Drawing Inferences

Do writers always tell their readers exactly what they mean all the time, or do they allow their readers to draw conclusions and discover at least some of the meaning on their own?

What is an inference? Writers of fiction often show their characters in action and allow them to speak for themselves. Readers then have the job of deciding what those actions and words mean and what they reveal about the characters, the events of the story and the message the author intends to send. In other words, readers must draw inferences about what they read. An inference in fiction is a reasonable conclusion or judgment about some element of a story based on the information given in the story and the reader's personal knowledge of how the world works.

Drawing an inference requires your background knowledge and information from the text? 1. You look for clues in the text, little pieces of information that seem to relate to the missing information or your question. 2. You think about what you already know from your own experience in the real world. 3. You put these two pieces of the puzzle together in a logical way to produce a reasonable conclusion that supplies the missing piece of information or the answer to your question.

You draw many inferences in your everyday life? You've made many inferences in your life, but you might not even know it. For instance, your cat runs up to you the minute you step through the door. She meows, rubs your legs, runs into the kitchen and stares at the cupboard where you normally store the cat food. It doesn't take much effort to figure out that your cat wants food. You've just drawn an inference.

Drawing an inference from a book follows the same process of drawing inferences in your everyday life? Let's go back to your cat and apply the process for making an inference. At first, you might wonder what your cat is doing. You look for clues in your cat's behavior and notice how she meows and rubs your legs to get your attention and how she stares at the food cupboard. You also think about what you already know from past experience; your cat has done this before, and you've responded by giving her food. So you put those two pieces together in a logical way and correctly infer that your cat wants food.

Which of the following statements is true?

____ in fiction is a reasonable conclusion or judgment about some element of a story based on the information given in the story and the reader's personal knowledge of how the world works.

What is the first step readers must take to draw an inference?

What is the second step readers must take to draw an inference?

What is the third step readers must take to draw an inference?

“Clearly,” the Time Traveller proceeded, “any real body must have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in a moment, we incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time. There is, however, a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter, because it happens that our consciousness moves intermittently in one direction along the latter from the beginning to the end of our lives.” “That,” said a very young man, “that ... very clear indeed.” “Now, it is very remarkable that this is so extensively overlooked,” continued the Time Traveller, with a slight accession of cheerfulness. “Really this is what is meant by the Fourth Dimension, though some people who talk about the Fourth Dimension do not know they mean it. It is only another way of looking at Time. There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it. But some foolish people have got hold of the wrong side of that idea. The reader can infer from the speaker’s name that he...

“Clearly,” the Time Traveller proceeded, “any real body must have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in a moment, we incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time. There is, however, a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter, because it happens that our consciousness moves intermittently in one direction along the latter from the beginning to the end of our lives.” “That,” said a very young man, “that ... very clear indeed.” “Now, it is very remarkable that this is so extensively overlooked,” continued the Time Traveller, with a slight accession of cheerfulness. “Really this is what is meant by the Fourth Dimension, though some people who talk about the Fourth Dimension do not know they mean it. It is only another way of looking at Time. There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it. But some foolish people have got hold of the wrong side of that idea. It is most likely that the people listening...

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations. Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to please children of today. Based on details in the excerpt, the reader can conclude that The Wizard of Oz...

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations. Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident. Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to please children of today. The reader can assume stories from the past...