Warm-Up for Opinion Essays
An opinion essay makes a case for a personal feeling you have about an important topic. This lesson will help you think about your opinions on different topics and your reasons for feeling the way you do.
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What Is an Opinion?
An opinion essay explains a writer’s view about an important topic. Stating an opinion is easy: “I love that movie!” you might say, even though your friend might feel differently, or “I can’t wait for gym,” even though a classmate dreads it. Giving reasons for your opinion is not as easy. It requires you to think about why you feel the way you do.
Writing an opinion essay is all about careful thinking. Your opinion statement must be well thought out, and it must be supported by reliable reasons. As a result, opinion essays usually require some research. Once you have gathered your reasons, you can arrange them from most important to least important, or the other way around. In the end, your goal is to produce an essay that convinces your reader to agree with you.
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Thinking About Opinions
For an opinion to be strong, it must be believable and worthy of arguing for. It must also be based on a foundation of solid thinking. Here is a strong opinion statement.
Lincoln School should consider starting a chess club.
(A phrase like should consider signals that an opinion is probably reasonable.)
In contrast, here is a weak opinion statement:
Mondays are always the worst day of school.
(When a word like always, never, or every appears in an opinion, it is probably not believable. Mondays can’t always be the worst school day.)
Think About It
Words like always, all, every, totally, worthless, and perfect, make opinions unreasonable and hard to argue. Few things are always true every time.
Respond to opinions.
In the following sentences, mark specific, reasonable opinions as strong. Mark others as weak.
- Learning penmanship is a complete waste of time. strong weak
- Everyone needs to exercise more. strong weak
- Our school should consider adding after-school volleyball. strong weak
- Homework assignments are always boring. strong weak
- The city bike path needs better lighting. strong weak
- Ice cream is the greatest food ever. strong weak
- Nobody wants to live in the suburbs. strong weak
- Our playground needs updated equipment. strong weak
Thinking About Reasons
An opinion should be supported by strong, logical reasons. Reasons should be based on specific facts, not on personal feelings or faulty thinking.
Opinion: McKinley School needs an afternoon recess.
Reasons:
Students get antsy after a lot of seatwork. (A strong, factual reason)
My friends agree with me. (A weak reason based on a personal feeling)
Reasons should also connect to the reader’s interests or concerns.
Opinion: Saving our wetlands is a worthy cause.
Reasons:
Wetlands provide sanctuary to many species. (A strong reason that connects to readers)
Wetlands help mosquitoes breed. (A reason that does not connect to readers)
Judge reasons.
Read each opinion statement and its reasons. Write S (strong) for any reason that is fact based and connects to readers. Mark W (weak) for other reasons.
Opinion statement: Teachers should assign less homework.
Reasons:
Kids want less homework.
Homework should focus on quality, not quantity.
Nobody likes homework.
Opinion statement: Active people should consider drinking chocolate milk.
Reasons:
I love chocolate milk.
Cocoa-bean growers need to feed their families.
Chocolate milk has calcium for bones.
Think About It
Special Challenge: Choose a weak reason from the previous activity and replace it with a strong reason of your own. Discuss your new reason with a classmate.
Teaching Tip
Weak reasons are often based on fuzzy or illogical thinking. Jumping to conclusions, stating half-truths, basing support on personal feelings—these are examples of fuzzy thinking. Mention that these fallacies of thinking are often used in advertisements.