xxx -- 06 -- Opinions -Evaluations - Main Ideas - Details - Inference








TFY Glossary Chapter 7




Evaluate
To determine the value or worth of something.
Evaluations in word connotations
Highly connotative words can be chosen to convey a person’s likes and dislikes under the guise of offering facts.
Expectations
Mental constructs that anticipate the way things will be or should be.
Infer
To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots.
Opinion
Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court.
Premature evaluation
To judge something before one has finished examining it.
Principal claim and reasons
These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something.
Propaganda
Propaganda is the manipulation of public opinion for the benefit of the propagator.
Relativism
Relativism is the belief that concepts such as right and wrong are not absolutes but depend on situations and the cultures.
Skilled Evaluations
Skilled evaluations are opinions formed by experts after a careful and impartial study.
Thinking
Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering.


Web Links
Chapter 7
FRANK ACKERMAN AND LISA HEINZERLING
If you want to know more about cost-benefit analysis, read these interviews with the authors of Priceless.
MOVIE REVIEWS
Enjoy reading from this wide assortment of movie reviews. Select a film that you have already seen. Evaluate the review.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
This site offers a critical account of Edward Bernays’ creation of the U.S. public relations industry.
SOME PROPAGANDA BASICS
This website can get you started learning more about propaganda.
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY
In this 1999 Salon interview, learn more about the career of author of Porn, Pervasive Presence: The Creepy Wallpaper of Our Lives.
WORLD WAR II PROPAGANDA
In hindsight, propaganda can seem quaint and obvious. Study the posters shown in this website and see if you agree with this statement.

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CRCB C7, Inference
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER GOALS
After learning Chapter 7, you should be able to demonstrate:
What inference is.
Strategies you can use to infer an author’s meaning as you read.
What limits the amount of information you should infer.
How to identify implied main ideas.

What is Inference?
Inference is the process of making assumptions and drawing conclusions about information when an author’s ideas are not directly stated.
Inference Strategies
Understand an author’s purpose.
Note comparisons and implied similarities.
Understand an author’s use of tone.
Detect an author’s bias.
Recognize information gaps.
Tips For Recognizing Information Gaps
Consider all information presented.
Note author’s use of key words and phrases.
Identify when an author leaps from one idea to the next, and mentally fill in the blanks.
Knowing How Much to Infer
Recognize author’s perspective.
Use the text to support your conclusion.

Chapter Vocabulary
inference
diction
imply
purpose
tone
author’s bias
information gaps
implied main idea