Question: do you use more facts or opion in your work

Nicolas Biber answered on 15 Jun 2011:

Hi Howen

I use both … well I use a lot more facts (or what we call data, because it’s always a bit presumptuous to call something a fact). You need data to back a statement you are making. But before you get data you have to decide what data you want. To make that decision you need to formulate the question you wish to answer, and this question will be based on an opinion (we call the opinion ‘hypothesis’). So I do use a lot more facts than opinion, but without an opinion I could not even start looking at facts.