burnet news club resource - glossary

The Burnet News Club

GLOSSARY

GlossaryBurnet News Club words


GLOSSARY

Standpoint

An opinion that is carefully thought about.

Think of ‘taking a stand’ and ‘standing up for yourself’.


GLOSSARY

StandpointOn 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.


GLOSSARY

StandpointStandpoints 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)


GLOSSARY

StandpointTo 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.


GLOSSARY

Reasons

Reasons are the explanations that you give for a standpoint.

Good reasons must be relevant and strong.


GLOSSARY

Reasons

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.

RELEVANT


GLOSSARY

Reasons

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.

STRONG

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


GLOSSARY

Reasons

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!

Accurate


GLOSSARY

Argument

A standpoint plus reasons.


GLOSSARY

Clear

Easy to understand.


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.


GLOSSARY

LogicalYou 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?”


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.


GLOSSARY

Universal themesLots 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.


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.

burnet news club resource - glossary

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