What's in an Opinion

“In my opinion,” people often argue, and then rarely stop to provide evidence.

Opinions are cheap, certainly. As the saying goes, everyone has one. Even so, what is not commonly understood about them deserves attention, especially with the double-trouble of another school year and an election season upon us.

An Opinion about Opinions
Consider the following example.

“In my opinion, President Nixon was very shrewd to abolish the military draft.”

I see the first phrase all the time in student writing. But is it necessary to tell the reader that I am offering an opinion? If I write simply, “Nixon was shrewd to abolish the military draft,” is it suddenly, magically no longer an opinion? Because there can apparently be more than one view on Nixon's motives when he did away with the draft in the early 1970s, it is pretty clear that I have to support my opinion, probably with an argument.

But I suspect that this is what many writers hope to avoid. Some students believe that they don’t have to give evidence for their opinions. Stating “this is just my opinion” seems to them, on the one hand, the equivalent of a footnote. On the other, it seems to suggest a view of knowledge that is deeply personal, based in experience, and drawn from parents, friends, and from living. Who can challenge that?

Most academics do.

Writing is Different from Speaking

Part of what is going on may have to do with confusion over the differences between speaking and writing. The conflicting advice my students often get about writing is interesting. “Just write naturally, the way you talk” and “Don’t write the way you talk” are conflicting examples. Certainly, the best stylists know how to approximate speech while remaining true to Standard Written English. They create a highly readable and engaging “conversational” style. But this takes a great deal of work and study. No writer “just” writes exactly as she speaks. A transcribed conversation is a messy, incongruous puzzle, even to the people who conducted it. They look back at it and wonder what they meant.

In matters of opinion, speech conventions and writing conventions differ widely. When talking, I can say, “But in my opinion,” and my friend, unless she is a university colleague and we are together serving on a committee, will not expect evidence to follow.

Genre Confusion
My students believe that what works in conversation—“But that’s just my opinion”—will work in writing to get them off the hook. They remind me of some of my Facebook friends who seem to think that posting slogans and cliches over and over again will eventually result in their readers having a sudden revelation of the truth of their views.

This is a very low view they hold of their readers--to think of them as only needing to be shouted at. More likely, they are waiting for evidence.

In casual speech, we may not want a friend to engage in a dissertation or a harangue. “In my humble opinion” seems appropriate. But in writing, “In my opinion” is usually a wordy flag to an unsupported assertion. As a reader, I might be charmed by a writer’s opinion, especially if it is a daring one. But I also expect to be charmed by the writer’s reasons for his or her opinion.