What is making inferences?
Inferring—making inferences—is often described as making a logical guess or "reading between the lines." Making an inference is a lot like the chemical process of forming a chemical compound—when two elements combine and form a new substance. Readers make inferences when they are able to take their own experiences and combine them with information they gather from what they read. The result is that they create new meaning or draw a conclusion that isn't explicitly stated in the reading (Zweirs, 2005).