main idea

Chapter 5 is about Locating Stated Main Ideas Being able to determine the main idea is like having the answer to a puzzle. In order to achieve this, you must first be able to tell the difference between the general topic and the more specific ones. A topic is the most general idea while a main idea is more specific in covering the idea of the piece of writing, such as food being a topic and fish being a main idea.

The main idea is to understanding your reading. Details which are more specific support and illustrate the main idea like types of unusual foods, tongue, ants, alligator, and kangaroo. Noticing clue words and categorizing ideas helps you to separate examples and other supporting ideas from the larger, main points, so the relationships between ideas become clear. Some main ideas are stated directly in a reading and are easy to identify. Others are implied, and you must infer their meaning from the reading and then restate them in your own words. Implied main ideas and strategies for detecting them will be explored.

In most cases the main idea of the text being presented is going to be found in the introductory paragraph. You will also find a jumper of aid points around the main idea supporting it. The main idea will also be what mostly discuses throughout the body of the paper are. When you have completed read the test skim over what have read.



Learning Journal, P139
Without reading ahead, write down your definitions of the terms main idea, topic, details, major supporting details, and minor supporting details in your journal.

Main Idea: the major point the author makes about the topic.
Topic: a matter dealt with in a text, discourse, or conversation
Details: an individual feature
Major Supporting Details : supporting facts
Minor Supporting Details: descriptions

Exercise 5a, General and Specific Ideas,P141
Circle the most general item in each list. The first one is modeled for you.

1. Saab Audi Mustang cars
2. genetics DNA RNA
3. English history majors
4. gas matter solid liquid
5. Buddhism Sikhism religions Islam
6. control group variables research data

Exercise 5b, Identifying Topics, P142
For each list, think about what the separate items have in common and ask yourself, what is the general subject, or topic, of this list? The first one is modeled for you.

1. Topic: holidays
Labor Day
Fourth of July
Memorial Day
Christmas

2. Topic: Authors
Langston Hughes
Emily Dickinson
T.S. Eliot
Walt Whitman

3. Topic: Puzzles
crossword
riddles
jigsaw
conundrum

4. Topic: health
calories
carbohydrates
fat
protein

5. Topic: Resume
name
education
employment experience
references

6. Topic: Teeth
gingivitis
tarter
periodontal disease
plaque

assumptions

This chapter takes a look at that familiar word, assumption. It is something we take for granted, something we accept prematurely as being true, something we do not check out carefully.


Firstly, Assumptions can be conscious or unconscious, warranted or unwarranted. The different is that unconscious and unwarranted assumptions can lead to faulty reasoning, whereas conscious and warranted assumptions can be useful tools for problem solving. Training in critical thinking can help us avoid making as many unconscious assumptions as well as unwarranted ones.


Furthermore, Hidden assumptions exert a powerful effect on our reasoning. How should we go about identifying hidden assumptions? There are two main steps involved. First, determine whether the argument is valid or not. If the argument is valid, the conclusion does indeed follow from the premises, and so the premises have shown explicitly the assumptions needed to derive the conclusion. There are then no hidden assumptions involved. But if the argument is not valid, you should check carefully what additional premises should be added to the argument that would make it valid. We perceive incongruities when we observe situations that do not meet our expectations or assumptions.


Incongruity is something that does not meet our expectations about what is correct, appropriate, logical, or standard. In studying, you have had the choice of either avoiding the disequilibrium they aroused or staying with the task long enough to reach a satisfactory for their incongruities – and thus finding a way to restore your equilibrium.


At last, as a conscious tool, we can look for assumptions when we are confronted with a problem to solve.



P145 Discovery Exercise
Defining Assumption,
Using at least two dictionaries, write your own definition of assumption.

1. A statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn; "on the assumption that he has been injured we can infer that he will not to play"
2. a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof

My definition of assumption: an uncertain belief

inferences

This chapter explaining to fully understand a reading assignment, In order to fully understand a reading assignment, one need to read the material and combine what is stated with the additional information you generate using inference as a tool.

Inference is the process of thinking making assumptions and drawing conclusions about information. What we see, what we read, when an author’s opinions or ideas that are directly or indirectly implied in a reading stated materials.
Inference is a skill you practice every day, inferring meaning from textbooks and other college reading material requires you to use specific strategies such as detecting an author’s bias, nothing comparisons, and recognizing information gaps.

You also need to understand how an author’s purpose, tone, and use of key words and emotive language can be used as clues to his or her implied main idea.

fact

1. By definition, a fact is something known with certainty through experience, obserbation, or measurement. A fact can be objectively demonstrated and verified. A fact is something that people agree corresponds to reality.
2. It is not easy for us to determine whether facts correspond to reality. This can only be determined over time with repeated feedback and testing.
3. The difference between facts and fiction does matter.
4. Feelings are facts; they can distort or enhance our perceptions, depending on how conscious we are of their prsence.
5. Facts are not absolutes but statements of probability.
6. Because we are dependent on confirmation from others in our search for facts, social pressures can lead us to distrust or distort our own perceptions.
7. Our senses are limited both in range and capacity and are affected by many factors such as selective focus and mental preoccupations
8. Facts must be expressed in carefully formulated statements that have the following characteristics;
a. They define their own limitations.
b. They are objectively stated.
c. They use appropriate qualifiers.
d. They state the obvious.
e. They are not inappropriately cautious
f. They do not include guesses or inferences.
g. They are specific and offer their evidence for others to verify.
9. The standards traditionally used to determine facts are verifiability, reliability, probability, and plausibility. Facts have to undergo the test of time and repetition and not contradict other known facts.



Chapter3 - TFY - Facts Exercise

P94 Chapter Quiz
1. Some facts can be determined by measurements.
True
2. Some facts can be confirmed by the senses, others by records.
False
3. The most reliable facts are those that have been repeatedly confirmed by test over time.
True
4. Facts often consist of obvious details that are seen but not consciously recognized.
True
5. Sometimes what we clam to be fact are untrue because the human perceptions used to determine them are limited and fallible.
True
6. A person educated in critical thinking qualifies statements to reflect probabilities such as it appears that...
True
7. Often it is hard to make a decision because we do not have enough facts.
True
8. The study of many subjects consists of memorizing facts.
True
9. All newspapers can be depended upon as reliable sources of facts about world events.
False
10. An atmosphere that permits disagreements about widely accepted perceptions and belief helps critical thinking to flourish.
True