Journalism is rooted in truth. It’s essential to avoid writing biased stories and remain objective, meaning exploring all valid sides of a story to report the truth.
It can be really easy to want to insert your opinion into your story with phrases including the word “I,” “in my opinion” or language that unnecessarily adds your opinion to the story, e.g. “Sushi Land, the best sushi restaurant in the area, will be closing for renovations” or “Following Smith’s tips will help students get straight A’s in their college courses.” Statements of fact always should be attributed to someone or to something, or else they sound like the writer’s opinion.
These examples include the author’s opinion. Other people may not think Sushi Land is the best sushi joint in town, or people may follow Smith’s tips and not get straight A’s. Maintain your objectivity as the writer by rephrasing these sentences to be more truthful, e.g. “Sushi Land, where many local students love to dine, will be closing for renovations,” and “Smith said his tips can help college students strive to achieve straight A’s.”
Some terms to keep in mind regarding truthful reporting, defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary :
Bias: an inclination of temperament or outlook, especially a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment
Unconscious biases: learned stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained, universal and able to influence behavior.
Objectivity: the quality or character of being objective: lack of favoritism toward one side or another, freedom from bias
*However, objectivity does not always sit directly in the middle of an issue — it depends on where the truth sits.
Note: Opinion pieces and editorials are story types where the writer can show their opinion.
How to Avoid Opinion in Stories
There are a few ways to keep the writer’s opinion from their work:
- Attribute the opinion to a source, either primary (your interviewee) or secondary (online info/statistics)
- When dealing with a condition — something that could be — put it in conditional tense and provide evidence to your claim. Example: The new resolution could be what raises the university’s reputation, as schools like Michigan State saw rises in student satisfaction after raising their campus security measures.
- Maintain your objectivity. Only state things that may be opinionated if necessary or if the point cannot be made in another way.
Remember: To save your completed answers as a .hp5 file or copy them to your clipboard, click the “reuse” button at the bottom of each exercise.
The thing to remember here is you are reporting on an issue, which requires research, interviewing sources, finding the truth and uncovering that truth to your audience. Be factual and unbiased.
You have reached the end of these AP Style resources. Feel free to return to sections as needed, but you should now feel comfortable enough to write your own stories.
If you would like to provide feedback on these resources or report any technical issues, you can email katievalley@outlook.com.