Inductive vs Deductive reading

Consider the portrait on the left: what happened when you first saw it?

Typically, you saw it all at once, not really taking specific details in yet, but already having a general impression of it. All those elements will immediately create an idea of who that person could be - not his identity, or nationality or character, but his social rank for example.

Then if I asked you to tell me why you think that person is probably a noble from the past, you will point out details, elements of the painting that support your reading. For example, you'll point at the cloth he's wearing (looks expensive), the medals, the cane (or scepter?) he's holding, the gold on his coat, the posture, the draperies, the upturned hat. You'll also point out that not everyone could afford to have their portrait painted - you needed money for that.

And then, if you pay close attention (i.e. if you close-read the painting), you will note the lily flowers, or the specific decorations, all emblems of the French monarchy. You may notice the position of the left hand and ask yourself why it opens like that, or the symbolism of his right hand holding firm on the...cane? Sword? You may also find that the three colours used also relate to the French monarchy.

We can call this Deductive Reading: from the whole (the portrait) you assign meaning to the parts (the elements in the painting), which in turn helps determine what the whole is (or means). So you will start combining the elements you see (cloth, colour, medal, posture etc.) to the whole portrait, and you will explain the whole by making a connection between those elements and the portrait.

Inductive Reading is what we do with texts: since we cannot have a general impression of a whole text due to its linear, chronological nature, we must construct any potential meaning bit by bit as we read. One consequence is that we must learn to suspend judgement and interpretation for a while since we only discover elements one by one, without being able to relate them to the whole text (since we've not yet read the whole text).

This is very important to keep in mind, since many readers want to 'know what it's about', and many teachers ask 'what does the text mean?'. A reader must learn to wait for the information to make sense; a reader must learn to build meaning from discrete, apparently unrelated elements in the text. Reading is an inductive process: you cannot know right away 'what the theme is', nor should you expect to understand how all the elements in the text inter-relate from the first page.

An interesting side-note: re-reading a text becomes much more a deductive process, since we now have the whole in mind. That is why it is necessary for teachers to read a selected text for school not only carefully, but at least twice. The first reading will be inductive, and so will probably miss out on details and connections. A re-reading will be deductive, and that will enable you to draw new connections, and generate new themes as well.