Educational resource for members of the Burnet News Club - a club for young journalists run by The Economist Educational Foundation. www.burnetnewsclub.com

1. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Glossary
Burnet News Club words

2. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Standpoint
An opinion that is carefully
thought about.
Think of ‘taking a stand’ and
‘standing up for yourself’.

3. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Standpoint
On important issues we should decide
our opinions after careful thinking and
be prepared to defend them with reasons
if we think we are right.
At the same time, we should be prepared
to consider the reasons that other people
give for their own standpoints and we
should be willing to learn from them.

4. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Standpoint
Standpoints can be
positive, negative or
neutral.
Here are some examples.
Take notice of number 3.
What are the similarities
differences between that one
and any of the others?
1. Money can’t buy you love
(negative standpoint)
2. Money can buy you love
(positive standpoint)
3. Having a reasonable amount
of money makes
it easier to live, to love
others and to be loved
(positive standpoint)
4. I don’t know whether money
can buy you love or not
(neutral standpoint)

5. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Standpoint
To take part in a debate or a discussion, it’s
important to be able to spot when people are
expressing a standpoint, and to understand
what their view is exactly.
Be sure what someone’s view is before you
agree or disagree, and remember that sometimes
two standpoints might sound the same at first,
when they are actually a bit different.

6. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Reasons
Reasons are the explanations
that you give for a standpoint.
Good reasons must be
relevant and strong.

7. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Reasons
RELEVANT
Good reasons must be relevant to the thing
that they explain.
Imagine someone says:
“I like apples because elephants are grey”.
The fact that elephants are grey is not relevant
to liking apples, so it’s not a good reason.

8. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Reasons
STRONG
Good reasons should be
stronger than the
opinion that they
support. If you express a
strong opinion, you should
give a very strong reason
(or several reasons
together) to explain it.
Are these people giving
strong reasons for what
they say?
• I liked the film because the
popcorn was good
• I liked the film because it was
in colour
• I liked the film because it had a
happy ending
• I liked the film because it was
never boring, the acting was
good and the photography was
interesting
• I liked the film because I got in
for free

9. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Reasons
Accurate
Reasons must be based on correct information.
Imagine someone says:
“I like apples because they are made
by aliens”.
That’s not a good reason because it’s incorrect –
apples are not made by aliens!

10. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Argument
A standpoint
plus reasons.

11. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Clear
Easy to understand.

12. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Logical
Being logical means making sense by
having good reasons for what you think.
For example,
“I like apples because elephants are grey”
is not logical. It doesn’t make sense
because it gives a bad reason.

13. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Logical
You could think of being logical as having good sense.
So a logical argument is one that shows good sense by
giving good reasons for a standpoint. For example, this is
a logical argument: “I think the dog is ill, because he’s
not running around like he usually does and he won’t
eat his food”. That is logical because it makes sense to
think the dog might be ill based on these reasons.
If you want to work out whether an argument is logical,
ask yourself: “does this show good sense?”

14. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Universal themes
Universal themes are ideas that
matter to almost everyone,
everywhere, forever.
For example hope, friendship,
racism, unfairness and power
are all universal themes.

15. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Universal themes
Lots of news stories are interesting
because they affect these universal
themes.
For example, a news story about a war is not
just interesting because of the specific things
that are happening. It’s also interesting
because it makes us think about things
like courage, fighting or freedom.

16. The Burnet News Club
GLOSSARY
Reasoner
A member of the Burnet News Club.
“To reason” is to think, understand,
and form judgements logically.
You could think of it as someone who
can give good reasons for what they
think and say.