Level 3 — Intermediate · Cohesion & Reference in Writing
Task 21: Writing a Well-Hedged Inference
Write a fact and a reasonable inference built on it, hedged with exactly the right strength — neither stated as certain fact nor stretched into unsupported speculation.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this task, you should be able to:
- Write one sentence stating an explicit fact, separate from any interpretation of it
- Write a second sentence drawing a reasonable inference, hedged with may/might/probably/suggests
- Avoid the two opposite mistakes: stating an inference as fact, and speculating past what the evidence supports
Introduction
Lesson 21 taught you to separate what a text explicitly says from what it reasonably implies, and to hedge an inference with words like may, probably, and suggests rather than stating it as settled fact. Reading that boundary is one skill. Writing inside it — producing your own hedged inference instead of just spotting someone else's — is the harder, more useful twin skill, and it's what today's task asks you to do.
The Rule, for Writing
Core Concept
An explicit fact and an inference built on it belong in two separate sentences, and the inference sentence needs a hedge word doing real work: may have, probably, this suggests, it's possible that. If your inference sentence reads exactly as confident as your fact sentence, you've written the fact twice, not written an inference.
Example
Fact: The vessel's departure was delayed by six hours. Inference: This delay may have been caused by congestion at the berth — the sentence doesn't say so directly, but a six-hour delay is consistent with a busy terminal waiting for space.
Your Turn
Your Turn
Here is a short scenario: A shipment scheduled for Tuesday arrived at the warehouse on Thursday, and the delivery note listed "customs inspection" as the reason. Write exactly two sentences: one stating an explicit fact directly taken from that scenario, and one drawing a reasonable, properly hedged inference from it — about what the delay might mean for the rest of the week's deliveries, for example. Do not let your inference sentence claim more than the evidence supports.
Vocabulary in Context
suggestverbformal
of evidence, to point toward a conclusion without proving it (ইঙ্গিত দেওয়া)
Often with suggest that, strongly suggest, evidence suggests
“The logs suggest that the outage began after the update.”
presumablyadverbformal
probably true, based on reasonable expectation rather than direct proof (সম্ভবত)
Often with presumably because, presumably not, and presumably
“The clerk was absent, presumably because of the strike.”
Model Answer
Show a model answer
Fact: The shipment arrived two days late, and the delivery note gave "customs inspection" as the reason.
Inference: This suggests the shipment may have been held at customs longer than usual, which could mean later deliveries this week face similar delays — though the note doesn't say whether the inspection was routine or exceptional.
Self-Check
Self-Check
- Is your fact sentence stated with no hedge at all, exactly as given?
- Does your inference sentence contain a real hedge word (may, probably, suggests, could), not just a soft tone?
- Did you stop short of claiming something the scenario never mentioned — cost, blame, or a guarantee about future deliveries?
- Did you write both sentences directly in English, without composing them in Bangla first?
Next: Writing 22 — Building a Dense Noun Phrase: compressing three plain sentences into one professional sentence using "the extent to which," "the ability of X to Y," or "the development of."