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Inference


The first is Inference, which is where the reader comes to a logical conclusion based on what the author presents as fact or evidence. As a reader, you are actually being invited to come to a conclusion based on the information presented to you. Inferred meaning is something that is not said directly. As you can see, you must pay attention to the material in order to answer a question about inference.

Oh, the power of suggestion!


We make inferences on a daily basis, simply based on body language. If someone were to say, "Nice suit," and it was accompanied by a look of genuine appreciation, we would infer that the compliment were sincere. If, however, the words were accompanied by a smirk, then it would be pretty obvious that the person intended to be rude and insulting.

In neither case was the intention of the compliment understood until the words were matched against the tone of voice.

Inferences are guesses, but they are based on an educated guess. People of all walks of life make inferences on a daily basis; doctors, police, mechanics, and readers.

Generally speaking, inferences are relatively easy to come to, because there are only a few possible conclusions one can draw based on a set of informational facts.

You may come across a passage where you are looking for the topic or thesis statement and you cannot find one, and yet you are able to tell someone what the passage is about. You have inferred  the topic or thesis statement based on an implied or suggested idea.

Fortunately, you have already learned to look for explicit details, because it is this kind of detective work that will help you determine what a reading passage is inferring.

Let's look at the following example:

Wildwood Senior Home has been having a rash of robberies from the rooms and apartments of the residents. Eight residents have reported missing money and valuables from their apartments in the past three weeks. Each time the thieves have managed to enter the apartments, ransack them for easy-to-carry valuables, and leave all without being noticed, even though the Senior Center campus is completely fenced and the security gate requires a constantly changing code to be entered in order to gain admittance to the facility. Each time, however, the staff claims that they have seen nothing out of the ordinary.

Question: Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of this paragraph?

  1. There are too many incidents of theft at Wildwood Senior Home.

  2. There is not enough staff to keep an eye on all the apartments.

  3. There is something wrong with the staff at Wildwood Senior Home.

Which one would you choose? Answer: C, "There is something wrong with the staff at Wildwood Senior Home." We can tell this is the main idea because it is the only one that is general enough to be the main idea. Choice A is implied only in the first two sentences, and choice B is not mentioned at all. However, the entire passage implies that something is wrong with the staff because they are required to badge in to the facility and despite that, there has been an increase in theft for three weeks. In addition, the word "however" indicates that there is a conflict between the supposed security of the staff being present, and the increase in incidents.

Let's try another, based on the police report taken from one of the staff at Wildwood Senior Home about one of the residents who has lost a valuable watch and ring:

Mrs. Downy is a sweet, but forgetful old lady who lives here at Wildwood Senior Home. I've often found the door to her apartment ajar, and yet when I go in to check on her, she's usually not ever there. She simply forgets to lock her door, or she has lost her key and doesn't lock the door just so that she can get back in without bothering the office staff about unlocking her apartment for her. There are times when Mrs. Downy forgets what day of the week it is, or even what time of day it is. She's more easily confused than she used to be, coming down for dinner thinking that it is strange that we're having waffles for dinner when really it is time for breakfast. I'm glad she's living here, but pretty soon she might have to be relocated to a higher level of care if her forgetfulness keeps getting worse.

Question: What is the staff member suggesting about Mrs. Downy?

  1. Mrs. Downy forgets everything.

  2. Mrs. Downy may have left her door unlocked the day her watch and ring were stolen.

  3. Mrs. Downy is too carefree for the good of the senior home.

Which one would you choose? Answer: B is the correct answer because it is the only one that supports everything stated in the passage. We know that Mrs. Downy is forgetful and often forgets to lock her door, both of which could contribute to her offering her apartment as a target for the thief. Mrs. Downy doesn't forget everything, because she only sometimes forgets to lock her door. C is not correct because there is nothing that suggests she is carefree, merely forgetful.

There is one type of reading that relies very heavily on inference, and that is when you read something that is written in figurative language. This includes poems, stories, and essays that use symbolism, metaphor, and other literary devices that help to illustrate meaning. When you are trying to find the main idea in this type of passage, you have to use your existing knowledge, a certain amount of logic (which we will cover next) and your own ideas to infer what the author is trying to say.

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