Your brain automatically thinks about it in three different ways.

The first way is thinking about all the facts you know about it.
Including the size, color, special features, etc.
These are facts that you can prove are true.

The second way is to think about how it affects your senses.
What does it smell like? How does it taste, feel, or sound?

The third way of thinking is how it touches your emotions.
What kinds of feelings does it create in you?

The first way of thinking is generally common for everyone.
This is because facts are straightforward. For example if two people are asked to describe a computer their description will be quite similar based on facts.

The other two ways of thinking based on feelings and senses varies from person to person. For example if you ask two people to write a song about their experiences with computers each will be very different.

It is an important skill to be able to separate the facts from the feelings.

Read the sentences below. Which statements are facts and which statements are opinions?

Flying a kite is better than playing an X-Box.

Toyota vehicles have won a lot of automobile awards.

It is cheaper for families to rent videos rather than going to movie theatres.

Contact lenses are not as good as glasses.

Newspapers, TV, and radio offer many facts and opinions. Can you tell the difference? When you are reading or listening to information facts and opinions are often mixed together. It is an important skill to be able to separate the two.

When someone gives their opinion they are sharing what they think, feel or believe about a topic. For example you may think email is better than regular mail, that is your opinion. You can't really prove it, you just feel that way. There are a lot of people who would agree with you but there are also a lot of people who would not agree with your opinion. Statements that are opinions usually contain words such as guess, think, believe, claim, may, expect, or predict.

When someone presents a fact it can be either proved true or false. For example it is a fact that Computer engineer, Ray Tomlinson invented internet based email in late 1971. You can prove that this is true or false through a study, research, test or experiment. Statements that are facts usually contain dates, numbers, colors, and names of places or people.

Read the information below and decide if each sentence is a fact or an opinion.