SESSION#: ______

IMPLICATIONS/INFERENCES in READING: Tracing a Theme to its Conclusion

The methods of recognizing patterns are concrete and easy to identify. Inferences, on the
other hand, are more subtle. When a writer implies something, he or she is giving hints but
does not state the point directly. Think about a time, for example, when you had people
visiting you at home; it was late, and you wanted them to leave. Did you ask them directly,
“Hey, can you leave now”? Probably not, but you may have hinted that you had to wake up
early in the morning, or you may have subtly yawned. Hopefully, those people picked up on
your cues and inferred it was time to leave: meaning they put the pieces together to arrive at
the conclusion you wanted them to leave, yet you did not say it directly.

When a writer does this, the reader may not actually pick up on the hints or maybe even
interpret them differently. Sometimes readers make inferences that are based more on their
own preferences and experience than on the information provided. This also means that two
readers may interpret the same information differently because of differing individual
experiences that led them to arrive at their conclusions. For you as a writer, you need to
remember that it is your responsibility to give the readers everything they need in order for
them to arrive at the conclusions you want them to make. If you are not direct, readers may
be left confused or not catch your point.

There are also times that you as a reader will need to read passages requiring you to make
inferences. The next exercises will help you to practise reading for inference. Remember, if
your answers are different than the ones given, it means you interpreted the information
differently and may have missed the author’s point. In these passages, you can also use a
process of elimination and ask yourself statement best completes the passage.

Self-Practice:
After reading each passage, choose the answer that best completes the thought of the
passage. Think about why the other answers would not be a correct conclusion to the
passage.

What clues did you focus on? did you miss?

1. To a manufacturer, the wages paid to employees are a large portion of production

expenses. The fact that wages also determine the buying power of the consumer is
sometimes overlooked. In times of overproduction, the manufacturer tries to lower
operating costs by decreasing the number of employees. This reduces expenditures of
money in wages, but it also:
A) maintains the status quo
B) increases population
C) raises costs
D) reduces consumption
2.Totally new cities that will be built in the future may be better planned than the large
cities that already exist. Old cities were not properly planned for the great growth in
population and industry that they have had, and many are in the process of tearing down
 and rebuilding large sections. This process is helping to improve some old cities—both
large and small ones—but it does not give them the choice of complete city designing that
will be available to:
A) richer cities
B) larger cities
C) foreign cities
D) new cities
3. The director of this company believes that there is a growing awareness by management
that business corporations are, and should be, guided by policies that are designed to
satisfy human needs as well as material needs, and that there is nothing inconsistent
between this and the making of:
A) educational opportunities for workers
B) good and satisfying profits
C) political enemies in some quarters
D) better opportunities for workers
4. Knowledge and pleasure are inextricably interlocked. It is impossible for us to learn what
we do not enjoy, and we cannot enjoy that which does not impart:
A) a lesson
B) a novelty
C) a practical use
D) strong emotion

5. Oratory is to be best estimated on different principles from those that are applied to
other productions. Truth is the object of philosophy and history. The merit of poetry is in
its truth even though the truth is understood only through the imagination, which is
aroused by poetry. The object of oratory is not truth but persuasion. A speaker who
exhausts the whole philosophy of a question, who displays every grace of style, yet
produces no effect on an audience, may be a great essayist, a great politician, a great
master of composition, but:

A) essentially a persuader
B) not a poet
C) essentially an orator
D) not an orator

Exercises taken from: Science Research Associates. (1978). Reading for Comprehension Exercises. SRA Achievement
Series. Chicago: Science Research Associates., in https://opentextbc.ca/writingforsuccess