The statement 'Kay has increased her sales by 40% this quarter' is best described as a:

The statement 'Kay has increased her sales by 40% this quarter' is best described as a:

• A. Fact
• B. Opinion
• C. Ambiguous
• D. Not verifiable

Answer: (A)

Factual statements about observable data are being tested here. Saying that Kay has increased her sales by 40% this quarter is a claim about measurable events, not a belief or a mood. It states a specific change that can be checked against actual sales records for this quarter and the prior quarter. Because the 40% figure comes from concrete numbers, you can verify it by calculating the percentage change from the previous quarter to the current one. If the records show a true 40% increase, the statement is correct; if not, it isn’t. It isn’t an opinion, since it doesn’t express a personal view, and it isn’t ambiguous, because the percentage is explicit and unambiguous.

Factual statements about observable data are being tested here. Saying that Kay has increased her sales by 40% this quarter is a claim about measurable events, not a belief or a mood. It states a specific change that can be checked against actual sales records for this quarter and the prior quarter. Because the 40% figure comes from concrete numbers, you can verify it by calculating the percentage change from the previous quarter to the current one. If the records show a true 40% increase, the statement is correct; if not, it isn’t. It isn’t an opinion, since it doesn’t express a personal view, and it isn’t ambiguous, because the percentage is explicit and unambiguous.