Reports and opinion pieces
A news report and two argued texts: telling fact from position, and following an argument that has two sides.
A report tells you what was decided. An opinion piece tells you what somebody thinks about it. Both use the same grammar, so you have to read for the signals.
Opinion is marked: meiner Meinung nach, ich halte … für, deshalb, trotzdem, einerseits … andererseits. Fact is usually passive and dated: wurde beschlossen, soll gebaut werden.
Die Arbeiten werden voraussichtlich achtzehn Monate dauern.
a stated fact from the report
no opinion word anywhere
Deshalb halte ich eine Mischung für die beste Lösung.
the writer's own conclusion
halte … für is the clearest opinion marker in the language
Watch for whose opinion is being reported. A text can quote somebody it disagrees with, and B1 questions like to ask exactly that.
Treating every sentence in a report as the reporter's own view.Asking who is speaking: the city, a resident, a trade association, or the writer.
Verbs like sagte, sieht das anders and berichten hand the sentence to somebody else.
Words from this topic
- die die Kritikthe criticism
- halten fürto consider (something) to be
- die die Untersuchungthe study, the investigation
- die die Lösungthe solution
- regelmäßigregular, regularly