Today you’ll be asked to defend a position. You’re going to put forth an opinion that you hold strongly, and since you’re always right, you’ll surely be able to convince everyone that you are absolutely correct!

First, it’s important to know the difference between a fact and an opinion:

FACTS are things that can be verified.

eg: Mr. Robson is 6′ 4″ tall.

I could, if I wanted to, get out a tape measure and hold it up and check whether Mr. Robson is in fact that tall.

But here’s the thing: they don’t necessarily have to be true or correct, they just need to be verifiable. So I could say that Mr. Robson is 8 feet or 8 inches tall. Both are obviously incorrect, but since I can go check that to see whether it’s true or not, the statement is still considered a FACT, even though they aren’t true.

OPINIONS are things that a reasonable person could disagree with and still be correct, because we can’t prove them one way or another.

eg: Mr. Robson is the best teacher EVER!

Perhaps that’s a bad example since clearly, Mr. Robson IS the best teacher EVER, but for the sake of argument, we’ll allow for the slim possibility that some person could think that someone else is a better teacher. Unlikely, but possible! Even though everyone knows that Mr. Robson is the best teacher ever, there’s no real way to PROVE that, and the silly, incorrect person who might consider disagreeing could possibly still be correct. (but not really!)

First, come up with a list of 5 facts and 5 opinions. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

Here’s mine:

Facts:

• the sky is blue
• Tim Horton’s is across the street from St. James Collegiate
• Mr. Rogers is principal of St. James Collegiate
• The new season of Survivor started this week
• Canada won 100 gold medals at the recent winter olympics.

Opinions:

• The Winnipeg Jets are going to win the Stanley Cup
• Ice cream is the best food on Earth
• Dogs make the best pets
• Music is the most important thing in the world
• Everything Sucks! is an awesome TV show

Opinions are interesting because people can disagree. If I like chips better than candy, but you like candy more, we can both be right and both enjoy our favourite snacks.

But sometimes, you want to try to prove to someone that your opinion is a FACT. If you support your opinion well enough with enough facts, you can often convince people that you are speaking the truth, instead of just your opinion.

DEFENDING YOUR POSITION

We’ll practice coming up with opinions, then using facts to support them so that we can convince other people that we’re correct.

First, we need a TOPIC. This is the area that we’ll explore and try to defend a position. Your choice of topics is basically limitless, but think of a topic or belief that you find interesting. If you need help, there’s a list below.

Second, we need to GATHER information. This is where we brainstorm or research ideas that will help us to refine the topic and come up with (or strengthen) our opinion on the subject.

Third,we need to EXPLORE the topic from all sides. True, you may have your opinion, but consider what someone might argue against your opinion. You want to make sure that your opinion is strong enough. The thing here is that you want to try to defend the strongest possible position, even if you don’t agree! If you think that ice cream is the best food in the world, but you think it would be easier to argue that pizza is the best, then you should go with the stronger argument!

Next, we need to FORM the opinion. Make sure that your idea is solid and you have the support you need to convince others that you are correct.

After all of that, we’ll be ready to DEFEND our position! This is the fun part, where you get to prove that you are right using carefully chosen facts.

Your task is to come up with 3 topics and come up with a list of AT LEAST 4 ways that you can prove your position.

eg: (these topics are now officially off limits, but you can do something similar)

Pizza is the best food on Earth because it is:

• Versatile
• Popular
• Cheap
• 4 food groups – full meal

Dogs make the best pets because they:

• are loyal
• are sensitive
• force you to get exercise
• are smart

Here’s a list of possible positions taken from a book I’ve got. If you need help getting started, I can give you the page from my book with one of these topics explained a bit for you:

• Should animals be used to test new products?
• Should cell phones be allowed in class?
• In disasters like the sinking of hte Titanic, who should be saved first?
• Should beaches have rules?
• Should people be allowed to go barefoot anywhere they want to?
• Should gun makers be forced to pay costs associated with gun voilence?
• Should people lose their jobs if it helps the environment?
• Should children be allowed to enter beauty pageants?
• Should student athletes have to get good grades in order to play on school teams?
• Should fur coats be against the law?
• Should boxing be banned?
• Should there be more police in schools?
• Should hunting be banned as a sport?
• Should students be paid to attend school?
• If you commit a crime, should your parents be held responsible?
• Should teen criminals be locked up in adult prisons?
• Should you change the way you dress because of what others think?
• Should music have a ratings system like movies and video games?
• Is space exploration worth the money we spend on it?
• If you find a large sum of money, is it yours to keep?
• Some malls have banned teenagers. Is this fair?
• If you see someone cheating on a test, should you tell?
• Are teen curfews a good thing?
• Is year-round school a good idea?
• Should skateboarding be banned in public places?
• Should sports teams be forced to change potentially offensive or racist names (like the Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, Edmonton Eskimos, etc.)
• Should schools have dress codes?
• Should students have to do volunteer work in order to graduate?
• Should doctors transplant pigs’ organs into human bodies?
• Should boys & girls have separate schools?
• and so on!