Further Instruction

One concept I think that could have been addressed more is using the Group Communication book and having more blog questions based off of that book and not only the Epsion book. I think this would be helpful because we do a lot of group work in this class and some people have more experience working in groups and others do not. I think having to know different group members working styles and the appropriate way to communicate with people and divide the work evenly. I think it would not only be a good course skill but a good life skill because working in groups is something you are always going to have to do and I think it should be more important to learn from your group members than to only work wwith individuals that work the same way that you do.

Further Instruction

One concept I think that could have been addressed more is using the Group Communication book and having more blog questions based off of that book and not only the Epsion book. I think this would be helpful because we do a lot of group work in this class and some people have more experience working in groups and others do not. I think having to know different group members working styles and the appropriate way to communicate with people and divide the work evenly. I think it would not only be a good course skill but a good life skill because working in groups is something you are always going to have to do and I think it should be more important to learn from your group members than to only work wwith individuals that work the same way that you do.

favorite thing about the class

My favorite thing about this class was that you can learn at your own pace and you can do the blogs on any topic from the chapter that interest you a least for one question. I liked that the class was very easy to understand and all the directions were clear. My least favorite thing about the class was that the blogs have to be twelve hours apart because students are busy and always don’t have time to do 3 blogs twelve hours apart or they will do the blogs ahead of time and forget to post them. I think a way to fix this is just make one blog due before Wednesday so then people can still be accountable for posting blogs at a reasonable time but have a little more flexibility with time. I also think there should only be two group projects and one solo project because being a online class it is hard to work in groups and get everyone together at the same time.

What I have learned

Over the course of the semester I have learned many ways to analyze and determine what is a good and bad argument. The main concept that has helped me has been the different types of fallacies and how to identify and look for them in arguments. This showed me how writers play up their writing or swing arguments in different ways to make their side more persuasive. Such examples are appeal to fear, where the viewer is threatened and makes a choice based on this, or appeal to emotion which is when you base something off of an emotion you feel and not what is actually being stated. Also fallacies such as the slippery slope where they greatly over exaggerate the argument, concepts like these helped me acknowledge good and bad arguments and help me not use these fallacies in my writing. They may sound creative but in the end it creates a week argument

Chapter 15

Something I found very helpful in chapter 15 was tracing the cause backwards This helped me because the example the book used about the dog and raccoon could apply to many things in everyday life. You have to go back and figure out what the real cause is and not just assume it was because of something you have no evidence of. You have to trace the argument back completely to really get the cause of the argument. But this can get a little overwhelming because you can trace it back so far that in the end you don’t understand the normal conditions. This helped me not get to technical when thinking of an argument because when you do it gets so confusing and you can get mixed up with who did what at a certain time and the argument may come to a conclusion but it might not be just.

Mission Critical

I really liked how the website was put together and very easy to find the answers I was looking for and broke it down into specific parts and types of arguments. The part of the website I thought was most useful was the fallacies and non-rational persuasion because there are so many different types of fallacies and types or reasoning it is impossible to remember them all. The website does a really good job of explaining each type of fallacy and categorizes them into emotional and misdirected which I really liked. I also liked how truth, validity and sound were explained because I always had trouble differentiating the three. Validity is when the form of the argument has the premise and the conclusion in the proper relationship. Truth is the next step to when if the argument is valid we have to make sure there is truth in it. Lastly, the argument is sound if it can not be in any way false. Having it stated in such a simple way and in this order really helped me understand it.

Cause and Effect Website

The aspect of this website I found most useful is the way they explained the use of inductive reasoning in a real life example. Situations like these happen everyday and it is good to know that inductive reason can be used to solve them and make both sides of the argument more clear. I liked how both sides of the story were presented and you could see how the bicyclist moved out of the way because the truck was illegally parked and how the car slammed on his breaks because the bicyclist was in front of him. I also liked how they explained how the fallacies worked into inductive reasoning. An example is the post hoc fallacy where A must occur right before B. Therefore the car could not have slammed on its brakes on Tuesday and get hit on Thursday. The check points at the bottom of the website also helped me because it Is and easy checklist to see if the argument is strong or not by if the event is reasonable, the source is reliable and can be demonsrated.

Chapter 12 Reasoning by criteria

. Reasoning by criteria was the most difficult for me to understand because I did not see what was the problem with the argument. I think it was difficult for me to understand because my roommates and I do this all the time. Thinking about it this way helped me understand it as well because sometimes this annoys me when we bring things home without discussing it first because something general such and a rug, curtains, chairs and tables can be in many different designs and may not be what is wanted. When it was explained to me this way it made more sense. It is stating something that is too general to just pick because there are so many options. The criteria you have to reason with is not very much so this makes for a bad argument with little evidence to back up the conclusion.

Chapter 12 Reasoning

1). Reasoning by Analogy: Saying we can just be friends is like my mom saying my dog died and I can still keep it. This is a comparison between two situations but it is not meant to be a good argument. These things are similar and have a similar emotionally outcome but are not related enough to have a good argument.
2). Sign Reasoning: Where there is a sorority house there is a party. This is using signing because it is group two things together that you automatically think of but it is not good for an argument because you can not reverse it. This could be true but then if you reverse it you could have a party without a sorority house.
3). Causal Reasoning- Joe’s work ethic makes Maria want to send him home early, Maria sending Joe home early makes his work ethic worse. This is causal reasoning because one thing causes another and it just ends up in a never ending circle.
4). Reasoning by Criteria- My roommate wants a new couch so I will just buy this futon. This is when something is decided before it is discussed.
5). Reasoning by Example- If you want to wake up in the morning you should have Starbucks coffee. I have a cup every morning and it gets me through the day. This is where you back up your reasoning with an example.
6). Inductive- All the boys in my class are dumb therefore all boys are dumb. This is when you argue from general to specific.
7). Deductive – All dogs like to run, Jimmy is a dog so Jimmy likes to run. This is arguing from specific to general.

Chapter 10

Another topic in chapter ten that really interested me was a feel good argument, which is an argument that make you want to feel good about yourself. This argument has a missing premise and doesn’t give you a reason to believe her argument is true it just make you feel good about yourself. An example is “Coach you should play me as quarterback because you are such an amazing coach and make the perfect plays and want to win the game.” This makes the coach feel good but does not give a reason to make this person quarterback. This is done a lot in today’s world an many people refer to it as apple polishing or sucking up. I have seen a lot of people get what they want by using this fallacy and it is a shame that some people don’t realize it is a bad argument and don’t need evidence to back it up.

Appeal to fear ad

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&noj=1&tbm=isch&tbnid=DeHVv_C0awVC7M:&imgrefurl=http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/advertisements/fear%2520ads/pages/rogaine_jpg.htm&docid=F3AaaC7gCT4rxM&imgurl=http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/advertisements/fear%252520ads/images/rogaine_jpg.jpg&w=742&h=1089&ei=toq0Tsb9CKqPigLj0OBl&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=678&sig=108572797309938422470&page=1&tbnh=153&tbnw=104&start=0&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=69&ty=98&biw=1173&bih=512

This argument is appeal to fear because it is stating that men balding is a genetic trait and if you do not want this you can use Rogaine. It states “Your dad want you to have things he never had. Like hair.” This is many young males fear that they will go bald so therefore if you use Rogaine this will be fixed. It is not a good argument because your dad could want you to have many things in your life that you didn’t have. A better argument would be “Use Rogaine so you could have things that your dad didn’t. Like hair.” This advertisement would be very persuasive to men starting to bald or have a dad who is bald but there could be many other traits to be scared of as well or their dad might not be balding. The best argument would be “If you are scared of balding, use Rogaine.

Appeal to Emotion

The specific appeal to emotion that really caught my interest was the appeal to spite because I never considered it to be a type of fallacy or an appeal to emotion. Appeal to spite is when someone tries to win an argument by bring up a past event that cause them bitterness or spite. This causes a poor argument because more than likely the two situations are unrelated. I see this fallacy multiple times a day especially in today’s world where it seems like we always have to be even with each other. It goes back to an old saying two wrongs do not make a right. This is more a moral judgment than an argument. An example I see frequently is at my work when someone needs their shift covered. The reasoning is always Alex didn’t cover my shift on Friday night so I will not help him do the inventory count. This is something I am now aware of and am going to limit the appeal to spite in my reasoning.

Oct 17th-22nd Question 3

Another aspect of chapter eight I found interesting the general claims and their contradictions. A general claim is when something is asserted in a general way is stated about a collection. For example all sorority girls are blonde, Jen is a sorority girl so Jen must be blonde. This may seem valid but it is not. Girls in sororities have different hair color and are not all blonde. All means every single one with no exceptions and I think people need to use this word more carefully when stating a claim. When using the word “some” it means a least one but not all and is a really vague word to use in an argument because it is not a specific number. The word “no” means not a single one with no exceptions and needs to be sure when inserted into an argument that exceptions can not be made.

Oct 17th-22nd Question 2

One Aspect of chapter 8 that I found interesting was valid and invalid forms. I really liked the way the book showed it in the validity diagram because it made it easy to see why the arguments are strong or weak. The direct way of reasoning with all is a strong argument because If all squirrels eat nuts, Joey is a squirrel, so Joey eats nuts. If you do this backwards All squirrels eat nuts, Joey eats nuts, so Joey is a squirrel. This is arguing backwards with all. A personal example I have with this is at San Jose State University for my classes. My advisor said: You are a design major so you take art history classes so next semester you need to take art history classes next semester. This would not work with indirect reasoning with all because it would be I need to take art history classes so I am a design major so I need to take art history classes next semester. This could be true but with indirect reasoning there are many other reasons why I could be taking an art history class.

Oct 17th-22nd Question 1

The second assignment was very helpful to me because I made me understand the way businesses and organizations advertise themselves and how they get people to understand what they do. This helped me understand why we learned about fallacies and reasoning because it showed me how it is used in the real world versus a definition or example sentence in a book. It shows how using fallacies can really persuade someone a certain way or twist what is really going on. I also realized a lot of organizations use appeal to emotion to get their point across to people and make them feel sorry so therefore they donate or will pay more attention to the message. I also never noticed how much different types of claims are used until I did this assignment. In so many places around campus I see examples of proof substitutes, and innuendos. Such as in Clark it says come get help with your writing from a trained specialist, they give not proof of where this “specialist” is from or what credibility they have.

Chapter 7

One aspect of chapter 7 that I learned a lot from is the section on raising objectives. This got my attention because after giving an argument and agreeing with the statement it is irrational to say an argument is good and then deny its conclusion. This is a simple way to show an argument is bad. By showing an argument is bad we can either question a premise, show that an unstated premise is questionable or gives an example of why the argument is weak. This method also makes you have a stronger argument because after you write your argument and think of someone objecting to it, you can see where you can make improvements. The other aspect of chapter 7 that goes along with raising objectives is refuting arguments directly. You can refute an argument directly by showing one of the premises can be objected to, giving examples of how the argument is invalid or showing that the conclusion is false.

Chapter 6

One thing I learned in Chapter 6 that I found really interesting was how a false dilemma in an “or” situation was explained. This happens a lot in everyday conversation because a false dilemma is a bad use of excluding possibilities where the “or” claim is false or implausible. This is because in a statement such as “You can either go to collage or move out of the house.” This is an example of a false dilemma because there are many other options that are not explained in the argument, which makes for a bad and weak argument. The second idea that I found interesting in chapter 6 is conditional claims. This is a claim that can be written as an “if/then” claim and still have the same truth-value. It is still possible to have an “if/then” claim without having the actual words in it. This is when a statement is a conditional because you do not separate the if then statements and a premise and a answer but just as one statement.

Week 5 Question 3

What I found interesting in the reading this week was from Epsion's book in chapter 5 was common mistakes in evaluating the premise. Examples of this are arguing backwords when you state the conclusion and the premise must be true because the conclusion is true. Another example is bad appeals to authority which is when you believe something is true just because a person of higher power or authority stated it. The most common one however is mistaking the perosn for a claim or mistaking the argument for the claim which is when your reject the argument and/or the claim just because a certain person said it. I see this done in everyday conversation because we judge people by their past chocies and ideas, but that doesn't mean we should disregaurd what they say because even if we disagree with someone we can still get another view of an argument.

Week 5: Question 2

I choose this Verizon ad because I am currently looking for a new Verizon phone and this caught my attention. This ad is eye catching and the point they are trying to demonstrate is clear with one look at the picture. When you first look at it is relates to evaluating the premise and seeing and understanding what the add is trying to say, this ad is believable because you can see where in the United States Verizon cover and where AT&T cover and compare the differences. The ad also shows the Verizon company in red because that is their brand color and AT&T in blue because that is their color. I personally would not reject this claim because I have a Verizon phone and am very happy with it and my calls very rarely get dropped. I have not heard many bad things about AT&T but I would not recommend them because I have not tried their service and have always been happy with Verizon.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=verizon+ads&num=10&um=1&hl=en&biw=1173&bih=537&tbm=isch&tbnid=sZY3alKbDQnYbM:&imgrefurl=http://pinoytutorial.com/techtorial/verizon-vs-att-verizons-ads-are-true-and-the-truth-hurts/&docid=DR12_CehWrYH9M&w=426&h=251&ei=1M2ETrjEBsbXiALBnYieDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=407&vpy=251&dur=154&hovh=172&hovw=293&tx=148&ty=104&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=117&tbnw=198&start=0&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0

Week 5: Question 1

I’m going to fix the argument “You shouldn’t drink coffee because it has caffeine. Caffeine makes you never want to sleep.” This argument is not bad but it also is not the best is could be. This argument is rhetorical and is missing the premise and has the conclusion in the first sentence. Saying “caffeine makes you never want to sleep” is true but will not give us a conclusion for the argument of why you should not drink coffee. Both of the statements are true but they are missing the glue that corresponds them together. You could fix the argument by saying “You shouldn’t drink coffee because it has a lot of caffeine and you wont be able to sleep after.” It is obvious that if you want to sleep you shouldn’t drink coffee with caffeine but we tend to ignore this because statements like this happen all the time.

Week Three Question 3

What I learned this past week that stuck out to me was in the Epsion book and it was concentrating on fallacies. It made me think of what a good and a bad argument consist of and how we use bad examples in our arguments such as fallacies. Examples of fallacies are begging the question where you have the question at the begging and the end of the argument and you are not solving anything. Also you have slippery slope where the argument and conclusion do not relate to each other. These are the two most common fallacies they I see used in everyday conversation. Reading this has made me more aware of how to take these out of my arguments and add more valid information.

I chose the argument

“I’m on my way to school. I left five minutes late. Traffic is heavy. Therefore, I’ll be late to class. So I might as well stop and get breakfast.”

Yes it is an argument.

1. I’m on my way to school

2. I left five minutes late.

3. Traffic is heavy

4. I will be late to class.

Conclusion: I might as well get breakfast

Additional premises needed: Since I left late and traffic is heavy I will be late for class

Identify the sub argument: The sub argument is statements 1 and 4 because they contribute to the conclusion.

Good Argument: No it is not a good argument because you are late to class and this is the arguments concern and therefore you stopping for breakfast will make you more late which is what you are trying to avoid in the first place.

I think this exercise was useful because it made us break apart the argument and analyze it. It makes you think about how the different parts of the argument relate to the conclusion.

Week Three Question 2

Question 2

Begging the question is the most common fallacy used because it is directly related to the conclusion. This is when the conclusion is stated and the beginning and the end of the argument so it just goes in circles and never really accomplishes anything. You are trying to prove your argument is right rather than proving their argument wrong. It is showing that the conclusion is true without showing proof of why this conclusion is true.

An example of begging the question is “I think this guy is unattractive because he is ugly” It is not saying why you think he is unattractive because ugly and unattractive have similar meanings. This is not a strong argument because you can keep asking why you think he is unattractive and then why you think he is ugly. This question is never answered and doesn’t provide any support to prove your conclusion is right.

Week Two: Question 1

My argument is all sorority girls like pink. Sami is a sorority girl. Therefore Sami's favorite color is pink.
The three things that make a strong argument are; the premises are plausible, the premises are more plausible than the conclusion and the argument is valid or strong.
The premises for this argument is plausible but we do not necessarily know if it is true. There are over a million sorority women in the United States all with different values and personalities. I have friends in a sorority and some of their favorite colors and pink and then some of them are different colors. This argument is not valid and weak because the premises can be true and the conclusion can be false. In this case Sami's choice in being in a sorority has no effect on what her favorite color could be. This makes the argument bad because we are jumping to conclusions this is an example of assumptive fallacies. This is an example of a bad argument.

Week One: Discusion Question 3

The topic I found very important and something I can apply to this class is from the reading "Group Communication." This topic was the deliberation and participation in groups. This discussed how not every member of the group is equal because everyone has different backgrounds, education levels and skills. This still means everyone in the group should participate in the work equally. However in groups some people don not put in their input even though it would be helpful. This is because the could experience anxiety about talking in a group, have low self-esteem, other members of the group may be controlling or members may have a lower position in the group and not want to address the manager type figure. Groups that have an imbalance of participation end up having more trouble coming up with a successful end result. I think this is good to remember when working in a group because then we can work together to make sure everyone has a chance to participate and hold every member accountable.

Week One: Discusion Question 2

A vague sentence I have heard recently is “I have a lot of money in the bank.” This is vague because you don’t know how much money is in the bank, what bank it is in, why they have a lot of money in the bank or what they are planning to do with this money. I overheard this conversation at work and did not think anything about it until I realized there are so many questions that can be asked behind a statement.

An ambiguous sentence I overheard in my house was “He gave her cat food.” It can either be interpreted at he gave the lady’s cat food or he fed the lady cat food. The first scenario is more likely that the second but it can still be confused as to what the person is really trying to communicate.

Week One: Disscusion Question 1

A subjective claim is a claim that can not be proven true or false and have different answers depending on the subject or person holding the discussion.

Example: Dogs make the best pets. This claim is subjective because some people could agree or disagree with this statement based on their personal opinion. I was in a conversation with a group of friend and brought this topic up and many people disagreed with me because the had a small house, were allergic to dogs or didn’t have enough time to care for a dog. It made me realize just because a statement is true for you does not mean it will be true for everyone else.

An objective claim is something that is a fact and can not be proven wrong not matter what the circumstances are.

Example: I was working at Starbucks this past weekend and someone asked me how to make a standard tall- sized latte. I replied you have a one-ounce shot of espresso and ten ounces of milk and lay a thin layer of foam on the top. This is how a standard latte is always made and there are recipe cards to look at and no matter the circumstance or person who is asking the question the answer will always be the same.

Introductory Post

Hello I'm Shelbie. I'm a third year at San Jose State University studying graphic design and advertising. I am involved in dance and a sorority on campus. I have only taken one other communication class so I am excited to see what this one will be like.