Limited to information that can be checked against evidence.
Reach for it when praising a statement, summary, or account for sticking to verifiable details
Her factual timeline helped the neighbors separate the outage from the later repair.
| everyday | |
|---|---|
| warm | |
| professional |
|
| formal |
everyday
literal
Fits when the wording should be understood without metaphor
Careful Literal does not promise that the information itself is correct.
everyday
matter-of-fact
Fits when the delivery is calm and unemotional
Careful Choose factual instead when you mean verified content, not an unsentimental tone.
warm
Fits when you are praising a person's honesty
Careful Truthful addresses sincerity; factual is better for the content of a report.
professional
Fits when correctness is the main quality being praised
Careful Something can be factual in subject yet still contain an inaccurate detail.
professional
Fits when research or documented results guide a decision
Careful Do not apply it to a simple date or name that needs no body of evidence.
professional
Fits when a conclusion rests explicitly on evidence
Careful It sounds procedural when you are describing one plain statement.
formal
documentary
Fits when the account records real events or materials
Careful It carries a genre flavor that may distract in routine business writing.
formal
Fits when freedom from personal bias is more important than factual content alone
Careful Objective can overclaim neutrality when the evidence was selected by a person.
factual account
The inspector provided a factual account of each completed repair.
factual error
One factual error changed the date but not the conclusion.
factual information
The leaflet separates factual information from personal recommendations.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Dvortygirl, American accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 Updated
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