Chapter 7: Inferring Meaning from Detai l

RDG 100-710 April 9, 2012

• Did you send me your selection of country or culture via email?

• We are going to cover Chapters 7 and 8 tonight. Make sure to read these chapters in the book.

Tonight

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Wed., April 11, 2012• Meet in computer lab 346A and bring your

initial research materials for your project.• We are going to discuss research via the

Internet and work on projects.

Inferences• An inference is a logical solution or

outcome developed by examining evidence for patterns.

• The evidence comes from the author’s words, sentences, and paragraphs.

Observe events

Gather evidence

Analyze evidence

for patterns

Evaluate possible

hypotheses

Select inference that best

fits evidence

The Process of Making Inferences

Details are important!• A good inference will account for all

known facts or details.

Inference

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

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Get It?• Prior knowledge is often required to

understand jokes, riddles or comedy sketches.

• For example, can you answer this children’s riddle?

How do you keep an elephant from charging?

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Jokes and Prior Knowledge

Take away his credit cards.• To “get” the joke, you need prior

knowledge about charge cards and wild elephants; and that it’s silly for an elephant to have a charge card.

• Your prior knowledge is what makes the joke funny. If you don’t have the knowledge, you don’t get the joke.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4N93jLVPIA&feature=related

Not Just Jokes• Prior knowledge is good for more than

jokes. It also helps you understand a reading.

• Prior knowledge plays a crucial role in drawing inferences.

Reading Responsibly• Sometimes your prior knowledge,

especially beliefs, might conflict with information the author is presenting.

• You’ll need to suspend your belief for a while and concentrate on the author’s ideas.

Experienced Readers Know . . . The inferences that you build must be based on the evidence presented in the reading – not on your beliefs.

Generalizations • A generalization is a type of inference.• A generalization is a statement that

encompasses all examples, types, or other details the author presents.

Implied Main Ideas• Sometimes the author doesn’t directly

state the main idea – instead you have to infer the main idea.

• Use MAPPS to mark the topic, list the details, then infer what the main idea must be.

Inferring the Thesis StatementSearch for the topic

Find the major supporting details

Look for patterns among the details

Generalize from details

Combine generalizations with topic to derive implied thesis statement

Chapter 8: Evaluating the Author’s Purpose and Tone

Three Main Purposes

Persuade

Change thoughts, attitudes, or

behaviors

Inform

Give key factual information

Express

Share the writer’s emotions

and evoke the reader’s

Tone Supports Reading Purpose

General Purpose General ToneInform ObjectiveExpress SubjectivePersuade Subjective

Denotation and Connotation• Denotation: Think “d”, dictionary. The

literal meaning of the word. • Connotation: Think “conn”, connections.

The association of the word to emotions or attitudes.

Connotations and Tone• Connotations suggest subjective tone.• Subjective means the author is placing

himself/herself into the writing as one of the subjects.

• A lack of connotation (denotation) suggests the reading is objective or factual.– the author is ignoring opinions and focusing on

the object of the writing – the facts or ideas.

Subjective v. ObjectiveSubjective• To express or persuade.• Usually several

connotations and/or figurative language.

• Author creates emotional states.

• Caution: Subjective writing may still include facts and information!

Objective• To inform.• Few connotations with

fewer degrees of intensity.

• Author help readers understand with their minds.

Are connotations present?

Subjunctive

Are connotations positive or negative?

How intense are connotations?

Objective

Improve Your Understanding of Tone

yes no

Positive or Negative?

• Connotations can be positive or negative.• Knowing the polarity of the connotations

can help you understand the author’s tone.

Adjectives & Connotation• An adjective’s job is to state the

characteristics of a person, place, thing, or idea.

• Adjectives can show the degree of intensity with which the author describes ideas and events.

Low Intensity

High Intensity

cool lukewarm warm hot boiling

Connotation Intensity

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Bad-Poor-Good-Better-Best• Working in groups of two, list three to five

adjectives of increasing intensity for each of the items on the next slide.

• For example, if the slide said “cleanliness of a room” you could answer “disgusting – dusty – clean – sparkling – sanitized.”

A person’s taste in clothing

The liveliness of a party

Taste of pizza

The explosions in an action movie

Sleep after a hard day at work

Using More Specific Tone Words• In order to talk in class about an author’s

ideas, you need to use words that describe the author’s tone more specifically.

• A few examples are on the next slide. Your textbook has a more complete list.

Negative Neutral Positivealarmed balanced amusedannoyed factual blessedapathetic impartial celebratorybitter informative cheerfulcynical just elateddesperate matter-of-fact excited

Words to Describe Tone

Literal and Figurative Language• Figurative language – including similes,

metaphors, personifications, and hyperbole – has a subjective tone.

• Literal language, which often appears in the form of facts, has an objective tone.

Are connotations or figurative language

present?

Subjunctive

Are connotations positive or negative?

How intense are connotations?

Objective

Improve Your Understanding of Tone

yes no

What type of figurative language is being used?

For Figurative Language . . .For Connotations . . .

Similes and Metaphors• Simile: An indirect comparison of two

things using the words “like” or “as.”• Metaphor: A direct comparison of two

things without using the words “like” or “as.”

Me without a mic is like a beat without a snare . . . I'm sweet like licorice, dangerous like syphilis.

-- Lauryn Hill, “How Many Mics”

Like a flowerWaiting to bloomLike a light bulb In a dark room I'm just sitting here waiting for you To come on home and turn me on

-- Norah Jones, “Turn Me On”

Simile Examples

Metaphor ExamplesHappiness is the china shop; love is the bull.

-- H.L. Mencken, A Little Book in C Major

I look at you and wham, I'm head over heels. I guess that love is a banana peel.

-- Bud Weisman and Fred Wise, “I Slipped I Stumbled, I Fell”

Personification• Personification is the act of giving an

inanimate object characteristics of an animate being.

Personification ExamplesPink is what red looks like when it kicks off its shoes

and lets its hair down. Pink is the boudoir color, the cherubic color, the color of Heaven's gates. . . . Pink is as laid back as beige, but while beige is dull and bland, pink is laid back with attitude.

-- Tom Robbins, "The Eight-Story Kiss." Wild Ducks Flying Backward.

There is unrest in the forest,There is trouble with the trees,For the maples want more sunlightAnd the oaks ignore their pleas.

-- Rush, “The Trees”

Hyperbole• Hyperbole is intentional exaggeration to

make or emphasize a point. Hyperbole is meant to be taken figuratively.

• She sent so many text messages, her thumbs fell off.

• He watched so much television that you could see “Lost” reruns when you looked into his eyes.

• Yo mama’s so fat a hyperbole couldn’t even exaggerate her weight.

Hyperbole Examples

Understanding Irony• Irony is the use of words or images to

express the opposite of what is said.

Three Types of Irony1. Verbal irony: The words used have an

unexpected meaning.2. Situational irony: What happens is

unexpected or is the opposite of our expectations.

3. Dramatic irony: The audience or reader knows more about what is going on that the character does.

• Verbal Irony—Saying what you DON’T mean– Definition: A speaker means something different than,

often the opposite of, what she says.• Examples:– “I can’t wait to start writing these forty-seven reports.”– “My walk home was only twenty-three blocks.”

• (Note: The terms sarcasm and irony are often used interchangeably, but there is a semantic difference. Sarcasm is meant to insult or cause harm. So strictly speaking, “Great, I forgot my umbrella” is ironic, whereas “You call this a cup of coffee?” is sarcastic.)

Verbal Irony

Situational IronyWhy do we press harder on a remote control when weknow the batteries are getting weak?

Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds"when they know there is not enough?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath youuse the bubbles are always white?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigeratorwith hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen timeswith their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, thenput it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

• The Prologue from Romeo and Juliet• Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.From forth the fatal loins of these two foesA pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Do with their death bury their parents' strife.The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;The which if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qEKkdcTVEM

Dramatic Irony