1.4 Facts and opinions

1.4.1 Fact or opinion? (1)

Fact or opinion? (a) ‘Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade’; (b) ‘Overweight people are lazy’.

Some of the texts you read at university will be factual, others will be more opinion-based and some will be a mixture of facts and opinions. An important aspect of critical reading is to be able to distinguish between facts and opinions because opinions are not reliable unless supported by references to other writers, research or evidence.

A fact is something that everyone knows is true – there is no argument. On the other hand, an opinion is a viewpoint that other people might not share; they might argue about it.

The next activity helps you to discriminate between facts and opinions in Text 3.