Chapter 7: Inferring Meaning from Detail
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Transcript of Chapter 7: Inferring Meaning from Detail
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Chapter 7: Inferring Meaning from Detai l
RDG 100-710 April 9, 2012
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• 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.
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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.
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Observe events
Gather evidence
Analyze evidence
for patterns
Evaluate possible
hypotheses
Select inference that best
fits evidence
The Process of Making Inferences
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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
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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.
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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.
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Experienced Readers Know . . . The inferences that you build must be based on the evidence presented in the reading – not on your beliefs.
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Generalizations • A generalization is a type of inference.• A generalization is a statement that
encompasses all examples, types, or other details the author presents.
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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.
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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
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Chapter 8: Evaluating the Author’s Purpose and Tone
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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
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Tone Supports Reading Purpose
General Purpose General ToneInform ObjectiveExpress SubjectivePersuade Subjective
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Are connotations present?
Subjunctive
Are connotations positive or negative?
How intense are connotations?
Objective
Improve Your Understanding of Tone
yes no
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Positive or Negative?
• Connotations can be positive or negative.• Knowing the polarity of the connotations
can help you understand the author’s tone.
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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.
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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.”
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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
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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.
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Negative Neutral Positivealarmed balanced amusedannoyed factual blessedapathetic impartial celebratorybitter informative cheerfulcynical just elateddesperate matter-of-fact excited
Words to Describe Tone
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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.
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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 . . .
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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.”
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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
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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”
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Personification• Personification is the act of giving an
inanimate object characteristics of an animate being.
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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”
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Hyperbole• Hyperbole is intentional exaggeration to
make or emphasize a point. Hyperbole is meant to be taken figuratively.
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• 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
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Understanding Irony• Irony is the use of words or images to
express the opposite of what is said.
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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.
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• 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
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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?
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• 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