Social Studies Inference Skill (First Skill)

INFERENCE SKILL:

Steps:

One Inference + Evidence
Message / Purpose: keeping in mind audience, evidence, outcome (reaction expected from the audience)

Structure

From the source I can infer that …………………………. The evidence is ………………… The message / purpose of the source is to ………………….. (keep in mind the audience and outcome). The evidence of the source is …………

OR

From the source I can infer that………………. The evidence is …………………. The cartoonist is trying to say …………………….. (keep in mind the audience and outcome). The evidence of the source is …………

Bring in tone into the message / purpose, if possible

An example: (4 Exp)
The message of the source is to tell the Westerners that Saddam is a coward who do not dare face problems uprightly. In other words to criticize Saddam for taking hostages. The evidence is the Saddam hiding, looking afraid, behind the POWs legs. The impact is to generate an outcry among Westerners on the actions of the Iraqi leader. This might pressure the Iraqi leader to release the captives in the face of criticisms. (6/6 marks)


An Example: (5NA)

I think the message is that the government wants to reassure Singaporeans that they have taken care of all the worries of Singaporeans as in the picture the lady represents the government and the government shows its reassurance as seen in the cartoon when the lady repeats ‘CHECK! CHECK! CHECK!”.[4]. And finally the government hopes that Singaporeans will take advantage of the benefits and choose to have children as seen in the evidence where in the final part of the cartoon where the lady, representing the government says “ALL IN ORDER… NOW, LET’S HAVE BABIES” [5/5marks].