Fact or Opinion ?
When communicating with people, it is very important not to jump to conclusions. This is especially true when attempting to judge the reasons behind people’s actions. A factual assessment would be something that can be proven true or false. “You’re late.” This is something that can be proven by a simple watch check. An opinion assessment may be, “You don’t care about this job.” This cannot be directly proven either way. Maybe that person really doesn’t care, or maybe they had car trouble, hit traffic, woke up late, etc. Here are a couple examples of the difference, and when reading over them, examine your own life, and see if you sometimes jump to these conclusions:
Fact
- You forgot it was our anniversery
- You won’t let me get a word in edgewise
- You tell a lot of edgy jokes
Opinion (Corresponding with above numbers)
- You don’t care about me
- You’re a control freak
- You’re racist
While some of these things may be true, it is important to never wrongly jump to conclusions. If wrong, it could end up damaging a relationship. You may feel bad that you thought wrong of them, and they are hurt because you didn’t trust them. I got this idea from the Looking Out, Looking In
“That was a stupid thing to say”
“Spending that much money for a pair of jeans is a waste of money”
“I’m can’t get any help in this store because I don’t appear wealthy”
They stress the importance of qualifier phrases at the beginning of loaded sentences such as:
- “I believe that…”
- “In my opinion…”
- “Almost…”
- “To an extent…”
By adding phrases like these, your comments are less directive and can be less hurtful. Just something to think about when addressing people.
Sources: Looking Out, Looking In
July 13th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Good point. I’ve been trying to make my assertions less positive. Rather than saying “Thus and such is so.” I feel like my constant use of emphatic statements makes me appear very arrogant.
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