Fact or opinion?

Objectives By the end of the lesson you will be able to: Identify the difference between a fact and opinion Highlight facts from a document Express your opinions appropriately Create a newspaper article

How many Pandas?

Why’s it important? When reading, either for pleasure or for work, it is important that you can ‘read between the lines’. By this, we mean that you need to read or listen carefully to a statement and before accepting it as the truth you decide whether it is an opinion or a fact.

What’s the difference? ‘This wine is too dry.’   This is an opinion based on the drinker’s preference for a sweeter wine. It is not a fact. Written as a fact, the statement should be: ‘This is a dry wine.’

How do you know? Opinions come from individuals and may not always be based on facts (or all the facts). A fact is based on what is accepted as the truth because it can be proved. For example ‘In 2002, this company had two hundred and twenty two employees.’ This can be proved through employment records – thus it is a fact.

Bias Take a statement such as:   ‘All schools should reduce other sporting activities and offer extra football coaching, because all young boys like football.’ If the above statement was made by a football coach we might consider that the statement was biased (prejudiced in favour of football). We appreciate, without being told, that the statement is not a fact and that the person saying it is so passionate about the game that s/he is prone to make biased statements in favour of football.

Where do you find it? Where do you commonly find fact and opinion? Newspapers Magazines Leaflets Posters Internet websites

Select the facts Scenario: You are a newspaper reporter for the local paper. A last minute arrangement has been made for you to present a short article about the Portsmouth dockyard closure.  Task: You need to research the facts to do with this problem, as you don’t want to cause any unnecessary stress or panic.   You only have 10 minutes to collect your information. You then have 15 minutes to plan and write your article, so you will need to plan what you are going to report to make sure you put all the information across. You may put your own opinion in, but you must also include facts. Reminder:    Who – When – Where – What – How - Why