how do you make a judgment about whether a statement is a fact or an opinion?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Think about what you say and if it's based on emotions or based on something that can be proven.

anonymous · Answer

A fact is something that can be proven and an opinion is something that someone thinks.

snuggielad · Answer

Factuality can be proven...If somthing is fact you can go over it again and double check that fact and no matter what it will be true every time

Opinion is exacly the oppisit people always differ their ideas so if you think pizza is good you may meet someone else that says no i hate pizza i prefer hamburgers...that is an example of a opinion...that being said here are some examples

Cupcakes are better with chocolate iceing (opinion...you may believe it but some people like vanilla better)
Itunes sells the song "When I was your man" by bruno mars today for 69 cents (FACT it can be proven...look it up they actually do!)
Google is the best search engine on the internet (opinion some people like MSN better)

anonymous · Answer

Read Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark", a book which should be required reading in elementary schools. In this book, Carl lays out methods, which he calls a "Baloney Detection Kit", for separating the wheat from the anti-intellectual chaff which we are bombarded with daily. The elements of this kit are loosely summarized here: http://users.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/baloney.html These elements are further elucidated in a video by Michael Shermer which can be found here: http://www.michaelshermer.com/2009/06/baloney-detection-kit/ Enjoy! :-)