Is it good to add 'I believe' at the beginning of the sentence?
I believe that people should eat apples.
or,
People should eat apples.
Which one is best, or when to use which? Is it good to say 'I believe' or 'We believe' in public speaking or public statement?
Another example:
We believe that every user deserves good socks.
versus
Every user deserves good socks.
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If your working on a piece for publishing that will attack a figure or orgainzation, "I believe" could be useful to denote that the accusation is not based in anything provable.
For example "Spider-Man is a threat and a menace" is a statement of fact. However, J. Johan Jamerson is opening himself to a massive libel suit (but not a Slander suit, as he's quick to correct Peter) because he's coloring his stories of events with his own intepretation of them. "I believe Spider-Man is a threat and a menace" is perfectly lawsuit free because J. Johna Jamerson is perfectly entitled to both hold his opinion and speak his professed opinion, no matter how untrue it is proven to be. I would say this example is close to @Mark Baker's first example, but dissimilar because as we all know, Jamerson accepts no opposition to his belief as reasonable. Quirks of the U.S. defimations laws to be sure, which are fairly loose and favor the publisher a great deal.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29499. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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You absolutely should add "I Believe" if, without that phrase, you would be making a claim of fact that you cannot be certain is true.
Do you have scientific proof that people should eat apples for their health? Without some medical studies, you make a misleading statement to say "people should eat apples for their health", you are implicitly lying to people by implying that this is a known fact.
However, saying "I believe people should eat apples for their health" is a truthful statement if you truly believe that.
So is "I believe eating apples is a gateway to heroin use, promiscuity, harsh music and the sexualization of astronomy".
I can argue that eating apples almost never sexualizes astronomy, but I can't argue that you don't believe what you say you believe.
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It is not necessary to qualify every statement you make. You are the one making the statement. It goes without saying that you believe the statement you are making.
However, there are specific times when it is appropriate to add "I believe".
You are contrasting your belief with someone else's belief, and you wish to acknowledge that the other's belief is also reasonable. "I believe it will rain tomorrow but Tom thinks it will stay dry."
You are making a statement in which you have less confidence than the statements that have come before. "It is roast beef for dinner, and I believe there is pie for dessert."
You are making an affirmation of faith: "I believe in God, the father almighty...", "I believe in love."
You are making a romantic or figurative affirmation: "I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows."
In short, the appropriate use of "I believe" is to signal that the statement you are making is in some way different in type or certainty from the ordinary statements you make. (Curiously, it is used both for statement you are more certain of and for statements you are less certain of, than ordinary statements.)
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