Making Inferences and Conclusions

Making an inference and drawing a conclusion are very similar skills.

• TRUE

• FALSE

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How to make an inference or draw a conclusion:

• Observe all the facts, arguments, and information given by the author

• Consider what you already know from your own experiences

• When faced with multiple choice answers, determine whether each is true or false based on the information in the passage

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The woman waited nervously in line. When the counter was empty, she carefully unloaded her items from her cart. Lines creased her forehead as if to show the calculations ringing up in her head. Finally, the cashier began ringing up the items as the woman clutched her purse.

Inference/conclusion: The woman may not have enough money to cover the cost of her groceries.

• TRUE

• FALSE

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Inference is ...

• an idea that is suggested by the facts or details in a passage

• a guess that a reader makes by combining details from a text and personal knowledge

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Conclusion is ...

• a decision about what may happen or about the result an event may have

• a judgement about what something means based on facts and details

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The writer may only provide a list of effects, so you have to figure out the cause.

Example:

The child stood on the sidewalk clenching her ice cream cone. Beads of sweat collected on her little nose as she furiously licked at the ice cream dripping down her hand.

Inference/conclusion: It must me a hot day because her ice cream is melting, and she is sweating.

• TRUE

• FALSE

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Read and answer!

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.

Which probably happened?

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

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

• Turner had heard a weather forecast that predicted rain.

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

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“Larry, as your boss, I must say that 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.”

What was Miss Valdez telling Larry?

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

• He was being fired.

• He was getting a raise in pay.

• She really enjoyed having him in the office.

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Bill and Jessica were almost done taking turns choosing players for their teams. It was Jessica’s turn to choose, and only Kurt was left. Jessica said, “Kurt.”

We can infer that ...

• Kurt is not a very good player.

• Jessica was pleased to have Kurt on her team.

• Kurt was the best player on either team.

• Jessica was inconsiderate of Kurt’s feelings.

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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.

• a reasonable conclusion or judgment about some element in a story based on information from the story

• a reasonable conclusion or judgment about some element in a story

• information contained in a story that leads a reader to the theme

• information in the story to help a reader ask questions and make connections

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