How does a reader make an inference? A reader writes or tells the main events of a story in the order they happen to explain to other readers what a text is about. A reader makes a guess about what is happening in a text using clues from the text and what he or she knows. A reader looks up words in reference sources and uses context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words. A reader conducts research about the author's background to better understand why the author wrote the story.