Lesson 10: Reading about Issues

Read and Practice

Facts vs. Opinions

Facts are pieces of information that can be proven (either true or false). You can look them up in a book, ask someone directly, or do an experiment. Here are some examples of facts.

Of the quarter of a million marchers, as many as 60,000 were white.
James Haskins wrote There Was a Time.
Homer Plessy brought a suit against the Louisiana Railroad Company.

These are all facts, because you could prove them either right or wrong by looking them up. When you are deciding if something is fact or opinion, you are not really looking at whether a piece of information is true or false. For example, if I incorrectly said, “Fred Haskins wrote There Was a Time,” this would not be considered an opinion just because it is not true. It is a false fact, but that does not make it opinion.

Opinions are pieces of information that a person may believe to be true but that cannot be proven. Although you may agree with an opinion statement, or even if most people agree with an opinion statement, that still does not make it a fact. Here are some examples of opinions from your reading in the Daybook, pages 156–160.

The March on Washington was a high point in the civil rights movement.

Freedom is an important right for all people.

Life for blacks in the North was better than in the South.

Even though these statements might look like facts, because it would seem that most people would agree with them, they cannot be proven. Thus, they are opinions.

Self-Check: As you read from There Was a Time, ask yourself the questions below. Once you have written your responses, check your answers.

1. What information can be looked up in a book?
2. Do you find more facts or opinions in this article?
3. How does the author use facts to support an opinion?
4. Why is it important for a reader to know the difference between facts and opinions?

Self-Check: On page 159, you are asked to find facts to support two of the opinions expressed by James Haskins. Once you have written down the facts you found, check your answers.

Write: The paragraph that you write on page 160 will be the beginning of a persuasive essay you will write for your progress evaluation. Pay particular attention to choosing a topic you have strong feelings about. Keep notes of facts and opinions you come up with as you complete the rest of your Daybook activities. This will help you prepare to write your own persuasive writing. Be sure to use both facts and opinions in your paragraph. Be sure to back up opinions you have with factual information that you really could prove.

NOTE: The Internet is a wonderful place for looking up information. However, you must always keep in mind that information on many sites is not necessarily true. Be careful about the sites you visit and the information you pull from those sites. Anyone can post anything on the Internet and make it look like factual information.

Beware of Bias

Bias is writing that favors one side of an issue over another. It’s easy to let bias appear when you are writing about an issue you are passionate about. A good reader who is using questioning techniques understands when an author is showing bias. You might notice words like “authentic,” “undoubtedly,” and “of course,” as you read. Words like this are meant to bring readers over to the author’s perspective. Sometimes you can tell the author’s position by the amount of space given to one side or the other.

Self-Check: Read “Loch Ness” on pages 161–163 in the Daybook. Once you have written your response on page 163 about the author’s bias, check your answers.

Write: On page 164, you are asked to write a completely biased essay. You might use the same topic that you chose for page 160, except that you will present only one side. You may actually find that this is rather easy to accomplish, because it is often easiest to present things that support our opinions. However, make sure that you still choose a topic that has a pro (for) and con (against) side to it.

When you are asked to present the “pros and cons” about a topic, you are being asked to present both sides of an issue. Practice using words with strong connotations to state your opinions. (Remember that the connotation of a word is its emotional appeal; the denotation is the dictionary meaning of the word.)

This activity will help you realize that biased articles can be very persuasive, but they lack support and are easily argued against, because they contain limited information.

Presenting Both Sides

Self-Check: Now you will read an article that presents both sides of an issue: “Schools Crack Down on Peanuts,” on pages 165–166. As you read the article, place a plus (+) beside passages that support a ban on peanuts and a minus (-) beside passages that are against the ban. If you are not writing in your book, make a two-column page as you have done for earlier lessons. Put “support” passages in one column and “against” passages in the other column. Once you have completed the exercises on page 167, check your answers.

Presenting both sides of an issue is actually quite difficult for writers, because they must put aside their own views to present both points of view. This does not mean that the author’s own opinion will not come through in the article, but the author must provide a balance between the pros and cons of a topic.

Write: You might have done something similar to what an author presenting both sides does, if you have ever had to make a decision about something and written down the pros and cons of that decision. For example, if you have $10 and are trying to decide whether to go to the movies or save it for an upcoming vacation, you could write down all the reasons to use it for the movie and all the reasons to save it for vacation instead. By doing this, you are presenting both sides.

As a writer, you can do the same thing with a topic you are writing about. Remember this prewriting strategy for the essay you will be writing at the end of this lesson. When you write your letter for page 168, be sure to use support (provide evidence) for any opinions you state.

A Persuasive Tone

In this activity (pages 169–172), you return to the idea of connotations that we considered in an earlier activity. Opinions are found not only in what an author says about a topic but also in how an author says it. The tone of an essay may bring out strong feelings in the reader. It can make the reader agree or disagree with an opinion.

Self-Check: As you read Galapagos, ask yourself the questions below. Once you have responded, check your answers.

1. How does Ann McGovern’s tone change midway through the article?
2. What specific words does she use to make that change of tone?
3. How are her emotions tied to the facts she presents about the tortoise in the article?

Write: You probably have some strong feelings based on this article. You may find that you can easily identify the author’s position and that you are in agreement with her. The information she presents carries a lot of emotion that connects to the reader. Consider how this article might have been different if it were a diary entry from a sailor on one of those early ships. When you write your entry for page 172, be sure to write in first person. (Use “I,” “me,” “we,” etc.) Share your writings, entries, and answers for this unit with your parent/teacher.