1. Unit 2 Reading Focus Essays
Collection 4: Making Generalizations

2. Making Generalizations
When you attend a football game or shop at the mall . . .
. . . you usually observe the people around you.
You look at their clothes and notice their behavior.

3. Making Generalizations
Based on these observations, you might make generalizations—broad conclusions drawn from specific clues—about these people.
He has good taste.
She likes sports.

4. Making Generalizations
We also make generalizations when we read literature.
We notice specific clues in the text.
Then, we reach broad conclusions about the author’s message, theme, or purpose for writing.
The more text we read and the more clues we observe, the more accurate our generalizations will be.

5. Making Generalizations
Here’s how the generalization process works: 1
Note specific clues the author gives:
repetition of words and phrases
related ideas, examples, or illustrations
direct statements 2
Combine the clues to make a generalization about the author’s message.

6. Making Generalizations
Apply the generalization process as you read the following passage from Thoreau’s Walden.
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.

7. Making Generalizations
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.
Step 1. Notice clues.
has hardly need to count
What examples and illustrations does Thoreau use?
more than his ten fingers
What do these examples and illustrations show?
They show how to simplify.
meals a day, if it
be necessary eat but one

8. Making Generalizations
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.
Step 1. Notice clues.
What word is repeated?
Simplicity,
What point does this repetition emphasize?
simplicity, simplicity!
the importance of keeping things simple

9. Making Generalizations
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.
Step 1. Notice clues.
Find one direct statement Thoreau uses to instruct people.
let your
affairs be as two or three, and not a
What does he mean by this statement?
hundred or a thousand
Do not schedule too many activities and obligations in your life.

10. Making Generalizations
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.
Step 2. Combine clues to generalize.
has hardly need to count
more than his ten fingers
What generalization can you make about Thoreau’s message?
Simplicity,
simplicity, simplicity!
let your
affairs be as two or three, and not a
He is urging the reader to simplify life by reducing the number of details and choices that are encountered daily.
hundred or a thousand
meals a day, if it
be necessary eat but one

11. Making Generalizations
Your Turn
Read the passage from Walden that appears on the following two slides. Apply the strategy you have learned in this presentation.
Note Thoreau’s repeated words or phrases; related ideas, examples, or illustrations; and direct statements.
These will help you make a generalization about his feelings toward the railroads.

12. Making Generalizations
Your Turn
We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon.
Continued on next slide

13. Making Generalizations
Your Turn
And when they run over a man that is walking in his sleep, a supernumerary1 sleeper in the wrong position, and wake him up, they suddenly stop the cars, and make a hue and cry about it, as if this were an exception. I am glad to know that it takes a gang of men for every five miles to keep the sleepers down and level in their beds as it is, for this is a sign that they may sometime get up again.
1. supernumerary: additional; unnecessary.
[End of Section]

14. The End