WEEK 2

FACTS AND OPINION

Critical reading calls for "reading between the lines. Reading critically means analyzing
how each author presents the ideas in each piece of writing. Critical reading is much like
critical thinking. Both require you to question, compare, and evaluate. The three most
important areas for critical reading are (1) being able to tell the difference between a fact
and an opinion, so that the material doesn't manipulate you; (2) being able to determine
the author's strategies, so as to understand the audience, purpose, and tone of a reading
selection; and (3) being able to state in one of two sentences the primary message of a
reading. This chapter will discuss the strategies that will support you in mastering these
areas of critical reading.

CRITICAL READING: DECIDING BETWEEN FACT AND OPINION

As a reader, you're often called on to make judgments about whether the material is
objective rather than subjective, or whether it's honest or distorted. Here are two
statements, one a fact and the other an opinion, each followed by a critical analysis.

 Rebecca is the friendliest contestant in the pageant. ["Friendliest" is an opinion.

Being friendly means something different to each of us. Even if you happen
to agree that Rebecca is the friendliest contestant, your assessment is still an
opinion.]
 Rebecca's peers elected her as the friendliest contestant in the pageant.
["Friendliest" is not the issue here. Rather it's the fact that Rebecca has been
voted the friendliest contestant in the pageant. The vote is a fact.]

Test for Facts: E R O

E= Experiment. For example, “The Glaser study showed that
eider residents of retirement homes in Ohio who learned progressive
relaxation and guided intagery enhanced their immune function and
reported better health than did the other residents.
R= Research. For example, “According to the Americans’ Use of
Time Project, when we don’t have to do anything else, most Americans
mainly watch television.
O= Observation. For example, “After a perfectly miserable,
aggravating day, a teacher comes home and yells at her children for
making too much noise. Another individual, after an equally stressful day,
jokes about what went wrong during the all time most miserable moment
 of the month. [...] The first is displacing anger onto someone else. The
second uses humor to vent frustration.”

Facts are statements that can be verified. You can “test” whether a statement is a
fact or opinion by applying to it the three tests listed in the box. If the statement passes
any one f the three tests, it’s a fact. The examples in the box are from “A Personal Stress
Survival Guide,” which is Reading Selection 28 in this textbook.
Opinions are statements or personal beliefs. They contain ideas that can’t be
verified or confirmed. As such, opinions are open to debate. Opinions often contain
abstract ideas, information that can’t be proven, and/or emotionally charged words.
Sometimes an opinion is written so that it appears to be a fact. This is especially
true when a quotation is involved. A quotation isn’t automatically a fact. True, someone
made the statement, but whether the content of the quotation expresses a fact or an
opinion is what counts. For example, an author might quote a horse owner as follows:
“Having a healthy horse to ride, work, show, or even keep as a pet is a rare privilege.”
The content of the quotation expresses an opinion, one certainly not shared by all. In
contrast, the following quotation expresses a fact: A horse owner reports, “It costs me
$600 a year to feed my horse.”

OBSERVING FACT AND OPINION IN ACTION

Sometimes, even without doing any reading, you can decide whether a statement is a fact
or an opinion.

EXERCISE 1

Write F (fact) or O (Opinion) in the blank.

________1. Health investigators have not found the cause of illness that affected two
dozen workers at a hazardous waste processing plant.
________2. Last year Jarred and Jossie missed school nine days.
________3. Sometimes the best way to judge a truck is to look under one.
________4. Nothing is better on a cold, winter day than a warm bowl of soup or stew—
except maybe a loaf of homemade bread.
________5. Bull sharks are common along beaches in the South.
________6. "You have to love mushrooms to work here," says the owner of Oakhaven
Mushroom Farm.
________7. When I was a youngster, my grandfather used to bring me rusty bicycles,
old rope, and broken toys he found in the junkyard.
________8. In Bon Appetit magazine's fourth annual reader survey, cheese-cake topped
the list of dessert favorites.
________9. Clark LaGrange, drama director at ECS, will be remembered for his
enthusiasm, sense of humor, and patience under production pressure.
________10.No healthy child is going to suffer because Shelby County Schools are
turning the thermostat down to 68 degrees.

Now try reading a passage and then deciding whether the statements following are
facts or opinions. These paragraphs, published in The Washington Post, speak about
Wendell Arbuckle, who was an expert on ice cream, who wrote a major book on the
topic, and who served as an ice cream consultant throughout the world.

(1) During the past four years, he has been doing this sort of tasting
throughout the United States, but also in Germany, France, Switzerland, Britain,
and Japan. He also has done consulting work by mail with firms in about 20
countries [...] all of which, he said, signals an "explosion of interest" around the
world in American-style ice cream.

(2) He refused to say, though, which brand of ice cream he likes best. "It
depends on what people want," he said. "They all can be good for you." His own
favorite flavor, he said, is plain vanilla. "It's the basis of the industry and it goes
with almost everything."

Decide whether the content of each statement, even it’s a quotation, is A FACT or an
OPINION. Write F or O in the blank.
________1. From paragraph 1: During the past four years, he has been doing this sort of
tasting throughout the United States, but also in Germany, France,
Switzerland, Britain, and Japan.
________2. From paragraph 2: “He refused to say, though, which brand of ice cream he
likes best.”
________3. From paragraph 2: All brands of ice cream “can be good for you,” according
to Arbuckle.