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Reading between the We must first distinguish between inferences and facts. A fact is a verifiable
piece of information; that is, it can be duplicated, measured, confirmed in
Lines: Making Accurate other sources, demonstrated, or proved. If I say that our living room is 20 feet
long, the matter can easily be proved or disproved with a tape measure. Here
Inferences are three more facts:
DEFINITION OF INFERENCES
William Lutz has defined an inference as "a statement about the unknown
based on the known." 1 We make inferences by reading between the lines, by
connecting facts to make sense of them when no explanation is offered, or by
drawing a conclusion about a future course of action. In the real world we
infer all the time. Here is an example from my town. Recently, a new Mexican
restaurant, La Famiglia, opened on the main highway in Half Moon Bay. The
town already has at least five Mexican restaurants, catering not only to the
significant Latino population in this area, but to the general population as
well. After the opening, every time I drove by I noticed that the front parking
lot was almost always empty, both at lunchtime and at night when one would
expect a crowd. In the back parking lot were a few cars, presumably for
employees.
Now six months later, the situation has not improved. From the mid-day to
1 1William Lutz is a professor of English at Rutgers University. This definition comes from his
essay "Abstracting Our Way into Doublespeak," from The New Doublespeak (1996).
the evening hours, one sees only one or two cars in the front lot. What PROBLEMS WITH INFERENCES
reasonable inferences can I make from these observations? The first possibility The foregoing little exercise reveals at least three difficulties with inferences:
is that the food isn't very good. This inference seems even more credible when
I reflected that two other restaurants used to be in the exact same spot and We may make assumptions that get in the way of making accurate
that both survived for several years before they eventually moved into larger inferences.
spaces. But without eating there myself or without talking to a few people We may not read carefully enough or pay close enough attention to new
who have eaten there, the inference re- mains only a possibility. not a
vocabulary.
certainty. A second possible inference is that the area is already saturated
with Mexican restaurants, all of them good. Five restaurants can make it in We may indulge in stereotyping. This problem is particularly evident in
our community, but a sixth one serving mediocre food might not have a question 7, if we incorrectly infer that a professor is more likely to be a
chance of surviving that com- petition. Finally, I draw a conclusion-another man than a woman.
inference. If business doesn't pick up, La Famiglia will not survive. From this
example, one can see that inferences operate to some degree in a gray area: In the real world, the same holds true: The more we get carried away with our
they depend on facts, but they are not facts themselves. assumptions and make inferences based on facts we do not have, on an isolated
fact, or on facts we choose to ignore, the less probable it is that our inferences are
Practice Exercise 1 correct.
Carefully read the following report and the observations based on it. On the basis USING EVIDENCE TO MAKE INFERENCES
of the information presented, indicate whether you think the observations are true, The crucial element in learning to make accurate inferences is to consider
false, or doubtful. Circle "T" if the observation is definitely true, circle "F" if the carefully the writer's words-what he or she surely intends to suggest but
observation is definitely false, and circle "?" if the observation may be either true or does not say directly. This constitutes the evidence the justification for the
false. Judge each observation in order.' inference. As you saw from the foregoing exercise, we should not read
into the writer's words beyond what they suggest or imply. Relying on our
A well‐liked college teacher had just completed making up the final
necessarily limited experience may lead us astray from the writer's real
examinations and had turned off the lights in the office. just then a tall, intentions, with the result that we misread or misinterpret. Thus, in this
broad figure with dark glasses appeared and demanded the examination. textbook, it is safer to restrict your answers only to what the writer
The professor opened the drawer. Everything in the drawer was picked suggests, and not base them on something you have read or experienced
up and the individual ran down the corridor. The dean was notified outside the text. In other words, an inference must be tied to the evidence.
immediately.
Initially in the inference exercises, you will label inference questions in
three ways.
1. The thief was tall, broad, and wore dark glasses. T F ?
2. The professor turned off the lights. T F ? • Probably accurate (PA). This kind of inference follows from the facts the writer
3. A tall, broad figure demanded the examination. T F ? presents or it is strongly implied by the author's words. We have enough
4. The examination was picked up by someone. T F ? information to say that the inference is most likely accurate.
The examination was picked up by the professor. T F ? • Probably inaccurate (PI). An inaccurate inference misstates or distorts the
5.
writer's words and observations.
6. A tall, broad figure appeared after the professor • Not in the passage (NP). These are inferences that you can't reasonably make
turned off the lights in the office. T F ?
because they're not implied in the passage. Either there is insufficient evidence
7. The man who opened the drawer was the professor F ? or there is no information in the passage to determine whether the inference is
8. The professor ran down the corridor T F ? accurate or not.
9. The drawer was never actually opened T F ? Of course, when you read assigned material or material on your own, you
10. In this report three people are referred to. T F ? would not label a writer's ideas in this way. You are asked to do so here only
to practice distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate inferences.
To begin, read these two short passages and label the inference statements as Here is a second passage. This one represents a parable, a little story written
directed. Then study the answers and explanations that follow. The first is a to illustrate a moral truth.
short excerpt from Tobias Wolff's engaging autobiography. This Boy's Life. In it
Wolf£ describes the grades he received while attending the public high school A customs officer observes a truck pulling up at the border.
in Concrete, a town in eastern Washington State. Suspicious, he orders the driver out and searches the vehicle. He
pulls off panels, bumpers, and wheel cases but finds not a single
I brought home good grades at first. They were a fraud. I copied other scrap of contraband, whereupon, still suspicious but at a loss to
kids' homework on the bus down from Chinook and studied for tests in know where else to search, he waves the driver through. The next
week, the same driver arrives. Again the official searches, and again
the hallways as I walked from class to class. After the first marking period
finds nothing illicit. Over the years, the official tries full‐body
I didn't bother to do that much. I stopped studying altogether. Then I was
searches, X rays, and sonar, anything he can think of, and each week
given C's instead of A's, yet no one at home ever knew that my grades
the same man drives up but no mysterious cargo ever appears, and each
had fallen. The report cards were made out, incredibly enough, in pencil, time, reluctantly, the customs man waves the driver on.
and I owned some pencils myself. Finally, after many years, the officer is about to retire. The driver pulls up. “I
Tobias Wolff, This Boy's Life know you're a smuggler, the customs officer says. Don't bother denying it.
But damned if I can figure out what you've been smuggling all these years.
On the basis of the evidence in the paragraph, mark these statements as follows: I'm leaving now. I swear to you I can do you no harm. Won't you please
PA (probably accurate), PI (probably inaccurate), or NP (not in the passage). tell me what you've been smuggling?"
“Trucks,” the driver says.
1. ____Students at the high school in Concrete had to work hard to receive
Todd Gitlin "Trucks "
A's. Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelm
Our Lives
2. ____Wolff wanted to get good grades so that he could go to college.
On the basis of the evidence in the parable, label these inferences as follows: PA
3. ____The narrator continued to receive good grades only because he (probably accurate), PI (probably inaccurate), or NP (not in the passage).
erased the teacher's marks and changed them to higher ones.
1. ____The customs officer made a lifetime career out of trying to catch the
truck driver smuggling illegal goods.
4. ____The teachers were naive to record students' grades in pencil.
2. ____The first time the customs officer encountered the truck driver, he
had good reason to be suspicious.
3. ____The truck driver had been smuggling illicit goods for many years, but
they were so cleverly hidden that the customs officer never found them.
4. _____Sometimes in their fixation on observing small details, people miss
the obvious.
Practice Exercise 2 B. This excerpt describes the poet Gary Soto's early experiences in elementary
school.
A.
The U.S. invasion of Iraq will be debated for years to come as history sorts For four years I attended St. John's Catholic School where short nuns
out its perceived accomplishments and disasters, but there is little threw chalk at me, chased me with books cocked over their heads,
disagreement over one positive by‐product of the war: the opportunity to save squeezed me into cloak closets and, on slow days, asked me to pop
the country's unique marshes. erasers and to wipe the blackboard clean. Finally, in the fifth grade, my
Formerly recognized as one of the world's great wetland ecosystems, mother sent me to Jefferson Elementary. The Principal, Mr. Buckalew,
covering 12,000 square miles in southern Iraq and renowned for diverse plant kindly ushered me to the fifth grade teachers, Mr. Stendhaland Mrs.
and animal life, the marshes also provided sustenance to the traditional Sloan. We stood in the hallway with the principal's hand on my shoulder.
Ma'dan people (also known as Marsh Arabs) before Saddam Hussein drained Mr. Stendhal asked what book I had read in the fourth grade, to which,
the region after the first Gulf War as a political punishment of the Ma'dan. after a dark and squinting deliberation, I answered: The Story of the
While some of the damage may be irreversible, environmentalists now believe United States Marines. Mr. Stendhal and Mrs. Sloan looked at one
the marshes can be at least partly restored. another with a "you take him" look. Mr. Buckalew lifted his hand from my
Amelia Bauerly, "Green Peace," Utne shoulder and walked slowly away.
Gary Soto, Living Up the Street
On the basis of the evidence in the passage, mark these statements as follows: PA
(probably accurate), PI (probably inaccurate), or NP (not in the passage.) 1. Which of the following can you infer about the author?
a. He was a model student.
1. ____Wetlands are an important component of the earth's environment. b. He had a reputation among teachers for being a troublemaker.
c. He had been asked to leave Catholic school.
2. ____The Ma'dan, or Marsh Arabs, were loyal to Saddam Hussein. d. He enjoyed public school more than Catholic school.
3. ____Saddam Hussein was a vengeful person. 2. What inference can you make about the book Soto says he read in fourth
grade, The Story of the United States Marines?
4. ____The Americans are in charge of restoring the marshlands of a. it was assigned reading at his former school.
southern Iraq. b. He probably hadn't read it.
c. He probably had read it.
d. There is no way to tell whether he had read it or not.
5. ____The Americans are in charge of restoring the marshlands of
southern Iraq.
3. What inference can you make about his new teachers, Mr. Stendhal and
Mrs. Sloan?
6. ____The marshes will be completely restored at some point in the future. a. They were impressed with Soto's answer.
b. Soto ended up in Mrs. Sloan's class.
c. Soto ended up in Mr. Stendhal's class.
d. They both thought Soto was something of a wise guy.
C. D.
By the end of the 1860s, when they were all the rage, bicycles were called Sometime during the late 1980s‐‐no one can pinpoint the exact date‐‐Ran
velocipedes. They were nicknamed bone‐shakers. Cartoonists made fun Magruder, the president of the thriving Olive Garden chain of Italian
of people restaurants, received a telephone call from a dissatisfied customer. The call
falling off bicycles all the time, of bicyclists getting stuck in packs behind had been patched all the way up to Magruder because it was so ... different.
horses and carriages, of bicyclists crowding onto the very few paved The caller, named Larry, wasn't complaining about the food or the service or
roads. Most bicyclists lived in cities; they toured into the countryside on the prices. Instead, Larry was upset that he could no longer fit into any of the
the weekends. As a group, they petitioned for better roads around the
chairs in his local Olive Garden. "I had to wait more than an hour and half to
city and into the country, establishing, by the 1880s and 1890s, what
get a table," Larry told Magruder. "But then I found that there wasn't a single
became known as the Good Roads
Movement. booth or chair where I could sit comfortably."
Robert Sullivan, Cross County Magruder, a heavyset man easily moved to enthusiasm, was sympathetic to
Larry's plaint. And as president, he could do something about it. He had his
Mark these statements as you did before. staff
contact the company that manufactured the chairs for the chain and order a
1. ____Bicycles, or velocipedes, were called bone-shakers because they were thousand large‐size chairs. He then had these distributed, three each, to every
poorly designed. Olive Garden restaurant in the nation. It was, as Magruder later told the
2. ____There is a strong connection between the Good Roads Movement and eminent restaurant business journalist Charles Bernstein, a perfect example of
the increased popularity of bicycles at the end of the nineteenth century. his management philosophy…
3. ____The writer is a bicycle enthusiast.
Greg Critser, Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World
The passage ends with a quotation from Ron Magruder, which has been deleted.
Which of the following quotations is most likely what Magruder told Charles
Bernstein?
A. "These customers are a pain in the neck. As president of Olive Garden, I'm
not going to cater to their every little demand. Why doesn't he just lose
some weight?"
B. "We are going to go the extra mile for any customer, no matter what the
situation is."
C. "If every restaurant provided special chairs for its customers, we'd all soon
be broke."
5. _______ Soth’s Forum Theater has been effective but only in a limited way.
Adapted from:
Spears, Deanne. Developing Critical Reading Skills. 8th ed. New York: Mc-Graw
Hill, 2009. Print.
water under the kitchen sink, you can infer that you have a plumbing problem. The
Critical Reading and Thinking inferences you make may not always be correct, even though you base them on the
LEARNING OBJECTIVES available information. The water under the sink might have been the result of a
spill. The traffic you encountered on the high- way might be normal for that rime
1. Make inferences and draw conclusions of day, but you didn't know it because you aren't normally on the road at that time.
2. Distinguish fact from opinion An inference is only the best guess you can make in a situation, given the
information you have.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1:
Make inferences and draw conclusions How to Make Accurate Inferences and Conclusions
Look at the photograph below, which appeared in a psychology textbook. What When you read the material associated with your college courses, you need to
do you think is happening here? What are the feelings of the participants? make inferences and draw conclusions frequently. Writers do not always present
their ideas directly. Instead, they often leave it to you-the reader-to add up and
think beyond the facts they present, and to use your prior knowledge about the
topic. You are expected to reason out the meaning an author intended (but did not
say) on the basis of what he or she did say.
Each inference and conclusion you make depends on the situation, the facts
provided, and your own knowledge and experience. Here are a few guidelines to
help you see beyond the factual level and make accurate inferences from your
reading materials.
Notice Details
To answer these questions, you had to use information you could get from the
As you are reading, pay particular attention to details that are unusual or stand out.
photo and make decisions based on it. The facial expressions, body language,
Often, such details will offer you clues to help you make inferences. Ask yourself:
clothing, and musical instruments presented in this photo provide clues. This
reasoning process is called "making an inference.” You also had to use your prior
What is unusual or striking about this piece of information?
knowledge about concerts, performers, musicians, and so forth. When you use both
your prior knowledge and information from a text or image you "draw a Why is it included here?
conclusion."
Inferences and conclusions are reasoned guesses about what you don't know made
on the basis of what you do know. They are common in our every- day lives.
When you get on a highway and see a long, slow-moving line of traffic, you might
predict that there is an accident or roadwork ahead. When you see a puddle of
Read the following excerpt, which is taken from an essay about a young Polish Add Up the Facts
immigrant to the United Kingdom, and mark any derails that seem unusual or
striking. Consider all of the facts taken together. To do this, ask yourself the following
questions:
Issue: Immigration
What is the writer trying to suggest with this set of facts?
An Immigration Plan Gone Awry What do all these facts and ideas seem to point toward or add up to?
Why did the author include these facts and details?
Due to her own hardship, Katja was not thrilled when her younger brother
called her from Warsaw and said that he was going to join her in the United Making an inference is somewhat like assembling a complicated jigsaw puzzle;
Kingdom (U.K.). Katja warned him that opportunities were scarce in London for a you try to make all the pieces fit together to form a recognizable picture.
Polish immigrant. "Don't worry/' he said in an effort to soothe her anxiety. "I Answering these questions requires you to add together all the individual pieces of
already have a job in a factory." An advertisement in a Warsaw paper had information, which will help you arrive at an inference.
promised good pay for Polish workers in Birmingham. A broker's fee of $500 and When you add up the facts in the article "An Immigration Plan Gone Awry,"
you realize that Katja's brother is the victim of a scam.
airfare were required, so her brother borrowed the money from their mother. He
made the trip with a dozen other young Polish men. Be Alert to Clues
The "broker" picked the young men up at Heathrow [airport] and piled them in
a van. They drove directly to Birmingham, and at nightfall the broker dropped the Writers often provide you with numerous hints that can point you toward accurate
whole crew off at a ramshackle house inside the city. He ordered them to be inferences. An awareness of word choices, details included (and omitted), ideas
ready to be picked up in the morning for their first day of work. A bit dazed by the emphasized, and direct commentary can help you determine a writer's attitude
pace, they stretched out on the floor to sleep. toward the topic at hand. In "An Immigration Plan Gone Awry," the "ramshackle"
house, the men "piled» into a van, and the immigrants sleeping on the floor are all
Their rest was brief. In the wee hours of the night, the broker returned with a
clues that something is amiss.
gang of 10 or so thugs armed with cricket [similar to baseball] bats. They beat the
young Polish boys to a pulp and robbed them of all their valuables. Katja's brother Consider the Author's Purpose
took some heavy kicks to the ribs and head, then stumbled out of the house.
Once outside, he saw two police cars parked across the street. The officers in the Also study the author's purpose for writing. What does he or she hope to
cars obviously chose to ignore the mayhem playing out in front of their eyes. accomplish? In "An Immigration Plan Gone Awry" the writer is critical of
Katja's brother knew better than try to convince them otherwise; the police in immigrant brokers and of the police.
Poland would act no differently. Who knows, maybe they were part of the
Verify Your Inference
broker's seam. Or maybe they just didn't care about a bunch of poor Polish
immigrants "invading" their town. Once you have made an inference, check to make sure that it is accurate. Look
‐Batstone, "Katja's Story," from Sojourner's back at the stated facts to be sure you have sufficient evidence to support the
inference. Also be certain you have not overlooked other equally plausible or
more plausible inferences that could be drawn from the same set of facts.
Did you mark details such as the $500 broker's fee, the promise of a well- paying
job despite scarce job opportunities for Polish immigrants, and the terrible sleeping
conditions?
EXERCISE 9.2: MAKING INFERENCES AND DRAWING EXERCISE 9-3: MAKING INFERENCES AND DRAWING
CONCLUSIONS CONCLUSIONS
Read each of the following statements. Place a check mark in front of each Read each of the following passages. Determine whether the statements following
sentence that follows that is a reasonable inference or conclusion that can be made each passage are true or false. Place a T next to each true statement and an F
from the statement. next to each false statement.
1. Many job applicants have found that their postings on Facebook or their A. Issue: literacy
tweets on Twitter have had negative effects on their job interviews.
On the surface, development statistics show impressive gains in education
a. Job recruiters look up candidates' online histories. among developing countries. By the early twenty-first century, more than
b. Young people should be careful about what they post online. 80 per- cent of children were enrolled in primary school, and five out of
c. The majority of people over age 23 now have Facebook accounts. six of the world's adults were literate, according to the United Nations
d. Tweeting has become an accepted method of staying in touch with Development Report in 2008. Yet the same report notes that only slightly
friends. over one-half of children attend school in sub-Saharan Africa and in many
developing countries few children even graduate from primary school.
2. Reality TV may look spontaneous and unscripted, but reality TV shows Illiteracy rates in most middle-income nations are much lower, typically
are carefully edited before they are televised. less than 20 percent. However, millions of rural and urban children receive
no education whatsoever.
a. In truth, reality TV is not particularly realistic. -adapted from Thompson and Hickey, Society in Focus, p. 239
b. The directors and producers of reality TV may distort facts and
events. 1. In middle-income nations, urban children are more likely to be
c. Reality TV shows are cheaper to produce because there is no need denied an education than rural children.
for writers to write the dialogue.
d. Most people now prefer to watch reality TV rather than sitcoms or 2. Today, the great majority of the world's population is literate.
dramas.
3. Literacy rates are generally higher in middle-income nations than
3. The goal of health care reform in the United States is to ensure that as they are in developing nations.
many people as possible have medical insurance and decent medical care,
as in Canada and Europe. 4. More than half the children in sub-Saharan Africa will graduate
from primacy school.
a. The cost of medical care is likely to decrease.
b. Under the old medical care system, many people in the United 5. The United Nations Development Report describes social trends in
States had no access to medical care. developing (poor) nations.
c. As a result of health care reform, there is likely to be a shortage of
doctors.
d. Canada and Europe currently do a better job of providing health
care to their citizens than the United States does.
B. Issue: Family and Family Trends LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2:
Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion
Many of you have probably grown up on tales of men running from
marriage, going to great lengths to avoid being "trapped." This folklore
When working with any source, readers and writers should try to determine
actually runs counter to the reality of women's and men's lives. In reality,
whether the material is factual or an expression of opinion. Facts are statements
men seem to prefer marriage to being single. For example, when asked if
that are true and can be verified. Opinions are statements that express feelings,
they would marry the same person again, they respond in the affirmative
attitudes, or beliefs and are neither true nor false. Following are examples of each:
twice as often as their wives. In addition, most divorced and widowed men
remarry, and the rate of marriage for these men at every age level is higher
Facts
than the rate for single men. Furthermore, when compared with single
1. Canada, the United States, and Mexico are all members of the North American
men, married men live longer, have better mental and physical health, are
Free Trade Agreement.
less depressed, have a lower rate of suicide, are less likely to be
2. Facebook has become the world's most popular social networking site.
incarcerated for a crime, earn higher incomes, and are more likely to
define themselves as happy.
Opinions
-Schwartz and Scott, Marriages and Families, p. 255
1. Employers should be banned from spying on employees and reading their e-
mail.
1. Marriage has a number of beneficial effects on men.
2. All immigration into the United States must be halted for a ten-year period.
2. Marriage is more beneficial to men than to women.
Facts, when verified or taken from a reputable source, can be accepted and
regarded as reliable information. Opinions, on the other hand, are not reliable
3. Married men are less likely to be in jail than married women are.
sources of information and should be questioned and carefully evaluated. Look for
4. More men than women are happy in their current marriage. evidence that supports the opinion and indicates that it is reasonable. For example,
opinion 2 is written to sound like a fact, but look closely. Would everyone agree
5. A man who has been married is not likely to marry again. with this statement? Can it be disputed?
Some writers signal the reader when they are presenting an opinion. Watch for
the following words and phrases:
Are Advertising and Marketing Necessary? The author of this statement has reviewed the available evidence and is providing
his expert opinion regarding what the evidence indicates about the Supreme Court.
More than 50 years ago, the social critic Vance Packard wrote, "large‐scale The reader is free to disagree and offer evidence to support an opposing view.
efforts are being made, often with impressive success, to channel. our unthinking
habits, our purchasing decisions, and our thought processes by the use of insights EXERCISE 9.5: DISTINGUISHING FACT AND OPINION
gleaned from psychiatry and the social sciences." The economist John Kenneth
Read each of the following statements and identify whether it is fact (F), opinion
Galbraith charged that radio and television are important tools to accomplish this (0), or expert opinion (EO).
manipulation of the masses. Because consumers don't need to be literate to use
these media, repetitive and compelling communications can reach almost 1. Toyota is the world's largest automaker.
everyone. This criticism may be even more relevant to online communications, 2. Apple Computers, already one of the world's most successful companies,
where a simple click delivers a world of information to us. will continue to be successful because of its history of innovation and
Many feel that marketers arbitrarily link products to desirable social attributes, product design.
fostering a materialistic society in which we are measured by what we own. One 3. Americans spend approximately $40 billion per year on diet aids, diet
influential critic even argued that the problem is that we are not materialistic books, and diet foods.
4. The best way to read a book is on the Kindle Fire.
enough‐ that is, we do not sufficiently value goods for the utilitarian functions
5. A capital good, as defined by economists, is a good bought by
they deliver but instead focus on the irrational value of goods for what they
6. businesses to increase their productive resources.
symbolize. According to this view for example, 11Beer would be enough for us 7. The U.S. government is comprised of three branches: executive,
without the additional promise that in drinking it we show ourselves to be manly, legislative, and judicial.
young at heart, or neighborly. A washing machine would be a useful machine to 8. Anthropologists believe that some native communities in the Americas
wash clothes rather than an indication that we are forward‐looking or an object practiced human sacrifice.
of envy to our neighbors." 9. According to Dr. Elaine Feldman, a psychologist who specializes in anxiety
‐Solomon, Consumer Behavior, p. 23 management, deep breathing can greatly help people reduce their stress
levels.
10. The finest novels in English history were written by Jane Austen.
Other authors do just the opposite; they try to make opinions sound like facts, or 11. The hammer and sickle are found on Russia's national flag.
they mix fact and opinion without making clear distinctions. This is particularly
true in the case of expert opinion, which is the opinion of a recognized authority on
a topic. Political commentators on Sunday news programs (sometimes called
"pundits”) represent expert opinion on politics, for example. Textbook authors,
EXERCISE 9.6: DISTINGUISHING FACT AND OPINION
Each of the following paragraphs contains both facts and opinions. Read each
paragraph and label each sentence as fact (F), opinion (0), or expert opinion
(EO).