I’m working on a engineering writing question and need support to help me learn.

Taking a position vs. stating an opinion – very important!

While stating opinions is of some personal value, and is important politically and socially, in an academic context stating opinions is less important than taking positions.

What’s the difference?

An opinion is not necessarily informed by any knowledge of the matters upon which one is opining. Anyone can have an opinion about anything. Opinions cannot be refuted, i.e. they can contradict other opinions without difficulty, since there is no shared basis for discriminating between them.

Taking a position, on the other hand, means having at least some knowledge of that about which one is speaking, and especially of what others have said in the past, and are saying now. We could say that taking a position means precisely showing that one knows what other positions have been, are being, and could be taken. This shared background is what makes it possible for positions to be compared, contrasted, evaluated.

The difference can perhaps be demonstrated by showing how different kinds of statements work. Here is a statement of an opinion:

“Everyone needs a job so they can buy things.”

This is ‘common sense’, so you’d think no one could argue with it. However, it is a naive statement in a number of ways:

– it takes for granted the existence of a capitalist economy, in which individuals and communities are separated from the means of meeting their needs directly, and thus are forced to go through the mediation of corporations and markets.

– even within capitalism, it ignores the many possible ways in which one can meet one’s needs outside of the money economy, e.g. through delinking, local barter systems, and so on.

– it reinforces capitalist individualism and consumerism

– it fails to consider the needs of those who cannot work for reasons beyond their control.

To clear out some space in which a position might be taken instead of an opinion expressed, one would have to address the issues raised above in relation to the social, historical, political-economic construction of ‘the job’.

One might do this with reference to marxist critiques of capitalist political economy; feminist critiques of the marginalization of ‘women’s work’; postcolonial critiques of the global division of labour and colonialism; anarchist critiques of the addiction to work beyond that which is necessary for sustenance.

Careful phrasing shows careful thought

In taking a position, one must be careful to always spell out who is saying what, e.g.:

“According to Malcolm X, “The earth’s most expensive and pernicious evil is racism.” As a Mohawk woman, I can understand why he feels this, since I have also experienced various forms of racism at the hands of European settlers. I would only add that, from a feminist perspective, patriarchy must also be included in any analysis of white racism, since it creates similar effects of oppression within racialized communities.”

Here, the observation of Malcolm X is attributed to him; the writer identifies herself, i.e. her positioning as an indigenous woman, and shows how this positioning relates to her interpretation of X’s comment. She also identifies her critique of X as coming from a feminist perspective, thus placing her statement in relation to this tradition of theory and practice. There is no doubt about who is saying what, or why they are saying it.