Inductive Reasoning

When I first started college, I took a writing class as part of freshman curriculum. The first thing I was taught was: " Forget the five-paragraph monster! " The five-paragraph monster, of course, refers to the deductive reasoning essay I described above. Okay, if the five-paragraph monster doesn't work, then what would? Then I was drilled in a new kind of writing - inductive reasoning.

Deductive reasoning is " deductive" because you make a point and use your writing to prove, or deduce, that point. Inductive reasoning is different, as you first start by laying out some key facts, then delay tying them up together until the very end. Instead of proving your thesis statement, you are building it. This is especially good when you start writing with a certain conclusion in mind, but your thought processes used during the actual writing start to drift you into a different conclusion.

Again, say I am writing another city review, this time about a city I have a negative impression of, such as Amsterdam or Seoul. These cities nevertheless have some very special charms of their own, and I would start by discussing some of the better moments, such as visiting Anne Frank House or an ancient palace. Then I go into my concerns, such as safety, and save the conclusion until the end; my conclusion ends up slightly different from my intentions by putting these cities in a slightly more positive light, but since it was derived from the various arguments I had made during the course of the writing, it flows right in. If I were to write a deductive essay, it would probably start out with a negative thesis, and I may have to strain here and there, even leaving some positives out, to prove my negative thesis. Or, I could change to a better thesis after the writing is done, but heavy editing of the introduction may be necessary, and a smooth, coherent flow of ideas may be not only difficult, but sometimes impossible. Hence the inductive style works much better in these cases, with the result that I end up with a balanced, informative review instead of one influenced by my personal feelings.

The power of the inductive essay is that it is flexible. It does not have a fixed structure that a deductive essay has. You may start writing with only the most basic of ideas and plans, but it has the power to develop into an excellent, coherent opinion that consistently gets HR. Also, by its very nature, an inductive essay can have surprises; you may even want to interject some humor here and there, which would not be so nice in a deductive essay because the thesis and your points give the humor away beforehand. On the other hand, a good inductive essay is difficult to write; it can easily disintegrate into a jumble of nonsense with no coherence. This is why you learn inductive reasoning in college, as opposed to high school.

Conclusion

Use these two types of reasoning well, and you will have an excellent, clear, coherent opinion that will garner HR more than you could ever imagine. Know the strengths and weaknesses of each type, and use them to your advantage. Have fun writing!

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