esaay about factual writing creating bias

1. Should Factual Writing Create Bias?
Factual writing should and should not be bias. In some cases bias is acceptable and in
other cases it is not. In factual writing I believe that being bias in some cases is
necessary with factual writing. It is depending on the type of piece of factual writing.
Whereas in other cases in factual writing I believe that there needs to be two sides to the
story and there needs to be a third person outlook on the situation so it is not bias. Bias
is something that is formed by opinion. Opinion and facts are something that is very
similar but also very different and it is often that people are bias with facts when
actually it is just their opinion.
Bias is an element of writing that is formed by opinion of that writer on the subject they
are writing about. In some ways I believe that factual writing should create bias. For
example, in newspapers and magazines, this contains lots of factual writing/journalism.
More newspapers than magazines contain factual writing. In these newspapers I believe
than in some areas of the newspaper bias is acceptable and some areas it is not. In a
column in a newspaper people enjoy how the columnist is being bias they are there to
voice their opinions about news and share their thoughts. The audience enjoy reading
an opinion. It is something that is crucial to a newspaper. This is one of little areas
where bias is actually a positive. Whereas newspapers are there to deliver news so I
believe that bias should not be created in the news articles. News articles are there to
tell you about news. They should be containing the facts and the figures that support
what they are telling the audience. I do not think Bias should be included in this. So no
opinions on the subject should be mentioned and this allows the audience to for their
own opinions. Factual writing should be pure facts and in a factual writing piece they
need to write from all points of view of the subjects that are included in a specific story.
A story recently that I have been looking at is from the guardian newspaper online. This
article is about the Shetland Islands fighting for a plan to create one big boarding school
for all the children. This is a really good example of an
article that does not include bias. They have taken into
consideration all the points of view from the people
involved in this situation. A young girl and her mum is
involved and the Shetland island council. Each one of the
involvers gets to describe how they feel and why they are
doing what they are doing for example the Shetland island
council says. ‘Shetland council claims its plans are intended
to improve pupils education. Gary Robinson, independent
leader of the council says:” What we’re offering is a better
education that they would get on the islands.”’ They also
write about the young girls side of the story. ‘”It would be
horrible, I’d be away from home in the hostel on my own.
Monday morning to Friday afternoon, says Emily Johnson
11. I’d miss my family; I wouldn’t be able to carry on with
my knitting group. What happens if I turn ill? Now my mum
looks after me. All this is worrying me already.”’ These both
paragraphs are in this article and are showing this story
from each point of view. This is not bias. There are all
opinions on the matter. The writer herself does not state
her opinion on this subject or she does not explore one
situation more than another. In this case I think that in
factual writing you cannot be bias.

2. However looking at columns I have been studying
the columns in the guardian by Charlie Brooker.
These are pieces of factual writing but have a totally
different feel about them. They are very bias as it is
someone giving their opinion towards a subject. But
I find this overall entertains to know someone else’s
opinion and the public do to. This is why this style
of writings is being published. This is a Charlie
Brooker column that I found online at the guardian.
He writes to be bias as his title of the Colum is very
bias about him disliking David Cameron. He uses
words such as ‘Less popular’ which have negative
connotations. These columns are meant to bias as
that is why the audience enjoy reading them. It
follows the left wing.
The audience may argue that no bias should use at
all that if a journalist is going to write something
specific and that you need to cover both sides of the
story. In some cases being bias is right because a
story could be focusing on something that is morally
wrong and the public need to know this for example
animal cruelty. A factual story could be bias about this because it is morally wrong and
they need to get that message to people. It is not right to abuse animals so a case on
these needs to be portrayed as something negative. If you are from one side of an
argument and wanting to promote it you wouldn’t go out of your way in which to show
off the other side.
With bias you will not know which side of the argument is what’s being bias, as
both side of the argument are bias towards that situation. This is not good in
factual writing as I believe it should be all fact but having an equal amount of
sources of people’s opinions of different sides to a story can help the piece of
factual writing because it allows the audience to form their own opinion.
Overall I think that bias can be created in factual writing. I believe that
depending on the story and depending on how the bias writing is handled it can
be created in factual writing as you have sources of quotes and these are
normally included in peoples factual writing such a news pieces. We cannot get
away from bias but some stories create bias to give the story more detail such as
quote sources from people involved. However depending on what the story
actually is it depends on how much bias is created? Generally I believe they
should be pure facts.