Question #3

I think that a concept that needed further discussion is section B in chapter 11 titled “Structural Fallacies”. I think that even though they provided a chart labeling the fallacy type and also with the similar type of valid or strong argument, I believe that they could have further discussed this concept. They should have gave more examples and made them more easily to understand the differences between each type of fallacy. Instead of them using the use of letters to try and explain the different fallacies they should have maybe used complete sentences with concepts that made it easier of people to grasp. But for the overall chapter on “Fallacies: A summary of bad arguments”, I think that the book did a great job at explaining all the other concepts within the chapter. They had a lot of examples to easily explain the concepts at hand and they did a great job at breaking down each concept in a way that I was able to easily understand.

Question #2

A few of the things that I learned over this semester is how to work in groups. I thought that this idea of working with other classmates made this class a lot more fun then it would have been if we had to work alone. I believe that I definitely would not have learned as much as I had over this semester if I was to have worked alone. I learned a lot of new information about ways to state things and also learned how to make ordinary arguments stronger and to become more of a valid argument. I believe that in taking this class I will leave know how to better my arguments and also I think it will better my future essays. I will have to say that I was a little timid about taking an online class, but after seeing how much fun it can be and how much you can really learn without having to sit inside a classroom, I will definitely be interested in taking another online class.

Question #1

For this weeks reading, I found the section on “Three premises needed for a good generalization” the most interesting. In the our text, “Critical Thinking”, by Richard L. Epstein, it lists the three premises needed for a good generalization. The three needed are as follows, “The sample is representative, the sample is big enough, and the sample is studied well”. I found that with in this section of the chapter, they did a great job at describing the concept at hand and also that they made the concept easy to understand. The way the book broke down the meaning and the easy way that they stated the three premises needed I found quite helpful. I also like the example they used. I found it to be easily understood and showed exactly how this concept is suppose to be put to use. Overall I think that the book did a excellent job at explaining the concept and found it a great way to learn what is needed to make a god generalization.

Question #1

I thought that the Cause and Effect website reading and exercises was really useful. The way they were able to break down the material and make it really easy to understand was great. I especially like the exercises afterward. They helped you better understand what it was you just read and made you really think about the ready much more. It also let you know how well you really were able to understand what the website was talking about. I also like that you were able to check your answers afterwards to make sure you understood the questions and got the right answers. Also the way that the website walked you through why each answer was either right or wrong with a explanation stating why it was right or why it was considered to be wrong. I thought all together the website reading along with the exercise portion was really great and quite useful.

Question #2

I really liked the layout of the Mission Critical website. I liked how it was organized and how they had exercises available after each little section. I think that it is a very useful and helpful tool when they are able to give the readers exercises. I think that when given exercises it makes the reader better understand the concept and also helps make sure the reader truly understands what he/she just had read. The website gave great explanations of each concept and they made it relatively easy to understand. Each section gave great insight into what the concept was really about and how it could easily be seen and used in the real world. The website I found to be really useful and also helped me to better understand each concept they covered. It was also like a review session that covered a good portion of what we have been learning about over the semester.

Question #3

For this weeks reading, I thought that the section titled Cause and Effect in Population was really interesting. I liked how it gave three different types of this along with a definition and examples. The book did a really good job at explain what each one was and made it really simple and easy to follow what the book was talking about. I liked how they broke down each section discussing a control group, cause-to-effect, and also effect-to-cause. The book really makes the differences between the three topics clear and easy to understand. The examples they used to better explain the definitions were really easy to follow and made me get to know what they actually meant. I think that for this particular topic and section in the book, the author did a great job at having the reading be light as easily understandable compared to some of the previous reading we had had in the past.

Question #3

The exercise from the assigned reading that I found helpful and interesting is actually the exercise we had to do for question 2. Going through and reading the five different exercises we could choose from actually helped me better understand the concepts that the chapter was discussing. After reading each choice I actually was able to come up with an example for all five. With each one I was able to come up with an example and in turn was able to better understand what it was wanting us to understand and take from the chapter. I feel like these exercises were useful to do because I felt like I actually got something out of it. I am able to now better understand what each different type of appealing to emotion is and also able to pin point which one is being used in ads and commercials seen on television and/or magazines.

Question #2

#3: The advertisement that I believe is a good example of appealing to ones fear would have to be the anti drug commercials. Within each one of these commercials it shows a small clip of how teens are not in control of their own actions when they are under the influence of drugs. It also shows that teens are not able to think for themselves while under the influence and also how other people can in a way control you and have you do or say things you wouldn’t normally do when you are not under the influence. This I believe shows appealing to the viewers fear by telling them that if they choose to do drugs, they will not be in control of their lives. To me, I find me not being in control of my actions a scary thought and therefore would have to say that seeing this commercial would have a great appeal to my sense of fear.

Quesion #1

According to our book, “Critical Thinking” by Richard L. Epstein, the definition of an appeal to emotion within an argument is “just a premise that says, roughly, you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way. There are four different ways that you could appeal to someone else’s emotions. There is appeal to pity, appealing to fear, appeal to spite, and also appeal to vanity. All four of these are great tactics to get someone to agree with you statement or argument. The one that strikes me the most is appeal to pity. I think this strikes me the most out of the four because I seen this used a lot within our groups last paper we did. We did our paper on the ASPCA, and after doing research we came to the conclusion that they play of peoples emotions and/or their pity for the animals in order to get them to donate.

Question 3

The second part of section C in chapter eight discussed vague generalities and how we tend to talk about a amount of something without actually stating the exact amount. It discusses the difference between using the word all and the word some. The book goes to state that even with these two words stated, we are able to depict what someone is trying to say due to the fact that it gives enough precision. It goes on to state that when using other words such as almost, many and few, the statement becomes too vague in order to make it into a valid statement. It also states that there are two vague generalities which are almost all and very few that can in turn be used in a strong argument. I found that this concept can be very useful to know when stating specific details or even when talking to someone. Overall I think that this was by far the most interesting section within chapter eight.

Question 2

I thought that the second written group assignment that we had to do was very useful. As our group worked together to write the paper I found that we were in turn teaching one another how to better understand the concepts that we needed to relate from the book into the assignment. Even though it did take us a few times meeting together to get it finished, I found that it was a great way to improve not only our understanding of the assignment but I found that it also helped me become a better writer. I think this is because everyone has their own ideas and we are able to discuss among one another to try and find what fit’s the best within the paper. Overall I think that the second written group assignment was very useful not only to better understand the books concepts that we had incorporate within our paper but it was also a fun experience to be able to get together with people from class and get to know them.

Question 1

The concept that I found interesting and useful in chapter eight would have to be section C. This section of the chapter titled, Between One and All, breaks down the difference between precise generalities and vague generalities. The part on precise generalities I found to be really helpful and it was quite easy to understand the concept that they were discussing. They told you how to make a statement with out making a weak and/ or not valid statement. We can see these type of statements all the time. For example, after a test teachers tend to tell the class a percentage of people who got A’s and B’s. but you can not take that statement and then say that means my friend in the same class got a A. You can not state this to be true because there is that remainder percentage that she did not get that grade.

Question #3

In the book Critical Thinking, by Richard L. Epstein and Carolyn Kernberger, I found that section B in chapter five, titled, Criteria for Accepting or Rejecting Claims, interesting. This is because it gave you a lot of examples on when you should use your personal experience or other sources when you are trying to reject a claim or if you are accepting the claim. It also gave you a summary in the end, which made it really clear on when you should accept or reject a claim based on your personal experience and also when to accept and reject a claim when basing it on other sources. Along with the summary I also found that the exercises they listed were also very helpful. They made it easier to understand when you should use personal experience or when it would be better to use another source. I found this section to be very helpful and very easy to understand.

Question #2

We all are always forced to look at random advertisements, whether it be on T.V. or when you are on the computer on Facebook. They always have the little side advertisements stating a bunch of claims, that most of the time are not true. With the advertisement that I decided to use is a vintage ad, it still has the same untrue claims. The add uses a movie star to promote the shampoo and states that in order to get hair like hers, to use the shampoo. The movie star also makes a claim that the shampoo takes our all the film in her hair. It is obvious that you can not just use shampoo and get hair shown in the picture. How did they come up with that information? Did they actually test it on others? Therefore, I reject this claim based on that the claim contradicts other claims that I know to be true.

Question #1

Argument: No Hamsters eat hamburgers. So Speedy does not eat hamburgers.
Analysis: Speedy is a hamster is the only premises that can come out of this statement. With that said, stating that Speedy is a hamster would then make this argument either a valid or strong argument. We do not add Speedy eats hamster food, even though it would be common knowledge to myself because if we were to add Speedy eats hamster food, even though that would be also a true statement, we don’t because stating that would not make the argument any better in the end. Also, since The Guide to Repairing Arguments, in our book titled, “Critical Thinking” by Richard L. Epstein and Carolyn Kernberger, lists three rules to go by when you are fixing an argument, Number one states, “The argument becomes stronger or valid”. This means that whatever you do to an argument it should in turn make your argument better in the end.

Practice Mentoring

I found the section titled; Practice Mentoring, in the Group Communication text really interesting. They first define what exactly a mentor is, which according to the book is a member of the organization who is often older, more experienced, and well respected and who serves as a role model for a less-experienced employee (often known as a protégé). They go on to talk about how mentors are important within a work place and how they benefit the work environment. They also describe the four stages that the mentoring relationship progresses. The first one is Initiation. This is where the mentor and protégé start to learn about one another. This happens by the mentor counseling and supporting and the protégé is open to new things and shows loyalty. The next stage is cultivation. This stage is when the mentor and protégé begin to form a interpersonal bond. The third stage is separation. Within this stage the protégé doesn’t need the mentor with them anymore and they drift apart. The fourth and final stage is Redefinition. This is when the mentor and protégé are now considered equals of one another.

Content Fallacies

I decided to go with content fallacies. Even though I had a tough time understand the way the book describes content fallacies, I believe that content fallacies are when arguments are bad ones. Normally, when an argument is bad, you then have to analyze everything and determine weather each piece is a strong or weak statement. For content fallacies, it is always easy to tell right of the bat that the argument is a weak one. I will use the slippery slope idea, which is defined in the book as, (this is reasoning in a chain with conditionals where at least one of them is false or dubious), for my example. “ Schools should not make uniforms mandatory, because then they will start controlling everything little thing a student does.”
The conclusion has no way of backing up the claim because there is no given reason that that would happen., making this example a content fallacy.

Structure of Arguments

Example 5: Las Vegas has too many people.1 There’s not enough water in the desert to support more than a million people.2 And the infrastructure of the city can’t handle more than a million: The streets are overcrowded,3 and traffic is always congested;4 the schools are overcrowded,5 and new ones can’t be built fast enough. We should stop migration to the city by tough zoning laws in the city and county.6
Argument? Yes

Conclusion: We should stop migration to the city by tough zoning laws in the city and county.

Additional premises needed? If there is not enough water, the streets are over crowded, traffic is always congested, and the schools are over crowded, then Las Vegas has too many people.

Identify and sub argument: 2,3,4,5 are independent and support 1. Then 1 supports the conclusion.

Good argument? Yes, I think so.

I believe that this exercise was very helpful. It helped me break down the argument and really look at the structure of how an argument should look like.

Leadership...

I liked the section labeled Types of Leadership in the book, The Essential Guide to Group Communication. This section went over the different types of decision-making styles. It listed four different styles; authoritarian, consultative, participative, and laissez-faire. Authoritarian leadership is when the leader solely makes a decision and then discusses it with the rest of the group. This type of leadership end with poor group member satisfaction. Consultative leadership is when something is first discussed with the whole group so the leader can take their ideas and opinions into consideration when he later makes the over all decision. Participative leadership is when the leader works with the whole group to make a decision and where the leader does not have any more pull then anyone else in the group. Laissez-faire leadership is when there is not really any leader at all and it is just the group working together as one.

Strong VS. Valid...

In order for a argument to be considered a strong one, it has to mean that all the possible conclusions are extremely unlikely but still somewhat possible. For a argument to be considered valid, since it is not possible for the premises to be true and also for the conclusion to be false. It is hard to determine the difference between a valid and strong argument. Am example of a strong argument could be, out of al the weddings I had attended along with the ones my friends have attended, the brides dress is always white. Therefore, all brides wear white wedding dresses. Verses a valid argument which could be, when I walked into a wedding dress store all the dresses were white. Therefore, all brides wear white dresses . Even though both examples have the same conclusion, in some cases a strong argument along with a true premises is sometimes better than a valid argument.

The Three Tests..

In order for an argument to be considered a good one, it needs to be able to pass three tests. The first test is to figure out if the premises are plausible. The second, is to find out if the promises are more plausible than the conclusion. The third and final test is to find out if the argument is valid or strong. An example that I came up with is this: I have two dogs. This morning when I got up to give them water and food, I found my two dogs and five puppies. Therefore, one of my dogs had puppies. My example passes the first test because it is believable that I have two dogs. It also passes the second test because it is more believable that I have two dogs since you can see them with your own eyes, then the fact that one of my dogs had puppies since they just appeared over night. Lastly, my example also passes the third and final test because my argument is considered to be a strong one. This means that my argument is a good one if the premise is true.

An Interesting Concept..

The concept that I found most interesting was the section labeled, Prescriptive Claims and Value Judgments, from the Critical Thinking book. It talks about the difference between a descriptive claim and a prescriptive claim. A descriptive claim is when it says what is. A prescriptive claim is when it says what should be. An example of a descriptive claim is, drinking and driving is against the law. Since it is stating something that has to do with “what is”, it falls into the category of being a descriptive claim. Whereas, if it would have said, “people should not drink and drive“, would have turned the sentence into a prescriptive claim, since the sentence is stating it in a way that is suggesting how something “should be”, it then in turn makes it a prescriptive claim. A value judgment is when someone uses the word or words: good, better, best, bad, worst, and worse. Using any of these word automatically turns the statement into a prescriptive claim because it is giving the feeling that we should not do what is bad/ wrong/worse and in turn should do what is good/better/best for us.

Vague, or too vague?

An example of a vague sentence came up while me and one of my good friends’ were talking the other day about animals. During the conversation, I mentioned that dogs are better than cats. This is considered a vague sentence because it does not say what they are better at or even what makes them better. This sentence can be perceived in many different ways. A sentence can be vague but still have one general meaning that everyone will know what it is relating to. When a sentence could have many different meanings behind it and has people not thinking all the same idea, is when the sentence is considered to be “too vague”. So since the sentence, “Dogs are better then cats”, could have so many different meanings behind it to where not everyone would come up with the same idea, the sentence is considered to be “too vague”.

Subjective & Objective claims... What's the difference?

A subjective claim is when a claim can be proved to be true or false. It also depends on how another person feels about the claim and how they imagine what your claim means to them. An example of an subjective claim is when I tried convincing one of my good friends to go see the movie “Dear John” with me by telling them that it is almost as good as the movie “The Notebook”, which is one of her all time favorites. Since it is more of an opinion rather than a true fact, it is considered a subjective claim. A objective claim is when the statement is unarguably true. An example of an objective claim is when my friend asked when my birthday is, and I answered my saying, “February 18th”. Since this claim is a fact and is the truth it is considered to be a objective claim.

A Little About Me..

I am currently in my second year at SJSU, majoring in business management. During my first year at SJSU I took COMM20. The class really helped me become more relaxed and comfortable when speaking in front of large groups of people. I also learned how to construct different types of speeches which is also really helpful. What I want to learn from this class is how to work as a group to come up with solutions to our problems and/or questions. This is my first time taking an online class at SJSU, and so far, so good. =] One of my favorite things to do during some of my free time is reading (love Nicolas Sparks, he's amazing!). One random fact about me is that I am a licensed cosmetologist, so I also love working with hair and makeup in my free time as well.