9-10R1

CITE STRONG & THOROUGH textual evidence to SUPPORT ANALYSIS of what the text says EXPLICITLY as well as INFERENCES from the text.

RL.9-10.1 / RI.9-10.1

Explicit Details vs. Drawing Inferences

• Authors provide many EXPLICIT DETAILS, direct statements about the characters, settings, and conflict.

• Authors also suggest certain details, rather than expressing them directly. In order to understand the hinted at information, readers must DRAW INFERENCES from the text, making educated guesses based on what the text says explicitly and their own experiences.

Textual Evidence & Analysis

• In summarizing what a text says, readers have to ANALYZE its explicit details to determine which are the most important. Then readers might have to CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE to show they have chosen the most important details.

• Similarly, readers might have to cite STRONG & THOROUGH EVIDENCE from the text to support the inferences made about the text.

• Evidence for an ANALYSIS of explicit details or inference is strong and thorough if it relates to the point the reader is making and is sufficient in itself to prove that point.

What does it mean to make an INFERENCE?

• Authors often merely suggest events, settings, and character traits.

• The author can also communicate more subtle messages, such as the narrator's reliability, the passage's theme, or even the author's own attitudes.

• As a result, readers often need to make inferences to fully understand the story and the author's choices.

  • use background knowledge of the world to interpret the story's details

  • pay attention to the story's imagery, structure, and other stylistic elements, and consider what purpose they serve.

  • Remember to base your inferences on evidence from the text.