Inference, Attitude & Implicit Meaning

What this lesson covers

Inference, Attitude & Implicit Meaning is a 8-part O Level English lesson. Each part makes one point and then hands over to the next, so it can be read in a sitting or picked up again at the part you stopped on. It defines the idea in plain words before using it, works through an example step by step, breaks the topic into its parts and compares them, shows where it is used outside the textbook, names the mistakes that cost marks in an exam, ends with a recap of what to remember.

How it begins

An inference is a conclusion the text supports but never states. "She checked the lock twice, then once more from the street" never says she was anxious. You may safely conclude it, because the behaviour points there. The examiner is not testing whether you can guess. They are testing whether you can trace a conclusion back to specific words.

The 8 parts

1. Inference is evidence, not intuition
2. Where writers hide attitude
3. Worked: the two-part answer
4. Attitude questions: whose attitude?
5. The phrase that unlocks the marks
6. Where marks go
7. What to remember
8. Watch one worked through