Drawing Conclusions

A reader’s conclusions make up an overall sense of what a reading selection means. Readers draw conclusions from their inferences as they read. After making some inferences, readers look for connections among them. The connections among inferences lead to conclusions.

Interpretive readers modify their conclusions as they read, adjusting them as they make additional observations, establish new connections, and develop more or different inferences. Even the conclusions you reach at the end of a reading selection do not have to be final. You can change your mind about your understanding of what you have read. Drawing conclusions about reading selections is a continuing process that occurs both while you read and later, when you think back over what you have read.

The conclusions you draw, therefore, might be tentative or uncertain, rather than final or absolute. You can always think more about what a text or passage says or implies. You can change your mind about its meaning, just as you do with the inferences you make during reading.