Thursday, February 4, 2010

Objective vs Subjective Claim

An objective claim is a statement about a factual matter that can be proved true or false. For factual matters there exist widely recognized criteria and methods to determine whether a claim is true or false. A subjective claim on the other hand is not a factual matter it is an expression of belief, opinion, or personal preference. A subjective claim cannot be proved right or wrong by any generally accepted criteria. Example: "That was a hard test". This is a subjective claim because it is based off personal criteria for how hard or easy a test is. Compared to what? Did the person study? Is it a difficult subject? Example: "If you had actually sat in that class this whole semester you would have saw just how hard that test was". This is an objective claim because it is based off a factual claim that is up to you to decide whether you're in agreement with the original statement making it non-personal.

No comments:

Post a Comment