Your awareness of these factors, which allow or limit your ability to draw valid conclusions, can help you read beyond words. This will result in more empathy for others` ideas and a better understanding of complex issues. Reading, listening, and active note-taking require inferences based in part on information that the author or speaker did not provide. To improve our ability to draw valid conclusions, it helps to understand the following: This can lead to flimsy conclusions. Political defamation is often based on implications constructed with misleading language that can be disavowed in an emergency (“I never said that!”). It is particularly important to consider each conclusion in terms of implications; It may well be imperfect, as the authors of the implications tend to be selective as to which facts to include and often use language chosen for “loaded” connotations. ImplicationsNot all conclusions are based on facts. We often draw conclusions based on better estimate or implications. If a statement is only suggested or implied, it is an implication. We draw conclusions and draw conclusions from the implications as well as direct statements. The problem with inferring implications is that the language of implications is slippery, sometimes intentional. The connotation is largely cultural.
Students who are new to English or lack basic knowledge often struggle to accurately identify connotations. Students with limited vocabulary also have more difficulty “reading” connotations. The connotation can also vary from one group to another within a company. For example, the word profit had negative connotations for Karla`s group and positive connotations for Phong`s group. (This is why, for example, on polarized political issues, one group`s statements may seem so absurd – or even frightening – to the other group: the connotations of political messages are “colorful” to a particular audience.) We arrive at non-factual conclusions based on non-factual or even non-verbal information, such as facial expression and body language. University textbook authors expect you to have a certain level of basic knowledge – for example, knowledge of people, history, art, science, mathematics, and current events – to draw meaningful conclusions as you read. Students with limited previous reading and breadth of experience find it more difficult to use textbooks and lessons to draw valid conclusions. We acquire our basic knowledge by reading, talking to people, traveling, watching the news, learning professional skills – in fact, everything we have seen and done contributes to our basic knowledge. One of the reasons we can have implications is that words have connotations.
Denotation is the meaning of a word in the dictionary. The connotation is his “color” or emotional feeling. Some words have negative connotations, others positive. Would you rather be called sensitive or sensitive? Liberal or progressive? Religious or spiritual? We unconsciously interpret connotations and draw conclusions about the author and material, partly based on the “color” of the words. Conclusions are everyday events. Let`s say you see your neighbor loading a suitcase into his car early on Friday morning. They conclude that he is going on a trip, and not for long, with this only suitcase. Later, at 11:30, you notice that it has started to rain. They conclude that the noon school pic will be cancelled. In any case, you do not know for sure, but your conclusion is based on what you observe and your basic knowledge. Depending on the facts you know, you can draw different conclusions.
For example, if you know that the picnic area is covered, you can conclude that the picnic will take place as planned despite the rain. Similarly, there may be another explanation for the suitcase – perhaps your neighbor takes it out to be repaired. Perhaps he decided to use it to store his jumper cables and flashlight. Anyway, your conclusion makes sense, at least given what you know. Their different assumptions about the value of capitalism and what it means to be a “real” American lead Phong and Karla to different conclusions. Phong and Karla may have checked and consciously confirmed their assumptions, but it`s much more likely they didn`t. Therefore, neither Phong nor Karla can understand each other`s attitude when buying textbooks: why is he so passive, Karla is annoyed. Why is she so angry, Phong wonders. Their misunderstanding will likely continue until they realize they have other hypotheses and discuss them. This is an important part of developing critical thinking skills to distinguish our conclusions or conclusions from raw facts and assumptions. Assumptions are the tacit and often untested beliefs that we take for granted – that we and most other people we know won`t like to prick wet grass, for example. But it is possible for someone somewhere to have a different point of view – that picnicking in the rain is original and fun.
A common reason for disagreements between people who have different opinions is that people started with different assumptions. For example, suppose Phong assumes that a capitalist market society strengthens a democracy and leads to innovative solutions to social problems. It brings this underlying belief to everyday business, such as the price of textbooks in the student bookstore. Phong doesn`t complain about the high price of his textbooks, because he thinks (perhaps a little vaguely) that they are anti-American; Instead, he happily cancels his cable subscription and puts the money he saves into buying books. On the other hand, Karla assumes that capitalism weakens America, stifles innovation, and impoverishes most of society to the benefit of a rich and powerful few. Karla buys her textbooks because she has to, but she is bitter and believes that textbook producers are not acting like real Americans – in fact, she suspects that they are not American at all, but some sort of supranational cabal systematically hunting down students and the intelligentsia. (See the TIP fact sheet “Conspiracy theories.”) We all draw conclusions; That is, we draw conclusions by using the information to create new information. When you draw a conclusion, you connect the points of the known to the unknown, from the said to the unsaid. A conclusion is a logical conclusion based on an analysis of objects, sensations, events, facts, and ideas that seems likely in light of what is known. We can draw factual, i.e.
verifiable, conclusions from factual information. For example, given the following facts, the conclusions make sense: Try the Quiz: Living Environment – New York Regents June 2014 Exam (See the TIP sheet “Deductive, Inductive and Abductive Reasoning” for more information on “Best Guess” thinking.) Fact: A lion can walk 50 miles per hour. Fact: A cheetah can run faster than a lion. Bottom line: A cheetah can run faster than 50 miles per hour. Hide all answers Hide all answers Show all answers Print Try the quiz.
