Inference: 1: to derive as a conclusion from facts or premises “we see smoke and infer fire.” See also: http://worldtraining.net/statistics.htm

Inferences are evidence-based guesses. They are the conclusions a reader draws about the unsaid based on what is actually said. Inferences drawn while reading are much like inferences drawn in everyday life. If your best friend comes in from a blind date and looks utterly miserable, you would probably infer the date was not a success. Drawing inferences while you read requires exactly the same willingness to look at the evidence and come to a conclusion that has not been expressed in words. Only in reading, the evidence for your inference consists solely of words rather than actual events, expressions, or gestures.

Using Inference Sometimes someone will try to tell you something without coming right out and saying it. He will imply it. When you understand what is implied, you infer. Sometimes you can infer the truth even when the speaker or writer isn’t trying to be helpful. That’s called reading between the lines.”

The author’s viewpoint

In reading a text the reader makes inferences or assumptions about the position of the author. Is the author neutral or does the author show his own opinion. The author often shows his opinion either by adding certain phrases or by adding a value to a word. The author can add words like luckily, unfortunately to show that he is pleased or not pleased with something. He can also add words which show his surprise, regret or other emotions, for example surprisingly, to shock, unexpectedly, regrettably, pity, desirable, to be disappointed, etc. The author may also use words to indicate the level of certainty, for example: certain, obviously, undoubtedly, naturally, always, often, likely, probably, maybe, unlikely, hardly, rarely, never, etc. Another possibility is that the author adds words to comment on more or less objective facts. For example: Only 40% of the staff is female has quite a different meaning than As much as 40% of the staff is female.

The author can also reveal his viewpoint by adding value to a word. For example, if something is big he may use the word huge or gigantic to indicate he is impressed. If something is small he may use words like tiny or microscopic to indicate that he is not impressed. If someone is afraid he may use the word terrified to add suspense, if something is good he may use the word fantastic.

Assignment: author’s viewpoint

Read the following paragraph and write down which word indicates the author’s opinion. Also explain what his opinion is. There is the first problem with tipping: the more descretion you have in the matter the ore unpleasant it is. Tipping is an aristocratic conceit - "There you go, my good man, buy your starving family a loaf"- best left to an aristocratic age. The practicing democrat would rather be told what he owes right up front. Offensively, rich people may delight in peeling off hundred-dollar bills and tossing them out to groveling servants. But no sane, well-adjusted human being cares to sit around and evaluate the performance of some beleaguered coffee vendor. http://www.hio.ft.hanze.nl/thar/reading.htm#4_paragr

Inference: The Process Reading Tips:

1. Make sure your inferences rely mainly on the author’s words rather than your own feelings or experience.

Your goal is to read the author’s mind, not invent your own message.

2. Check to see if your inference is contradicted by any statements in the paragraph. If it is, it is not an

appropriate or useful inference.

3. If the passage is a tough one, check to see if you can actually identify the statements that led you to your

conclusion. This kind of close reading is a good comprehension check. It will also help you remember the

material.

See if you can infer an implied or hidden message in each of the following selections.

Turner almost wished that he hadn’t listened to the radio. He went to the closet and grabbed his

umbrella. He would feel silly carrying it to the bus stop on such a sunny morning.

1. Which probably happened?

a. Turner realized that he had an unnatural fear of falling radio parts.

b. Turner had promised himself to do something silly that morning.

c. Turner had heard a weather forecast that predicted rain.

d. Turner planned to trade his umbrella for a bus ride.

“Larry, as your boss, I must say it’s been very interesting working with you,” Miss Valdez said.
“However, it seems that our company’s needs and your performance style are not well matched.
Therefore, it makes me very sad to have to ask you to resign your position effective today.”

2. What was Miss Valdez telling Larry?

a. She would feel really bad if he decided to quit.

b. He was being fired.

c. He was getting a raise in pay.

d. She really enjoyed having him in the office.

No, Honey, I don’t want you to spend a lot of money on my birthday present. Just having you for a

husband is the only gift I need. In fact, I’ll just drive my old rusty bucket of bolts down to the mall and buy myself a little present. And if the poor old car doesn't break down, I’ll be back soon.

3. What is the message? I don’t want a gift. b. Buy me a new car. c.The mall is fun. d. I’ll carry a bucket for you. e. None of the above--- are you a moron?

Bill and Jessica were almost done taking turns choosing the players for their teams. It was Jessica’s turn

to choose, and only Kurt was left. Jessica said, Kurt.”

4. We can infer that ________

a. Kurt is not a very good player.
b. Jessica was pleased to have Kurt on her team.
c. Kurt was the best player on either team.
d. Jessica was inconsiderate of Kurt’s feelings. http://www.rhlschool.com/read6n3.htm

Exercise 1

Directions: Each item in this exercise describes a famous person. It’s your job to infer the name of the person described.

1. A small-town lawyer from Illinois, tall and lanky with an Adam’s apple that could have gone down in the Guinness Book of Records had it existed in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, he changed the face of American history, steering it through a civil war that left both sides bloody. Who knows what more he could have done had an assassin’s bullet not cut him down.

The person described is _______________________________

In drawing the correct inference, which piece of information is more useful:

a. He had a big Adam’s apple.

b. He steered the nation through a civil war.

Explain your answer:

2. Glittering and shaking to the strains of ”Proud Mary” this lady ruled the stage in the sixties, but Ike ruled the roost until she walked out the door. It took her almost a decade to get back on top but she still remains one of pop’s great divas. Closing in on sixty, she can still belt out rock and roll with singers half her age, and ”Simply the Best” just may qualify as her own personal theme song.

The person described is _____________________________

In drawing the appropriate inference, which piece of information is more useful.

a. She ruled the stage but Ike ruled the roost.

b. She was a popular singer in the sixties.

Exercise 2

Directions: For each situation, draw what you think is an appropriate inference.

1. You have just gotten a pit bull puppy from an animal shelter. He’s lovable but nervous. If you raise your voice for any reason, he cowers and trembles. If you scold him, he hides. When you got him from the shelter, he had a slight limp and a deep scratch across his nose. Inference:

2. You are a high school student sitting in class when a substitute teacher walks in and announces that your regular teacher is ill. Everyone in the class including you erupts in applause. The substitute raps his knuckles on the desk for order, but the students ignore him and talk louder. Inference:

Exercise 3

Directions: Each item in this exercise introduces a topic. Six specific statements about the topic follow. Read them carefully. Then choose the more appropriate inference.

1. Topic: Shakespeare in nineteenth-century America

Specific Statements: a. In the early nineteenth century, Shakespeare was the most widely performed playwright in both the North and Southeast.
b. In the first half of the nineteenth century, English and American actors could always earn money by performing Shakespeare in towns both big and small.

c. American audiences were famous for their participation in performances of Shakespeare’s plays: They hurled eggs and tomatoes at the villains and cheered and whistled for the heroes.

d. By the end of the nineteenth century, theater owners claimed that most ordinary people couldn’t understand Shakespeare, and they were refusing to stage his plays.

e. In the early 1800s, theater goers in big cities could often choose between three different productions of

Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet; by the end of the nineteenth century, it was hard to find one production of a

Shakespeare play, let alone several.

Inference

a. Early American audiences embraced Shakespeare’s plays enthusiastically because they wanted to prove that they were as clever and sophisticated as their former British rulers.

b. The role of Shakespeare in America changed dramatically as the nineteenth century drew to a close.

2. Topic: The medics in World War II

Specific Statements:

a. During training for combat, the medics were often despised because most of them had refused to take up arms.

b. The medics had their own barracks and were separated from combat soldiers, who referred to them as”pill pushers” and laughed at their medical drills.

c. In actual combat, it was often the medics who meant the difference between life and death for soldiers wounded in battle; they were the ones who braved gunfire to carry wounded soldiers to the hospital.

d. In many divisions, soldiers who had lived through combat took up collections in order to provide bonuses for the medics.

e. Interviewing veterans of World War II, author Stephen Ambrose consistently heard from men who believed they owed their lives to some member of the medical core.

Inference

a. The combat experience profoundly changed the way soldiers felt about the medical core.

b. Despite their bravery in the battles of World War II, medics never really received the respect that was due them.

Exercise 4

Directions: Read each paragraph. Then choose the inference that could effectively sum up the main idea.

1. When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, the United States was the only major power without a

propaganda agency. More important, despite prodding from England and France, the U.S. had no plans to create one. During World War I, a government-based group known as the Committee for Public Information had successfully stirred up public feeling against German-Americans because America was at war with Germany. As a result, many innocent German-American citizens had been insulted, beaten, even lynched. In addition, a good portion of the American public still believed that the United States had been tricked into entering World War I because of British propaganda. Distrustful of propaganda in general, there was little widespread support for a government agency dispensing it when the second world war broke out.

Inference

a. Because of what had happened during World War I, the American public was suspicious of propaganda and not inclined to support its use when World War II first erupted.

b. Aware of how the German government was using propaganda to spread hate and violence, the American public was reluctant to make use of it at the beginning of World War II.

2. At his death in 1971, trumpeter Louis Armstrong was much loved as a celebrity. Yet as a musician, he no longer commanded wide respect among the general public. To most people, he was the man with the toothy smile who made occasional appearances in television and movies usually singing what had become his signature songs “Hello, Dolly” and ”It’s a Wonderful World.” Jazz enthusiasts, however, had another take on the passing of Louis Armstrong. To them he was the New Orleans-born musician who had, along with Bix Biederbecke, introduced the solo to jazz. With records like ”Struttin’ with Some Barbecue,” ”I’m not Rough,” and ”Potato Head Blues,” Louis became the first great jazz influence. As music critic Terry Teachout has written, Louis Armstrong was” the player other players copied.” Still, at his death, few really knew what Louis had accomplished. In his honor, radio and television broadcasts played ”Hello Dolly,” not ”West-End Blues”, his 1928 recording that starts off with what may be the most famous horn solo in jazz.

Inference

a. A hero to much of the jazz community, Louis Armstrong was forgotten by the general public at the time he died.

b. At his death, Louis Armstrong was a beloved celebrity whose spectacular achievements had been forgotten by all but devoted jazz fans.

Exercise 5

Directions: Read each paragraph. Then draw an inference that sums up the main idea.

1. In the movies, England’s King Richard the First, he of the lion heart, and Robin Hood’s fame as a hero of spotless reputation. In Hollywood’s many versions of the Robin Hood story, for example, Robin worships good King Richard and would willingly die for him. History, however, offers a different slant on Richard’s supposed goodness. In 1189, the Pope called for yet another crusade to take back the holy land of Jerusalem from Moslem rule. Intent on following the Pope’s order, Richard combined forces with King Philip the II of France. Together, they managed to take the town of Acre, a port on what is now Israel’s Northwestern coast. Attempting to blackmail the Moslem ruler Saladin into giving up sacred lands, Richard took 2,500 civilians hostage, many of them women and children. When Saladin refused, Richard promptly slaughtered every last one of his hostages.

Inference:

2. When Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow, she was twenty years old. Although she had been a rebellious child and teenager, she had never broken a law in her life. The worst thing she had done in her mother’s opinion was runoff and get married to a shiftless womanizer who humiliated and neglected her. When Clyde came along, Bonnie was ripe for the attentions of a man who seemed to think she was both important and attractive. As long as he didn’t desert her, Bonnie didn’t much care about Clyde’s two-year jail sentence. In jail at least, she knew where he was, and she could write him daily letters about how much she loved him. Bonnie, however, got nervous when she heard that Clyde was planning a jailbreak. To bind him more tightly to her, she smuggled him a gun and helped him escape. After he got caught and sent back to prison, Bonnie was even more determined to wait for the man she called her ”one true love.” Upon his release from jail, Bonnie took Clyde home to meet her folks and announced she was going to Houston, Texas to get a new job. The next time her mother heard from her, Bonnie Parker was sitting in jail and had formally started her career as one half of the most famous bandit duo in history. http://users.dhp.com/~laflemm/reso/inference.htm