1. How to Tell the Difference
Fact and Opinion
How to Tell the Difference

2. Facts Facts are statements that can be proven.
Facts may be true or false.
But facts can be proven.
Examples
1. Statistically, women live longer than men.
Most buses weigh more than most cars.
There are ten inches in a foot (false).

3. Opinions Opinions can be argued. Opinions may be supported with facts.
Opinions are statements that cannot be proven.
Opinions can be argued.
Opinions may be supported with facts.
Opinions cannot be proven.
Examples
Golf is boring.
Pizza is delicious.
Math is the hardest subject.

4. Fact or Opinion?
According to sales records, strawberry ice-cream is the worst selling of all flavors.
Therefore, we can conclude that strawberry is the least popular major ice-cream flavor.
This is because strawberry ice-cream does not taste as good as vanilla and chocolate.

5. Practice Write down whether each example is fact or opinion.
Explain your answer.

6. 1
The financial collapse of 2008 has led to an global economic and social crisis.

7. 2
700,000 households in Greece are currently without any income whatsoever.

8. 3
Action must be taken immediately to prevent this.

9. 4
Public transport should be free of charge in all major cities.

10. 5
Global temperatures are forecast to rise by at least 2% by the middle of this century.

11. 6
Over the last 30 years, wage inequality in the United States has increased substantially.

12. 7
Nuclear weapons must be banned immediately.

13. 8
The washing machine has revolutionised every day life, especially for women.

14. 9
Education should encourage children to cooperate rather than to compete.

15. 10
Cherry tomatoes are a fruit not a vegetable.

16. Answers
Fact
Opinion

17. Which of these are good sources of facts in an academic context?
Facebook
Wikipedia
The New York Times
Journal of Interdisciplinary History
China Daily
Breitbart
cocacola.com
Russia Today
University library
Der Spiegel
The Slavonic and East European Review
Twitter
Quora

18. More Practice