Making Inferences

Making inferences is important in our daily lives. A very simple example is when you see storm clouds, you might infer that it will rain. Inferencing in reading is making an informed guesswork in which the reader makes judgments about the author's meaning. You must read 'between the lines'. It should be stressed that the inferences you make must be based on the clues given in the sentence or passage. Now let's try a few exercises.
Ppassage

Saudi Arabia must import sand. This may seem strange, because most of the country is desert. But desert sand is too coarse to use in building. Building materials must be mixed with fine sand to make strong cement blocks. It would be too difficult to grind up the desert sand so that it could be used. Therefore, the Saudis must import river sand from Scotland.

Which of the following statement can you infer from the passage

A. Scottish sand is finer than Saudi Arabian sand
B. Scottish sand is more useful for building than Saudi Arabian sand.
C. Sand is necessary in making cement.
D. The Saudis export their p wown sand to other countries.
E. Saudi Arabia has no little or no river sand
F. Saudi Arabia has no water

Statements A, B, C and E are safe inferences to make since there are evidence in the passage to support them. Statements D and F cannot be inferred since they are illogical statements.

One of the best ways to practice making inferences is to look at pictures and cartoons especially those without dialogues. Look at this sketch by Datuk Lat. What message can you infer from Lat is trying to deliver here?

Now I would like you to add a picture or a cartoon that provide a lot of rooms for making many inferences in your blog. Please visit each other's blog and provide comments in the form of inferences on the cartoons or pictures your friends have posted. Here are two websites where you can download cartoons, LatHouse and Cartoon.com. For some exercises on inferencing go to Exercises on Main Ideas and Inferencing link.