- Define and explain Finding Information in your own words
- Use key terms such as inference accurately
- Apply what you have learned to new examples and questions
- Avoid the common mistakes learners make with this topic
This lesson focuses on Finding Information: locate key facts and quotations quickly and accurately in a text.
Locate key facts and quotations quickly and accurately in a text.
Key ideas
Retrieval before inference
Answer what the text actually says before guessing what it means. Find the sentence that holds the fact, then quote it. Examiners reward answers rooted in the text, not in memory or imagination.
Structure shapes meaning
Writers order their ideas on purpose. A text might open with a shocking image to grab attention, then zoom out to explain it. Noticing where a text begins, shifts and ends lets you comment on structure — a skill GCSE examiners specifically reward.
Key term — inference: A conclusion drawn from clues in the text rather than stated facts. If a character slams the door, we infer they are angry.
What is an inference?
A conclusion drawn from clues in the text, not stated directly.
Answer: A conclusion drawn from clues in the text, not stated directly.
- Quoting whole sentences Short quotations of a few words are easier to analyse. Long quotations suggest you have not chosen the most important words.
- Feature-spotting without explaining Naming a simile earns little; explaining its effect on the reader earns the marks. Always ask: what does this make me feel or think?
Practice
The single word 'gloomy' — short quotations let you focus your analysis.
To grab the reader's attention and create tension from the start.
Point, Evidence, Explanation.
Warmth, comfort and safety.
Quick check
Which of these best defines "inference"?
A narrator writes: I crept down the stairs. What perspective is this?
- Finding Information: locate key facts and quotations quickly and accurately in a text.
- Retrieval before inference: Answer what the text actually says before guessing what it means.
- quotation: The writer's exact words, copied precisely and placed in quotation marks.
- Watch out for: quoting whole sentences