TEAS Ready✍️ Reading · Craft and Structure · Lesson 1 of 5 · 4 min
Fact, opinion and bias: can it be proven?
🧐 Ads, editorials and even health flyers mix facts with opinions. The TEAS asks you to pull them apart, and so will every patient chart and news story you read.
💡 Key idea
If it can be checked with evidence it is a fact; if reasonable people could disagree, it is an opinion.
🧠 The idea
A FACT can be checked and proven true or false with evidence: a date, a measurement, a recorded event ("The clinic opened in 2019"). An OPINION is a belief, judgment or feeling that people could reasonably disagree with ("The clinic is the best in town"). Judgment words are the giveaway: best, worst, should, beautiful, unfair, too expensive, most important. A sentence can hold both, so test each claim inside it. BIAS is a one-sided slant: the writer leaves out the other side, uses loaded words ("reckless," "heroic"), or gains something if you agree. A MISCONCEPTION is a widely believed idea that is false ("you lose most body heat through your head"). Facts can still be used in a biased way if the writer picks only the ones that help the argument.
✏️ Worked example
"The new bike lane on Elm Street, which cost $80,000, is a waste of money that only a handful of riders use." Split it up. "Cost $80,000" can be checked in city records: fact. "A waste of money" is a judgment: opinion. "Only a handful of riders use" sounds factual but is vague; it could be checked with a count, yet the word "only" adds the writer's slant. The sentence mixes a fact with an opinion, and the word choice shows a bias against the lane.
📌 Takeaways
- Fact = can be proven; opinion = can be disagreed with.
- Judgment words (best, should, unfair) signal opinion.
- Bias shows in loaded words and missing sides.
📖 Terms in this lesson
Fact: A statement that can be checked and proven true or false; for example, "The clinic opens at 8 a.m."
Opinion: A statement of belief, feeling or judgment that cannot be proven; for example, "The clinic has the friendliest staff in town."
Bias: A one-sided slant that favors one view and leaves out or downplays others; for example, a review written by the product's own seller.
✅ Check yourself
Question 1 of 3
Which statement is a FACT?
- The pool opens on the first Saturday in June.
- Summer is the most pleasant season of the year.
- Swimming is the most enjoyable form of exercise.
- The town pool should stay open later at night.
Show the answer and rationale
Answer: A
The opening date of the pool can be checked on a schedule, so it is a fact. "Most pleasant," "should stay open" and "most enjoyable" are judgments that people could disagree with, so they are opinions.
Question 2 of 3
A letter to the editor calls a proposed tax "a greedy grab at hardworking families' wallets." What does this wording most clearly show?
- The writer is biased against the proposed tax.
- The writer is unsure how the tax would work.
- The writer is quoting the wording of the tax law.
- The writer is giving neutral background facts.
Show the answer and rationale
Answer: A
Loaded words such as "greedy grab" reveal a one-sided slant, which is bias. The phrase is not neutral and is not taken from a law, and nothing in it suggests the writer is uncertain.
Question 3 of 3
Which choice is an example of a MISCONCEPTION?
- A popular belief that is actually false
- A claim that has not been tested yet
- An opinion that most experts agree with
- A fact that is stated in a confusing way
Show the answer and rationale
Answer: A
A misconception is a widely held idea that evidence shows is wrong. A confusing fact is still a fact, an expert opinion is still an opinion, and an untested claim has not yet been shown false.
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