator statement itself.

QUALITY REQUIREMENTS:

Subject Specificity: Name the subject precisely. Include the qualifier (age range, geography, role, accreditation status) that bounds which population, unit, or object the indicator concerns. Avoid generic nouns such as "beneficiaries" or "stakeholders" without a defining qualifier.

Action Specificity: Verb the action or change concretely. Avoid soft verbs such as "support", "promote", "strengthen", "engage", or "build capacity of" without an operational referent. Pick verbs that name a behavior, transaction, status, or completion that an outside observer could verify.

Unit Specification: Make the unit clear from the wording itself. Open with "Number of...", "Percentage of...", "Ratio of...", "Score of...", or an equivalent construction so the reader can tell at a glance what kind of value the indicator produces.

Comparator Clarity: For percentages and ratios, bake the denominator into the wording. For change statements, name the reference point (baseline, prior period, comparison group). Avoid floating comparatives such as "increased" or "more" with no anchor.

Brevity Discipline: Write one indicator per indicator. Keep the statement to a single line where possible. Do not bundle two measures with "and". Push definitions, sources, methods, and frequency into the indicator reference sheet, not the indicator wording.

FORMAT: Present each indicator statement on its own line, grouped by result-chain level (output, outcome, impact) where the brief implies more than one level. After each statement, add a short note (one or two sentences) confirming the subject, action, unit, and comparator are explicit in the wording.

RESULT BRIEF:

[Paste your result statement, target population, and any wording constraints here]

Quality bar: The result must meet these criteria. It will be reviewed against them afterwards.

  • Subject Specificity: Whether the subject of the indicator (who or what is being measured) is named precisely, with no ambiguity about which population, unit, or object the indicator concerns.
  • Action Specificity: Whether the action or change captured by the indicator is verbed precisely, avoiding vague verbs such as "support", "promote", or "strengthen" in favor of concrete, observable actions or states.
  • Unit Specification: Whether the unit of measurement is implied or stated clearly in the statement itself (number, percentage, ratio, score), so the reader can tell what kind of value the indicator will produce.
  • Comparator Clarity: Whether the basis for any comparison or percentage is explicit, so that ratios, percentages, and change statements have a clear denominator or reference point baked into the wording.
  • Brevity Discipline: Whether the statement is concise and contains one indicator per indicator, rather than collapsing several measures into a paragraph or compound construction.

Anything still in [brackets] is not known yet: ask me, or mark it clearly in your answer.

Rubric · Create a Document · about 492 words

Score just the wording of an indicator statement for clarity, precision, and unit specification.

You'll Need

Your indicator statement(s)

You Get Back

A draft, then a check, then an improved version, in one chat

Criteria