Critical Reading for college and beyond E75

Chapter 7
Using inference to identify implied main ideas.

College instructors require you not only to read and understand what is explicitly stated on the page, but also to detect ideas that are implied or indirectly stated. In order to fully understand a reading assignment, you need to read the material and combine what is started with the additional information you generate using inference as a tool. While inference is a skill you practice every day, inferring meaning from textbooks and other college reading material requires you to use specific strategies such as detecting an author’s bias, noting comparisons, and recognizing information gaps. You also need to understand how author’s purpose, tone, and use of key words are and emotive language can be used as clues to his or her implied main idea. There are limits to what you can infer, and should use other information in a reading to check if your conclusion are accurate.