Fact and Opinion (HL#7 - Michael Phelps)

Fact and Opinion (HL#7 - Michael Phelps)

Facts

Facts are statements that can be proven.

Facts may be true or false.

But facts can be proven.

Examples

1. Statistically, women live longer than men.

2. Most buses weigh more than most cars. 

3. There are ten inches in a foot (false).

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is a FACT?

• Michael Phelps has more swimming world records than anyone else in the world.

• Michael Phelps in the greatest swimmer of all time.

Opinions

Opinions are statements that cannot be proven.

Opinions can be argued.

Opinions may be supported with facts.

Opinions cannot be proven.

Examples

1. Golf is boring.

2. Pizza is delicious.

3. Math is the hardest subject.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is a OPINION?

• Michael Phelps has more swimming world records than anyone else in the world.

• Michael Phelps in the greatest swimmer of all time.

Opinions can be supported by facts

Be careful and understand that while opinions usually have facts that can support them, facts will not have opinions supporting them.

Example might be: Because Michael Phelps has more world records that anyone else, he is the greatest swimmer of all time.

The fact is the record count, which you can prove. The opinion is that he is the greatest swimmer. Some people might take more into account than just world records.

Multiple Choice

Michael Phelps has 23 gold medals and Mark Spitz has 9 so Phelps is a better athlete than Spitz.

Is the underlined portion of this sentence a FACT or an OPINION?

• Fact

• Opinion

Multiple Choice

Michael Phelps has 23 gold medals and Mark Spitz has 9 so Phelps is a better athlete than Spitz.

Is the underlined portion of this sentence a FACT or an OPINION?

• Fact

• Opinion

Multiple Choice

"...by the end of [swim practice] he had worked his way from last to first."

• Fact

• Opinion

Multiple Choice

"Michael was a very raw talent."

• Fact

• Opinion

Multiple Choice

Michael's coach had him use techniques similar to the "Visioning" strategy like having a dream goal, writing it down, and putting it somewhere you could see it every day.

• Fact

• Opinion

Multiple Choice

Michael started visualizing in a way similar to the "Worst-Case Scenario" strategy - imagining what could go wrong and planning how to fix it.

• Fact

• Opinion

Multiple Choice

Because Michael won the 200M Butterfly race using the "Worst-Case Scenario" strategy, it is clearly better than the "Visioning" strategy.

The underlined portion is ...

• Fact

• Opinion

Multiple Choice

Because Michael won the 200M Butterfly race using the "Worst-Case Scenario" strategy, it is clearly better than the "Visioning" strategy.

The underlined portion is ...

• Fact

• Opinion