Collection 4: Making Generalizations

Collection 5: Strategies for Understanding

Unit 2Reading Focus Essays

Making Generalizations

When you attend a football game or shop at the mall . . .

. . . you usually observe the people around you.

You look at their clothes and notice their behavior.

Making Generalizations

Based on these observations, you might make generalizations—broad conclusions drawn from specific clues—about these people.

He has good taste.She likes

sports.

Making Generalizations

We also make generalizations when we read literature.

• We notice specific clues in the text.

• Then, we reach broad conclusions about the author’s message, theme, or purpose for writing.

The more text we read and the more clues we observe, the more accurate our generalizations will be.

Making Generalizations

Here’s how the generalization process works:

Note specific clues the author gives:

Combine the clues to make a generalization about the author’s message.

• repetition of words and phrases

• related ideas, examples, or illustrations

• direct statements

1

2

Making Generalizations

Apply the generalization process as you read the following passage from Thoreau’s Walden.

Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail. . . . Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.

What examples and illustrations does Thoreau use?

Making Generalizations

Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail. . . . Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.

They show how to simplify.

Step 1. Notice clues.

What do these examples and illustrations show?

more than his ten fingershas hardly need to count

be necessary eat but onemeals a day, if it

What word is repeated?

Making Generalizations

Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail. . . . Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.

the importance of keeping things simple

Step 1. Notice clues.

What point does this repetition emphasize?

simplicity, simplicity!Simplicity,

Find one direct statement Thoreau uses to instruct people.

Making Generalizations

Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail. . . . Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.

Do not schedule too many activities and obligations in your life.

Step 1. Notice clues.

What does he mean by this statement?

affairs be as two or three, and not alet your

hundred or a thousand

What generalization can you make about Thoreau’s message?

Making Generalizations

Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail. . . . Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.

He is urging the reader to simplify life by reducing the number of details and choices that are encountered daily.

Step 2. Combine clues to generalize.

affairs be as two or three, and not alet your

hundred or a thousand

more than his ten fingershas hardly need to count

be necessary eat but onemeals a day, if it

simplicity, simplicity!Simplicity,

Making Generalizations

Your Turn

Read the passage from Walden that appears on the following two slides. Apply the strategy you have learned in this presentation.

Note Thoreau’s repeated words or phrases; related ideas, examples, or illustrations; and direct statements.

These will help you make a generalization about his feelings toward the railroads.

Making Generalizations

Your TurnWe do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon.

Continued on next slide

Making Generalizations

[End of Section]

Your TurnAnd when they run over a man that is walking in his sleep, a supernumerary1 sleeper in the wrong position, and wake him up, they suddenly stop the cars, and make a hue and cry about it, as if this were an exception. I am glad to know that it takes a gang of men for every five miles to keep the sleepers down and level in their beds as it is, for this is a sign that they may sometime get up again.

1. supernumerary: additional; unnecessary.

Strategies for Understanding

Edgar Allan Poe’s writing is much like a Gothic mansion: a mix of dramatic features, complicated structures, and fantastic details.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poe’s ornate style is ideally suited to exploring the dark and winding paths of the human mind.

Strategies for Understanding

At the same time, such deep and complex writing can sometimes present challenges to the reader.

You may need some tips to help you understand difficult words and sentences in a text.

Breaking Down the Text

Strategies for Understanding

Whenever you encounter an unfamiliar word or allusion, try one of these strategies:

“The Fall of the House of Usher,” is full of rich language and specific allusions.

Check for a vocabulary definition or footnote in the textbook.

•

Look up the word in a reference source.•

Use context clues to determine the meaning.•

Breaking Down the Text

Strategies for Understanding

When you come across a complicated sentence, use these steps to break it down piece by piece.

Another challenging element is Poe’s use of complex sentences structures.

Locate the main subject and the main verb.1

Identify any objects of the verb.2

Identify phrases and modifiers and determine how they function in the sentence.

3

The following sentence from “The Fall of the House of Usher” has an unusual structure and includes a word that may be unfamiliar.

Strategies for Understanding

To understand this sentence better, apply the strategies for breaking down the text.

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks.

First, notice the challenging word sojourn.

Strategies for Understanding

How can you find out the meaning of sojourn?

Look for a definition in the textbook, check a dictionary, or use context clues.

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks.

sojourn (SOH jurn) n.: a brief stay or visit.

Identify the subject and the verb.

Now examine the sentence structure.

Strategies for Understanding

sojourn

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks.

Identify the direct object of the verb proposed.

I proposed

What does the phrase shown in orange modify?

The basic sentence is “I proposed a sojourn.”

Now examine the sentence structure.

Strategies for Understanding

sojourn

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks.

Now examine the sentence structure.

Strategies for Understanding

Nevertheless, I considered staying a few weeks in this gloomy mansion.

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks.

How might you restate the sentence in a simpler form?

Strategies for Understanding

Unraveling the Meaning

With some of Poe’s longer sentences, figuring out the overall meaning can be a challenge.

For long sentences like the one below, apply the strategies for breaking down the text, and then put all the pieces together to unravel the meaning.

Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant.

What context clues help you figure out what the “mournful burden” is?

First determine the meanings of any unfamiliar words.

Strategies for Understanding

a coffin with a corpse in it

What is it?

Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant.

coffin

horror

tenant

What context clues help you guess the meaning of the word tressels?

First determine the meanings of any unfamiliar words.

Strategies for Understanding

probably some kind of stand for a coffin

What are tressels?

Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant.

upondeposited

coffin

What is the subject?

Now break the sentence down into its essential parts.

Strategies for Understanding

we

What is the verb? (Note: The sentence has a compound verb.)

Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant.

turned, looked

Basic sentence: “We turned and looked.”

Now break the sentence down into its essential parts.

Strategies for Understanding

Study the phrase in orange. What words does it modify?

Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant. turned, looked

Basic sentence: “We turned and looked.”

Now break the sentence down into its essential parts.

Strategies for Understanding

What is the direct object of the verb turned?

Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant. lid

State the meaning of the sentence in your own words.

Unravel the meaning.

Strategies for Understanding

Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant.

After we placed the coffin on the stand, we opened the lid and looked at the corpse’s face.

Strategies for Understanding

Your Turn

Using the suggestions in this presentation, rewrite the following sentences to make them simpler to read and understand. If necessary, look up any unfamiliar words.

1. “Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building.”

2. “To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave.”

The End