Drawing Conclusions that are Stated Directly in the Text

You as the reader should always be drawing conclusions. I’m going to write that point up here on the board. Always be drawing conclusions. In many cases, the conclusion of writing will not be stated directly and you will have to infer it from the information you already know and the information you are gathering from the text.

Those situations are very difficult, and it’s vital that you are always drawing conclusions. You never know when the right time to draw that conclusion will be. In this case, we’re talking about conclusions that are stated directly. These are much easier to find. However, you don’t know where in the paper you are going to find this conclusion that is stated directly.

Read this sentence. “It is always more comfortable to draw conclusions from information stated within a passage rather than to draw them from mere implications.” We’re talking about drawing them from mere implications. That’s called “inferring”. When you’re able to draw conclusions from information stated within a passage, that’s talking about when a conclusion is stated directly. These kinds of passages are pretty easy, because the information is going to be stated directly.

The important thing here is that you read the entire passage. Even though the conclusion is stated directly, you still have to find it. Sometimes there may be another sentence in the passage that looks like the conclusion. You may see that sentence and think, “Okay, this is the conclusion. I found it.” Then, right after that sentence, the author will be offering a rebuttal to that proposed conclusion, shutting it down and giving a counterargument leading up to the author revealing the best conclusion.

It’s important that you read the entire passage, so that you can be sure that the conclusion you find is the same one the author intended for you to find.