How to Determine if a Work is a Fact or Opinion
In any writing, fictional and factual narratives are considered as the exact opposites of each other. However, people also disagree on this rationale, and there is no common consensus about it. Some people may even consider both the styles of writing as somehow interlinked with each other. Both the styles of writing may be distinguished with each other according to three major approaches; semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic. According to the semantic approach/definition, factual writing or narrative is always based on some authentic reference. Contrarily, fictional writing or narrative is never backed by any reference or a fact, hence the name. As per the syntactic approach, the logico-linguistic syntax is what differentiates between both types of writing. The pragmatic approach or definition states that factual narratives are true and claim truthfulness based on references, while fictional narrative does not claim anything.
Identifying Facts
Read each sentence. Decide whether each example is a fact or opinion. Write the word fact or opinion beside the appropriate sentence.
Identifying Opinions
Read the descriptions of each item and decide which best describes the author's purpose for writing the passage.
1 and 2
Write one fact and two opinions for each topic that has been provided. Use complete sentences.
Winter Time
Look at the examples of a Fact and an Opinion. Then follow the directions below.
How to Determine If a Something is a Fact or Opinion
Some phenomena are known as universal facts and can never be considered as an opinion. In fact, all the natural phenomena are considered as universal facts that can never be changed in any context or considered as someone’s opinion. For example, the sun rises from the east and sets in the west is a universal fact that can never be considered someone’s opinion. However, if someone claims that a person is vicious, it can be an opinion, or it could as well be a fact. For example, the barbarian's race is considered a vicious human race, which is something for a fact. But if someone says that a particular race of humans always has ill intentions for humanity, it can be someone’s opinion who had an unpleasant experience with that race.