An inference is a conclusion the text supports without stating. Explaining its limits means saying how far the extract carries you and where you would be guessing.
This skill completes the cluster on reading across viewpoints. When you compare voices using only a few lines from each, you must be honest about what a short extract can show.
What are the levels of certainty?
It helps to think of four levels, from firm to weak:
- Stated: the text says it directly.
- Strongly supported inference: several words in the text point the same way.
- Possible inference: one detail suggests it, and other readings remain open.
- Unsupported claim: the text gives no evidence, and the idea comes from you.
Good answers keep to levels one and two and mark level three with careful wording.
How to test an inference, step by step
- Write your inference as one sentence.
- Find the exact words in the extract that support it.
- Check each part of your sentence has support. Split it into smaller claims if needed.
- Mark anything unsupported and either remove it or phrase it as a possibility.
- Say what the extract does not tell you if the question asks about limits.
Worked example
Here is an original extract.
“Mr Lim closed the shop at noon, pulled down the shutter, and did not look back. The sign he left in the window said only ‘Thank you’.”
Inference: “Mr Lim is retiring because he is tired of the business and is angry at his customers.”
Step 3, split the claim:
- Mr Lim is leaving the shop for good: partly supported. The shutter and the sign suggest closure, but “thank you” might also mark a short break.
- He is tired of the business: no support. No words describe his feelings about work.
- He is angry at customers: contradicted. “Thank you” is polite, not angry.
Step 4, improved inference: “The details suggest a deliberate closing, since he pulls down the shutter and does not look back. The sign ‘Thank you’ implies goodwill towards customers rather than anger.”
Step 5, limits: “The extract does not say whether the closure is permanent, nor why he closed the shop.”
The improved version says less, but every word of it can be defended.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to add a reason that the text never gives.
Mistaken inference: “He did not look back because he was sad to leave.”
The text says he did not look back. It does not say why, and a different reader could say he was relieved, or simply in a hurry.
The correction is to report the action and offer the feeling as a possibility: “His not looking back could suggest determination, although the extract does not explain his reason.”
Check yourself
Use this original extract.
“Aina read the message twice, set her phone face down on the table, and began to wash up, though the plates were already clean.”
1. Give one inference that is strongly supported.
Show answer
She is disturbed or distracted by the message. Reading it twice and washing clean plates both suggest she is occupied by it.
2. Why is “Aina has received bad news from her family” not safe?
Show answer
The extract does not say what the message contains or who it is from. The news might be bad, but it could equally be surprising or awkward, so the claim adds information that is not in the text.
3. Write one sentence that states what the extract does not tell us.
Show answer
“The extract does not reveal the content of the message or why it affects her.”
Where this leads next
You now have five skills for reading across viewpoints. Test them together in the mixed practice set, and record any slips in the mistake log and retest queue.
Learning to claim exactly as much as the text allows can take a few rounds of careful feedback. That is what our teachers offer in online one-to-one First Language English tuition.