Fact, Opinion, and Inference
What is Fact, Opinion, and Inference?
The first step in reasoning well is pulling apart three things that always arrive mixed together. A fact can be checked against observation, records, or a reliable source — “the household spent $300 more this month than last.” An opinion interprets, judges, or evaluates a fact — “you’re careless with money.” An inference is a conclusion drawn from one or more premises — “so we have to cut every expense next month.”
Fact, Opinion, and Inference: common mistakes and how to handle them
Common mistakes: treating an opinion as a fact, treating a guess as a cause, and dressing a suggestion up as a necessary conclusion. “I think the client dislikes this proposal” is an opinion, and the next question is what the client actually said or did. “I got cheated once, so nobody can be trusted” is, on that evidence, an assumption at best. Assumptions are not the problem — an assumption simply has to be testable, and it has to be allowed to turn out wrong.
What the Fact, Opinion, and Inference questions test
labelling each sentence in a statement or dialogue as fact, opinion, inference, or assumption; spotting an opinion disguised as a fact, a guess disguised as a cause, or a suggestion disguised as a necessity; deciding what to ask next in order to turn an opinion into something checkable. Stems use real settings — a status update at work, a conversation at home.