2019-12-04 Writing: fact and opinion transitions

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - Notes from all classes
---
Homework: p. 170
part A
1 violence - violent
2 harm - harmful
3 aggression - aggressive
4 anger - angry
5 sensitivity - sensitive
6 entertainment - entertaining
7 imagination - imaginative
8 emotion - emotional
 - A person or situation with a lot of the [noun] can be described as [adjective].
An imaginative person is creative and can come up with many ideas.
An imaginary person is not real.
part B
1 violence
2 harm (“more” can modify adjectives, adverbs, nouns, or verbs; “do” goes with nouns)
3 entertainment
4 aggression (“show” also goes with nouns)
5 emotional
6 imagination (“a wild” must have a noun after it, because “wild” is an adjective)
7 entertaining
8 sensitivity
---
There are only a few verbs that can be followed by an adjective:
He is emotional.
He became emotional.
He often gets emotional.
He looks/appears emotional.
He sounds emotional.
He feels emotional.
He seems emotional.
The food smells delicious.
The food tastes delicious.
---
The thing that’s happening over there is entertaining. (movie, book, show, comedian, etc.)
The thing that I’m doing is fun. (activity, vacation, sport, etc.)
---
Facts and Opinions
---
Opinions are up to individual people, so we can all have different opinions about something.
	- Boston is too cold.
	- Boston is too hot.
	- Boston is beautiful.
	- Boston is ugly.
	- You shouldn’t come to Boston.
	(We can disagree and it doesn’t mean one of us is wrong.)
Facts are about reality, so if we disagree at least one of us is wrong.
	- Boston is in Massachussetts. (correct)
	- Boston is in Connecticut. (wrong)
	- Boston is in Maine. (wrong)
---
There are different kinds of statements we can make about facts:
true fact: In Boston it is 2°C. (I just checked a weather website and I know this is true.)
“false fact”: In Boston it is 40°C.
unverified fact: In NYC it is 2°C. (This is possible but I haven’t checked.)
guess: In NYC it is probably near 2°C. (I haven’t checked, but I’m also not telling you I’m sure.)
- None of these are opinions. We can check or test all of them.
---
We can use facts to support opinions if we want to convince other people.
Opinion: It is too cold for swimming today.
Supporting facts:
	- It is 2°C right now.
	- Almost no one would swim in this temperature.
	- You can get hypothermia very quickly in cold water.
	- There are other health problems with low body temperature.
	- My brother went swimming at this temperature and then he got pneumonia.
---
Transition Signals for Opinions:
In my opinion, it is too cold for swimming.
In my experience, (this can sometimes be used with facts, too)
I think / I believe / I feel (that) it is too cold for swimming.
In my view, it’s too cold.
For me, it’s too cold.

Transition Signals for Sources of Information (usually facts):
According to [source], [sentence]. (According to wunderground.com, it is 2 degrees in Boston.)
reporting verbs: [source] says/argues/states/writes that [sentence]
	(The Weather Underground website says that it’s 2 degrees in Boston.)
Based on research, [sentence].
Studies have shown that [sentence].
I remember reading that [sentence]. (This is more informal.)