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Reader question: Please explain this quote: “My comments are taken out of context”. My comments: He or she who made that remark felt that they’ve been misunderstood. Context is the situation, events, or information that are related to something you’re talking about, which helps other people to understand it better. Women for instance weren’t able to vote in the United States before 1920. “Before 1920” is a crucial piece of context here. Likewise, black children weren’t able to go to the same school with white children before the early 1950s. Again, “before the early 1950s” is indispensible context. In other words, we’re examining the situation in historical context, which gives us an idea of social progress being made in the United States over the years. However, if you were a journalist and were to quote me as saying that there is no vote for women in the States and that racial segregation is prevalent without giving the dates, you would risk giving the impression that this is the situation today, that America is pretty backward. That, of course, is incorrect. In short, to take people’s words out of context is to quote their words without describing the situation in which they were said. Result? They may mean something very different. Before Barack Obama was elected President, for example, in a speech to fellow Democrats he said (at the end of this page, you’ll be able to read this story in full): | 
