What is the difference between a fact and an opinion? Why is it important to know which is which when reading informational text

Facts are things you cannot change or have a different outcome, its hard to explain right but a probable easy way is to compare them as well as read their dictionary terms.

Dictionary term for " Fact "

"a thing that is known or proved to be true."

now " Opinion "

"a view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge."

You can see their differences, now lets try an example.

For fact, lets think of its meaning. The dictionary meaning of " fact " is a Fact.

Since " fact " doesnt mean " Something untrue ", that isnt a fact.

Opinions example is like

" What do you prefer, Apples or Bananas? "

If someone likes Apples better than Bananas, its an opinion since not everyone will prefer Apples to Bananas.

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Now for why is it important to know which is which when reading informational text.

Its important because of many factors, but first lets start with

" Safety "

You want to be able to know if for example " Is this water or is this not water? "

You wanna drink something but you cant tell which substance is it.

If the container with either water or something else says " This isnt NOT water " yet it was actually not water but you drank it. This is a Safety issue and can probably cause a health issues or something worse.

If you want to know more reasons, you can simply search it.

I hope you learned something. :)