Facts VS Opinions

***At stressful times, we tend to be driven by our emotions and opinions, which can create a

vicious cycle by fuelling each other. This leads to impulsive acts and unhelpful longer term

consequences, which help to maintain the overall problem. The solution to this problem is to

know how to tell a fact from an opinion. ***

***Ask them to define fact and opinion. ***

A fact is a statement that can be verified with experimentation, observation, or research.

For example:

1. Mr. Timothy is a teacher.

2. My light bill is $200.

3. There are about 27,000 rhinos left in the wild.

***Now, some of you said that a fact is something that is true. You’re not wrong. Most

dictionaries will actually agree with you. However, within the context of this lesson, you’re only

half-correct. Go back to what I said earlier. A fact is a statement that can be verified. So, by that

logic, a false statement is still a fact. Can anyone think of some “facts?” Now, this is just an

assumption on my part, so don’t write this down. I think this definition exists because nothing is

really set in stone. In the past, Pluto was considered a planet. However, it’s now considered a

dwarf planet. Does that mean that the people from before were lying? No, it means that new

information came out or the standards changed. Understand? Good, now let’s move on to

opinions. ***
An opinion is a statement that expresses a person’s feelings, beliefs, or predictions about a topic.

Opinions are neither true nor false, but a person may use factual statements to support his or her

opinions. An opinion based on careful research is called an informed opinion.

For example:

1. Mr. Timothy is a terrible teacher.

2. My light bill is too high.

3. Rhinos are in danger of extinction.

The underlined words are called judgement or value words. They usually indicate that a

statement is an opinion.
Fact-Checking
Fact-checking is the action of confirming the truth of a claim made in speech or writing. Any

given speech or text may contain both facts and opinions. The end-goal of fact-checking is to

promote truthfulness and impartiality (free from bias). Fact-checking also helps writers choose

appropriate sources when doing research.

To verify a fact or spot an opinion disguised as a fact, ask yourself:

1. Does the statement elicit a strong emotion? *** If a headline or social media post makes

you feel a strong emotion, especially anger or sadness, it’s probably misleading. A lot of

news sites have a bad habit of using misleading headlines. They either leave out

important details or straight-up lie. It’s especially bad because a lot of people are too lazy

to read the articles. There was an incident a few years ago. A British rapper was asked if

he thought England had racism. He said “yes, 100%”. He obviously meant, “yes, England

has racism. I’m 100% certain of that,” but a certain news site chose an interesting

headline. The headline said “Rapper claims England is 100% racist”. Now, that statement

is completely different from what the guy actually said. Nonetheless, many people only

read the headline and went crazy. The rapper got a lot of hate because of that lie. ***

2. Who said it? *** You need to find out who’s behind a claim. They may have a bad

reputation.

3. Are they biased? *** By studying how a person speaks, you can usually tell if they’re

biased. If they are, you should probably verify their claim. They might not be lying, but

they could be spreading misinformation. I’ve seen a lot of well-meaning people do that.

Now, you also need to be wary of provocateurs. Those people are very dangerous
 because they’re usually telling the truth. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with telling

the truth. The problem is that these people use the truth to push a narrative. For example,

there are people who only report on crimes committed by Muslims in order to turn public

opinion against them. You also have people who use statistics without providing any

context. ***

4. Is a source provided? ***A source is a person, thing, or place from which information is

obtained. If someone doesn’t give you a source for their claim, you might as well ignore

them.

5. Is the source credible? *** Some people will give you a source if you ask them, but the

source itself can’t be trusted. ***