The personality traits of people in a text are related to their particular qualities so the following elements should help the reader make inferences about these traits:
- Actions: The behaviour people have will tell about their traits. All they do will give some evidence about their personality.
- Thoughts: These will help the reader get into the internal world of the people, which will tell the reader about the people's opinions and ideology.
- Words: Language is also an important element since it may help the reader infer what the people think or how they relate verbally to the other people in the text.
The following elements will not help the reader infer about the people's traits:
Events: These refer to the external elements in a text. They may include historical issues or political issues; what is known as context.
Setting: This is the context of a story: place, time and people.