Female working in florist shop: The importance to differentiate between fact and opinion is, for instance, I've just received a promotional e-mail about the hottest digital camcorder.
How do I know how good it is?
It can be absolute rubbish.
It uses the word hottest, which is opinion, not fact.
Female with shoulder length brown hair, wearing red top: Nowadays, you get a lot of words thrown at you, a lot of information thrown at you, which is actually trying to sell you something, and you need to be able to, you know, realise that actually this is something they're trying to sell me.
It's not actually information.
Male working at Oldham Council: This diagram here illustrates the facts of where Oldham's money comes from.
Oldham Council's net budget requirement for 2010/11 was £234 million.
We know that's a fact, which can be substantiated.
Being able to know whether something is fact or opinion, is very important when reading the newspaper or watching an advert for example.
Quick tips for tutors
Fact or opinion includes:
- A variety of text types containing examples of both fact and opinion
- The difference between fact and opinion
- Strategies to differentiate between fact and opinion
- Consideration of the use of fact and opinion in news reports
Downloadable Factsheets
Entry 1 & 2 - Is that a fact?
An introduction to facts and opinions.
Entry 3 - Distinguishing between fact and opinion
How to distinguish between fact and opinion.
Level 1 - The language of fact and opinion
Understanding the language of fact and opinion.
Level 1 - What are facts and opinions?
Summary of what facts and opinions are.
Level 1 - Fact, opinion and news 1
Summary to show how fact and opinion are used in news reports.
Level 1 - Fact, opinion and news 2
Summary to show how fact and opinion is used in news reporting.
Downloadable Worksheets
Entry 3 - Identifying fact and opinion
Exercise in identifying fact and opinion from a personal account of the twenty-first century.
Entry 3 - Reviews: fact and opinion
Exercise in reading reviews to determine whether the text is fact or opinion.
Level 1 - Agony Aunt letter 1: example
An example of fact and opinion expressed in letter form.
Level 1 - Where you live: fact
Exercise to research where you live in order to provide a factual description.
Level 1 - Where you live: opinion
Exercise to research where you live in order to provide a factual description.
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