Identifying fact and opinion

Preparation work for Live session

In this second term, we are going to focus on the art of critical thinking. You probably hear teachers talk about it a lot, but what does it actually mean? Lots of people (including your lecturers) have different views on what critical thinking is and what they're looking for from students, so be prepared to be flexible! However, there are three things that will always help you to be critical in your writing:

• Formulate an argument

• Demonstrate wider reading

• Choose your words carefully

Last term we looked at formulating a stance and a thesis statement in week four, and in weeks eight, nine and ten we practised demonstrating wider reading by using our own language to report what other people say, and to comment on what they've said.

We'll continue to refine these skills in the second term, but our first few writing classes are going to look closely at language use, including word choice and structures, that help us develop our own voice and opinions.

Our first lesson looks at telling the difference between a fact and opinion. This is something that's easy at first but hard to master because many people, and especially academics, are good at using language subtly to present opinions as facts.