Drawing Conclusions
What does drawing conclusions mean, and what is drawing conclusion? The drawing conclusions definition means using the information provided to make judgments. When students are asked to draw a conclusion about something they have read, they are asked to use information in the text that is either explicitly stated or implied to make a judgment.
Drawing Conclusions is an Important Skill
The ability to draw conclusions is an important skill in academic arenas and life. People draw conclusions based on what they see, hear, and read every day. A teenager who stomps to her bedroom and slams the door is assumed to be angry, and her parents know to give her time to cool down. A woman who is sniffling and has puffy, red-rimmed eyes assumingly has been crying. Her friends know to comfort her. A driver swerving from lane to lane is assumed to be intoxicated, and other motorists know to back off and call the police. The ability to draw conclusions is a useful skill in daily life.
Just as people do not always precisely say what they are thinking or feeling, writers do not always state the conclusions they want readers to draw. Writers use clues, hints, and implications to get their points across to readers. Knowing how to draw conclusions from reading selections is an important skill. To do so, one must pay close attention to details in the text and use one’s prior knowledge and experiences. As students practice drawing conclusions based on what they have read, they develop the ability to think on a deeper, more complex level.
Students are often asked to read a passage and draw conclusions on reading comprehension tests. To do so, students must be familiar with the skill of drawing conclusions. Students should re-read the passage while looking for details that support one of the conclusions provided in the multiple-choice options.
Drawing Conclusions Vs. Making Inferences
Students are sometimes asked to make inferences about something they have read in academics. To make an inference and draw a conclusion are the same thing. In both cases, students must combine details in the text with their own prior knowledge and experiences to make a guess, judgment, assumption, or prediction about the text.
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Examples of Drawing Conclusions
One may ask how to draw a conclusion? To draw a conclusion about a piece of writing, a reader must consider two things:
- the details provided or implied in the text
- the reader’s prior knowledge and experiences
Writers provide details within the contexts of their stories that lead readers to make judgments, assumptions, and predictions. These details could be hints about what will happen next, things that characters say, actions that characters undertake, or descriptions of characters or places. Readers possess A reader’s prior knowledge and experiences are the things the reader has learned to be true during their life. When a reader considers the text’s details in conjunction with their prior knowledge and experiences, the reader can draw a logical conclusion.
The sections below contain drawing conclusion examples from passages.
Examples of Drawing Conclusions: Elementary Readers
To help beginning readers learn how to interact with texts and draw conclusions, teachers or parents should read texts aloud, occasionally pausing to ask young readers questions about what was read. Answering simple questions will assist young readers in comprehending the text, drawing on their background knowledge, and beginning to draw conclusions.
The following passage is from Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.
I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
The following questions could be asked to assist readers in drawing conclusions from the passage. Possible responses, or conclusions, are listed in parentheses.
- How is Alexander feeling this morning? Why does he feel that way? (He is in a bad mood. He has gum in his hair, he tripped, and he dropped his sweater in the sink.)
- Have you ever had a bad day? What happened? (Yes. I woke up late and missed the bus.)
- Can days that begin badly get better? How? (Yes. Good things can happen later in the day.)
- Do you think Alexander’s day will get better? Why or why not? (No, because the book is called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.)
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Examples of Drawing Conclusions: Intermediate Readers
Intermediate readers benefit from answering questions and discussing what they have read. This practice will encourage readers to ask questions and draw their own conclusions as they read individually. Intermediate readers can answer questions that require higher-order thinking than beginning readers.
The following passage is from Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.
“Oh, don’t pay any attention to me,” said Charlotte. “I just don’t have much pep any more. I guess I feel sad because I won’t ever see my children.”
“What do you mean you won’t see your children! Of course you will. We’ll all see them. It’s going to be simply wonderful next spring in the barn cellar with five hundred and fourteen baby spiders running around all over the place. And the geese will have a new set of goslings, and the sheep will have their new lambs…”
“Maybe,” said Charlotte quietly. “However, I have a feeling I’m not going to see the results of last night’s efforts. I don’t feel good at all. I think I’m languishing, to tell you the truth.”
Wilbur didn’t understand the words languish, and he hated to bother Charlotte by asking her to explain. But he was so worried he felt he had to ask.
“What does ‘languishing’ mean?”
“It means I’m slowing up, feeling my age. I’m not young any more, Wilbur. But I don’t want you to worry about me.”
The following questions could be asked to assist readers in drawing conclusions from the passage. Possible responses, or conclusions, are listed in parentheses.
- What does Charlotte mean when she says she will not ever see her children? What leads you to think this? (She might be planning to leave. She had said she would not be writing any more words.)
- What is happening to Charlotte? Why is she “languishing”? (She is getting old. She has mentioned her age before. I don’t think spiders live very long.)
- Why does Charlotte tell Wilbur not to worry? Should he worry about her? (She wants him to concentrate on winning a prize. He should worry about her because she is always taking care of him.)
Examples of Drawing Conclusions: Advanced Readers
Advanced readers should already know how to interact with the text when they read. In other words, they should routinely draw conclusions while reading on their own. Asking questions that require deeper thinking can assist advanced readers in drawing conclusions they may not have considered.
The following passage is from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Granger stood looking back with Montag. “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is the touching, he said. The lawn cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.
The following questions could be asked to assist readers in drawing conclusions from the passage. Possible responses, or conclusions, are listed in parentheses.
- Explain what Granger means by “It doesn’t matter what you do … so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away”? Do you agree that this is important? (He is saying that it is important that a person leaves a legacy or makes a difference in the world before they die. I think it is good if people can make a difference, but I don’t think many people do.)
- Explain the difference between the man who cuts a lawn and a gardener, according to Granger. (The man who cuts the lawn is doing a chore, and the gardener is creating something he loves.)
- How do these statements apply to Millie? To Montag? (When Montag thinks of Millie, he can’t remember anything about her. She didn’t leave her impression on the world. Montag made a difference by going against the system.)
Lesson Summary
To draw a conclusion means to make a judgment. When students are asked to draw conclusions about something they have read, they are asked to use the information stated or implied in the text to form a judgment. This process is sometimes referred to as making an inference. Knowing how to draw conclusions is an important skill requiring a reader to pay close attention to details in the text and draw on one’s prior knowledge and experiences. That is to say, readers must look for information that is explicitly stated or implied in the text and consider what they already know to form a judgment about what they have read. Beginning readers can be introduced to the skill of drawing conclusions when being read to by pausing and asking questions that require the children to access their background knowledge to form conclusions. Besides drawing conclusions about literature, students often have to utilize this skill on reading comprehension tests. This skill requires a student to re-read the passage and locate details that align with one of the multiple-choice options.