Hi! We're looking at
ways to improve your reading comprehension
by thinking more critically. One of the things
you should do is to see if the information
is a fact or an opinion. Oh, that's easy! Right?
Well... there's a gray area there... If someone says,
"The Earth is flat." Is that a fact or an opinion? The answer might surprise you, so
stick around and let's talk about distinguishing fact and opinion. [♪] [snap] [♫] Hi! Welcome to Snap Language
I'm Marc Franco. If I say, "It's 30°C outside,"
you can verify the information. All you need is a thermometer...
or, well, your smartphone. The information is objective.
It's based on data and observation. However, if I say, "It's very hot!"
Now... that's an opinion. Thirty degrees Celsius is a fact.
It's objective information that I can verify. But you may think
30°C is comfortable. Another person may say
30°C is really hot! Each person can have
a different opinion. So, facts are verifiable
and objective. You can check the information
and tell if it's true or untrue. Opinions cannot be verified,
and they're subjective; they change according to
a person's judgment. It's a fact that it's 30°C,
but each person may feel differently about that. When something's
presented as a fact, does it also mean it's true? Well, these are separate issues. In a passage, a writer can
present information as a fact even though it may be inaccurate
or even flatout wrong. It's up to you, as the reader,
to examine the information carefully to make sure
it's relevant and accurate. Let's look at this chart.
It shows the average course grades that students received in a course.
Half of the students took the course with Professor Ecks.
The other half took it with Prof. Bee. You can see their average
course grades here. We can make several statements
based on this information. For example, "Prof. Ecks's
students earned an average course grade of 95. Prof. Bee's students earned
an average course grade of 85." These statements
are presented as facts, and the information is accurate. I can check it right
here in the graph. "Prof. Ecks's students earned
a higher average course grade than did Prof. Bee's students." Again, I can check
the information in the graph. It's presented as a fact. "Students in Prof. Ecks's course
earned a higher average course grade. . . . . . . . therefore, Prof. Ecks is
a better instructor." Okay... now, we get into
a bit of a gray area. We saw that this is a fact,
but saying Prof. Ecks is a better instructor
is an opinion. It is possible Prof. Ecks
did a better job. But it's also possible that
Prof. Bee did a good job, too, but his students didn't do very well
for some reason. This opinion is based on
the fact that one group of students
did better than the other, but it's still just an opinion. "Prof. Ecks has more experience
than Prof. Bee; in addition, Prof. Ecks's students
did better in the course. Therefore, Prof. Ecks is
a better instructor than Prof. Bee." Now, this is presented as a fact. I trust that it's true, but I can also verify it
by looking at the instructors' professional records. We also have a fact here.
His students did do better; we can see it in the graph. But this conclusion that
he's a better instructor is still an opinion. It's a little stronger
now because it's based on two pieces of evidence.
But it's still an opinion. [snap] So back to where we started, if I say, "the Earth if flat,"
is that a fact or an opinion? Well, the information is
presented as a fact. You can verify it,
and you'll find that it's wrong. So, when information is presented
as a fact, it is verifiable and objective—based on statistics,
data, observations... It could be right, wrong,
or misleading. It's up to you to verify the evidence. When the information is presented
as an opinion, you cannot verify it. An opinion may be based on
facts, but it's subjective; it's based on feelings
or judgments. [snap] Does that mean
opinions are bad? Not necessarily. Opinions are weak
when they're based only on a guess or your
personal feeling or judgment. The more factual information
you base your opinions on, the stronger they are, and
the more compelled you are to agree with them. Both facts and opinions
are important parts of sharing knowledge and ideas. "In a study, researchers found
that two-thirds of college seniors failed a high-school grammar test. This points to the poor state of
higher education in the United States." Let's see. This is
presented as a fact. I trust that there was a study
and this is what they found. This... this is problematic.
It's just an opinion. Yes, you can judge the quality of
higher education based on whatever you want, but
others may disagree that this information is a
good measure of quality. I can read the study to verify what
these researchers found, but I cannot verify that
the quality of education is high or low based on it. An opinion based on fact
is still an opinion. Is it a strong opinion?
Let's see, the study found that these college seniors failed
some high-school grammar test. What was the test like? Can a grammar test
be used to judge the quality of higher education? Hmm... I'm not so
sure about that... Is there a better way
to measure quality? This is a somewhat
weak opinion because the evidence doesn't
support it very well at all. So, the point is that
an opinion based on facts is stronger than one that's
based on just feelings or personal judgment. But... you must still ask questions
about those facts. Don't simply agree
with someone's opinion as if it were factual [snap] So, keep this in mind
the next time you read something. Oh... check in the
descriptions below the video for
more materials. One opinion I never question
is when people like and share my videos, so
... go ahead... We'll be talking about
other aspects of critical thinking in
the next videos. So, until the next time, thanks for stopping by and
watching this video. [♪] [♫] [♪]
