What is an Author’s Bias?

A bias is basically when an author is unfair or inaccurate in his or her presentation of something.

In their attempt to persuade, authors often make mistakes in their thinking patterns and writing choices. This is because every author has a point of view, which is basically just the way they look at something, the way they see a certain situation.

So, because they have this point of view, naturally in their writing they oftentimes will show their point of view through their writing. And so that’s when a bias comes into play. And so it’s not necessarily bad for an author to have a point of view; they’re just naturally going to have one. But it is a problem when they start to include it in their writing, so that’s when a bias comes into play. And so a bias is when someone ignores reasonable counterarguments or distorts opposing viewpoints.

So, you as a reader need to be aware when an author is being biased. So look for any clues, like when they only talk about their own arguments for something and don’t talk about any opposing ideas. Or when you are aware of another viewpoint, and they share the viewpoint, but they don’t share it exactly correctly. So be aware of those types of things, and once you are tipped off once that a writer is being biased, you will know that other times when they present opinions, that those opinions might also be biased.