inferences

Chapter 4

The word infer means to derive by reasoning, to conclude, to guess. When we infer we use imagination and reasoning to provide explanation for situation in which all the facts are either not available or not determined.
Responsible report writing or descriptive writing lets the facts think themselves as much as possible. Writing that offers specific detailed support for its conclusions makes interesting writing. When we perceive and think clearly we interests both ourselves and others. Responsible inference can be used in descriptive writing to tie facts together. Care must be taken to distinguish facts from inferences nevertheless.
In solving problems inferences can be used as a strategy in planning and choosing alternatives. When we think well we assess all facts derive as many inferences as we can and devise strategies for confirming or obtaining more information. Detectives and consultant of all kind are valued for their ability to examine facts and make the best inferences from them.
Inferences tend to build on inferences in chains of associations. Unless each inference is tested for its support of evidence, a service of inferences can mislead us into flights of imagination, away from reliable knowledge. Facts and inferences are linked together through generalizations. Facts have little significance in themselves until generalizations or laws can be derived from them. The topic sense of paragraph is a generalization that summarize the main idea to be to be demonstrated in the paragraph. When we think we usually arrive at this generalization last, after we have examined all our facts and inferences.