1. Intriguing Literature Forces the Reader to Ask Questions
Making Inferences
Intriguing Literature Forces the Reader to Ask Questions

2. Discuss
Why would an author choose to leave information out of his story?
2. How do we, as readers, reliably fill in this information?

3. To Make an Inference
What the author tells the reader (textual evidence) The reader’s knowledge An Inference

4. For Example The author/narrator tells says: We, as readers, know:
“I must be careful when I go outside because there is an angry dog the size of a car waiting to eat my kneecaps.”
We, as readers, know:
There are no dogs that size, and they wouldn’t be interested in kneecaps.
We can infer that:
The author is crazy. Or he lives on a different planet with very large dogs.

5. Make a List How does the author give the reader information?
Book cover
Description of setting
Character actions
Dialogue
Word choice
Sentence structure

6. The Reader’s Role
How does our prior knowledge help us make inferences?
Understanding the structure of literature
Understanding character motives
Understanding human emotion/experience
Applying previous experience and knowledge

7. Practice
Watch the movie trailer clip below and make as many inferences as possible.
Cloverfield Movie Clip

8. Distinctions An inference without textual evidence is called a guess.
There is no place for guessing in a Socratic Seminar or class discussion
An inference about what will take place later in the novel is a prediction.