Identifying author's opinionHow to identify author's opinion
Most texts have a strong influence of their authors' opinions. However, this depends on the type of the text you are reading. As here we normally deal with essays, it will be important for us to differentiate between facts and opinions.
Facts can be checked and we can prove whether they are true or false. As long as you can check it and prove it true or false it is a fact.
Opinions can not be checked and proved by any means. For example:
- Newcastle United is the best football club in the world.
- Newcastle United lost to Sunderland 1-0 on Saturday 21st of December, 2014.
Example 1 is an opinion as we cannot check whether Newcastle United is the best team in the world. We won't find objective evidence to support that statement. Example 2 is a fact, as we can check football records and see whether Newcastle United played against Sunderland on that day and who won and lost.
Now you can complete exercise 1
Now that you know the difference between facts and opinions, let's move on to identifying author's opinion on what is being said in the text. REMEMBER Author does not only inform us, but also gives his/her opinion. There are some words that will help you locate author's opinion in the text. When reading the text, you can underline these words and analyse them later. Here is the list of words you have to pay special attention to:
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very
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(un)important
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many
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few
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always
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never
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anything
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nothing
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everything
After you find all the words, you need to think about what feelings or beliefs author tries to express. You also have to consider the context in which they appear. Pay close attention to personal experience that author describes in the text. Experiences often illustrate and support the author's point of view.
Other reading tips before you take the test
ON THE TEST'S STRUCTURE: The test contains two 4-paragraph reading texts. The paragraphs are numbered for both texts.
In the first reading text the questions are normally presented in such an order that, for example, the answer to question 1 can be found in the first paragraph. These questions normally ask for the general idea or author's opinion on the content. The rest of the questions deal with meaning of unfamiliar words.
For general idea/author's opinion questions:
- Read the question carefully and identify which part of the text refers to this point.
- Try to eliminate obvious wrong answers from multiple-choice options given.
- Look at the corresponding paragraph again and using skills gained here try to choose the correct answer.
In the second reading text the questions normally focus on details. You will have to read the text very attentively and understand minor details.
- Read the title of the text and/or the introduction.
- Read the questions before reading the text.
- Read the text focusing on the questions asked and use the skills gained here to answer them correctly.
REMEMBER:
- Your time is limited: if you don't know the answer to a question, try answering it at your best ability but DO NOT SPEND TOO MUCH TIME on it.
- Do your best at understanding the question: if you understand the question, your chance of answering it is bigger.
- Do not panic if there is a word you don't understand: you can figure the meaning out from the context or it might be an unimportant word.
- Answer ALL THE QUESTIONS: even if your answer is wrong, the points will not be discounted. Besides, you can get lucky and get the right answer!
Now try the practice test