chapter 4: infrences: what follows?

chapter summary:

1. the word infer means to derive by reasoning, to conclude, to guess. when we infer, we use imagination or reasoning to provide explanations for situations where all the facts are either not available or not yet determined.

2. responsible report writing or descriptive writing lets the facts speak for themselves as much as possible. this often means taking the time to find the right words to describe the obvious and abandoning inferences drawn too hastily that cannot be supported,

3. writing that offers specific detailed supper for its conclusions makes interesting writing. when we perceive and think clearly, we interest both ourselves and others.

4. reasonable inferences can be used in descriptive writing to tie facts together, care must be take to distinguish facts from inferences, nevertheless.

5. in solving problems, inferences can be used as a strategy in planning and choosing alternatives. when we think well, we assess all facts, derive as many inferences as we can, and derive as many inferences as we can, and devise strategies for confirming or obtaining more information.

6. inferences tend to build on inferences in chains of association. unless each inference is tested for its support of evidence, a series of inferences can mislead us into flights of imagination, away from reliable knowledge.

7. facts and inferences are linked together through generalizations. facts have little significance in themselves until generalizations or laws can be derived from them. generalizing too soon, before we have gathered a sufficient number of facts is hazardous; this does not mean that we should not generalize at all. it simply means that we should learn how to draw generalizations that can be supported.

8. the topic sentence of a paragraph is a generalization that summarizes the main idea to demonstrate in that paragraph. when we think, we usually arrive at this generalization lase,m after we have examined all our facts and inferences; nevertheless, we state if first, at the beginning of the paragraph. the topic sentence is a kind of conclusion, which is repeated again in another form at the end of the paragraph.