Reading Strategies

8. Engaging in Reading: Reading Between the Lines (Inferences)

Making inferences from words that are read or spoken is a key comprehension skill. You may miss vital information if you fail to make appropriate inferences.

By making inferences, you can draw meaning from the text - through explicit details and implicit clues. You will be able to connect prior knowledge and experiences to the content of the text in order to make good guesses about what is happening, what may have happened or will happen in the future.

 Explicit details appear right in the text (for example, names, dates, descriptive details, facts). Implicit details are implied by clues in the text. Both of these are also referred to as 'Reading ON the lines". You are more likely to recognize implicit details if they relate to prior knowledge and experiences. Inferences are conclusions drawn from evidence in the text or reasoning about the text. Inferences is referred to as 'Reading BETWEEN the lines'.

While reading a text, make note of your thoughts and guesses about what is happening. You might use any of these sentence starters to organize your thoughts:

• I realize that...
• Based on…I predict that…
• I can draw these conclusions...
• Based on this evidence, I think…