Fact and Opinion

Popcorn can pop up to three feet into the air.

There was a man who cooked 427 omelets in half an hour.

The biggest pizza in the world was made at a pizzeria in Rome.

A battle nose dolphin has a bigger brain than a human.

Snow leopards can't roar.

Bees have three eyes.

The amount of whipped cream manufactured in the US could cover half of the United States.

A company made a fruit smoothie big enough to fill four bathtubs.

There was once a nine-and-a-half foot tall billboard made entirely by chocolate.

identify factual information and opinion-based statements

define opinion and fact; and

assess a text containing fact and opinion

This review has demonstrated…

According to the results of the latest poll…

The latest findings confirm…

Researchers have recently discovered…

The company claims that…

The research team argues that...

In Professor Donald’s view…

Most experts in this field suspect that…

Words such as; perhaps, sometimes, probably, often, indicate the possibility of opinions.

Words such as I feel, I think, I believe, clearly point out that an opinion is being expressed.  

checking that any reports that are quoted actually exist and refer to the fact in question

finding other sources that give opposing points of view

thinking of the reason the text has been written and its audience (for example, an article in a popular newspaper may have been written to sell the newspaper rather than to give a true or fair account of an incident)

looking for sensationalist words, such as ‘horror’ or ‘disgraceful’, which might influence readers’ opinions.