Question #3

Throughout this entire semester, I have read and learned about many new and diverse ideas and concepts that I think can help me when having to communicate with someone, or trying to get my point across when having an argument, and I have to make my argument stronger and more valid to win the argument. I think the concept I will apply most to my life after the class ends will probably be counter-arguments, and how to specifically raise objections to one's argument to show that it is weak or bad. A couple of things that you can accomplish by doing this would be showing that the argument is not strong or valid, or that the conclusion is false. I think this concept will help me immensely, simply because raising counter-arguments has never been my strong suit, and will help me in arguing and communicating in the future.

Question #2

My favorite thing about this class was how the homework and quizzes were set up. It allowed us to do the homework and/or quiz on our own time. this follows the example of pretty much all college classes, in that showing up and doing the work is up to you, and if you do it, you pass the class, but if you don't, then there will be consequences. I think that leaving the responsibility up to the students to do the work is smart, that way they can't blame anyone but themselves if they do poorly. I never felt like anything about the class needed to be improved, nor was anything the least favorite thing to do. It's an online class, so the responsibility is even greater for us as the students to do the work, communicate between group members, and do as well as we allow ourselves to in the class.

Question #1

I think that this class has exposed me to many new ideas, many of them having to do with how we communicate with one another, whether it be through a conversation and your trying to prove a point, or you are in an argument and you are drawing on personal experiences and clear evidence to support your opinion. I think the one thing I will remember most is how some things are able to make you argument stronger and more valid, or they can make your argument weaker and not true. Communication has been one of the weaker parts of school for me, no matter what kind of communication it had to do with. This class has also taught me how there are many different types of reasoning in an argument, and each one has a different approach of how to prove your point. Such as in criteria reasoning, you must state what the outcome will be, and then say what the best decision would be according to that outcome, which is what I do a lot with my friends.

Group Discussion

My group who I discussed my second paper with, which was about the SPCA and that entire organization, was composed of my mom and dad, my sister and my aunt. My entire family are big animal people, and get along with pretty much an animal that could be a pet in our household. Also, my family has dealt with the SPCA in the past when we were trying to adopt a dog, and we had a good experience there and found a good pet. My family actually was really interested in what my other group members had to say about the organization. They appreciated how much my group stressed on the fundamental idea of the SPCA is to protect animals from cruel owners, and that because animals do not have a voice to stand up for themselves, that is when the SPCA steps in to take care of them. It was good to be able to not have any arguments between my family members over what my group wrote.

Mission Control

To say that there was one specific thing about this website that was useful to me, then I would definitely not be able to decide because of how much this site has to offer. It was very cool to see all the information that was offered to you to learn, and to be able to follow up that learning process with exercises is a great idea because the exercises really test you about what you have just learned. I believe that this website will come in very handy when discussing this subjects in the future, and also when studying for our next test. The different categories on this website do an excellent job, in my personal opinion, of explaining the concept with a clear, concise example, and being able to add on to that example also helped me understand better some of the more difficult concepts. All in all, this was a very helpful website.

Cause and Effect

This website was very interesting to read about. I remember reading about cause and effect in the book, but this website, in my own personal opinion, did a much better job of explaining the instances in which the concept of cause and effect should be applied. What I really enjoyed reading about was the example that they gave for casual arguments, and how each event preceded another one, and how that is relevant to cause and effect. They set up the primary example very well, and were able to easily build on it to explain each following concept. I also enjoyed the exercises because they explain it to you so well, and then give you the tools to test out your knowledge about casual arguments, and how they are so relevant to cause and effect. I believe that I understand cause and effect much better now, and realize that these situations can occur at anytime, which is why knowing this is so important.

Other Interesting Concept

What I found interesting in Chapter 15 was the cause and effect section, in which a lot of particular details were discussed about how certain causes have certain, or how we can change those causes and effects into generalizations. In any cause and effect situation, there have to be normal conditions, which are obvious, and make the situation plausible. Though one can make a scenario in which a cause has a certain effect, there can also be many specifics which make the claim true and/or strong. An example of a cause and effect situation might that when I fell off my bike, I injured my knee. The effect of me falling off my bike was that I injured my knee. To make this a general situation, we could also say when one falls off their bike, they might get injured, though it may not happen all the time when someone falls off their bike.

Projects

These first two projects have many bonus advantages attached to them, besides the usual researching stuff and using techniques that we have learned in this class and other classes to write a final paper that clearly and precisely states the point we are trying to make. I think a huge advantage of doing a paper like this is being able to do it in a group. This way, we are able to work on the important skill of being a collaborative worker. By being able to talk things out with our group members, splitting up work evenly so that everyone does their part, it not only shows how cooperative one can be, but also how well that person is able to work with others. I also think that by doing our own part, we are practicing being part of a team, where everybody's individual part turns into the entire groups final project.

Chapter 13

What I found interesting in Chapter 13 was about the graph portion of the chapter. I definitely agree that graphs can be a huge help when trying to make people see the visual side of a comparison. But for example, graphs can also be very misleading, and not be able to tell what is being compared based on the graphs. I know that when I had to do PowerPoint presentations for my public speaking class, using graphs was a good way to let people see the visual part of the numbers I was presenting them. Overall, I think the use of graphs can be very helpful to let people see exactly what point you are trying to get across to them, but they can also be very misleading unless they are very clear in stating what they are trying to show. But if you are able to harness the use of graphs, they can be a powerful tool.

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Appealing to someone's fear of something is probably one of the more powerful tools that advertisements use to get people to believe in something. For example, this ad against drunk driving uses fear to get people to think about getting a designated driver for those nights where they are too incapacitated to drive. By using the statistic as shown in the picture, people can get a better idea of how often and deadly this things can actually be. I personally think these ads are one of the best types of ads out there today because drinking and driving happens too often, and by making people aware of the consequences that occur because of that decision, they can appeal to peoples fear so that they will think twice about getting into a car after they have had too much to drink. Fear is a powerful emotion in humans, and an even more powerful tool to get people to think a certain way about something.

http://www.foundshit.com/anti-drunk-driving-campaign/

Appeal to Emotion

For me, and I think I speak on many peoples behalf, the appeal to pity has to be one of the stronger aspects of humans emotions. Though fear is probably the contender for the number one spot, I think pity can be just as powerful. by being able to make someone feel sad for a group or organization, and ask that if they have a way to help and are willing, they should. Many times this is used in getting support for a certain group. For example, one commercial that always makes me sad is the commercial for the SPCA, which is an animal adoption shelter for homeless animals. I literally have to change the channel because it makes me sad seeing all of those animals shaking or looking sad and depressed. The commercial is aimed at getting people to take an animal home with them. I think they do a very good job and appealing to peoples pity with that commercial.

Other Interesting Concept

Another interesting concept that I read about in Chapter 8 was a direct way reasoning and arguing backwards. An easy way to look at this is with two easy formulas. For the direct way of reasoning, it's "All S are P, a is S, so a is P". For example "I like to play video games. Call of Duty is a video game. I like to play Call of Duty". In this sense, we come from our original statement to our conclusion in three true and fluid statements. For arguing backwards, it's "All S of P, a is P, so a is S". An example would be saying "All runners are in shape. Tyler is in shape. So Tyler is a runner." Instead of your second statement agreeing with the first part of your original statement, it agrees with the second part. By using these forms, we are able to better explain our point in simpler and more straight-forward terms.

Truth Tables

When I was reading about the Truth-Tables, it was interesting to see the concept of the classical abstraction. The definition of this is when a person pays attention only to "whether the claim is true or false, anyhow it is compounded from other claims". Some different forms of such abstractions would be a conjunction, negation, disjunction, and conditional. By paying attention to the classical abstraction, we can see that if we can analyze a claim correctly, we can also check its validity. For example, a conjunction claim is only true when both sides of the claim are true. An example of this would be "My friend likes soccer and I like basketball". Now this claim can only be true if my friend likes soccer at the same time I like basketball. Another example would be of a negation, in which the claim is true if the part is false, or visa versa. For example, a negation would look like "I want to go to Subway or my friend wants to go to Chipotle". Now if both parts are true, then it is true. Otherwise it is regarded as false.

Chapter 8

One concept in Chapter 8 that I read a lot about was general claims and what is a contradiction to such a claim. What I thought was interesting was how the distinction between the words "all" and "some" was so important in stating one claim. A good example of this would be using my job. I could say "Some kids like to run during games. Soccer involves running. Therefore, some kids like playing soccer". Though the claim may seem valid, and it may be true that those kids who enjoy running also like soccer, it is not a valid claim. The group of kids who like running may despise soccer as a sport entirely, and only participate because of the running, not because they enjoy playing. This also makes the book definition about general claims more clear, in that a general claim is a "general way about all or part of a collection".

Other Interesting Concept

One interesting that I found in chapter 6 was the reasoning from a hypotheses concept. What this concept states is that you have to start out with a hypotheses for your original claim, A, then follow that with an argument for the following claim, B. The other person then returns those claims that if you want to go through with your original claim, then you must also do whatever action you stated in your follow up claim. In other words, once A and B is stated, then if A, then B. I think we use this technique a lot in trying to convince others to participate in certain events and activities, because we say that if they want to do one thing, the following action must also be taken. This technique is very useful also when someone is trying to do something that requires multiple actions, but thinks they only need to do one. With this in mind, we are able to convince that person to do everything that is necessary.

Chapter 7 Concept

One of the concepts that caught my eye in chapter 7 was raising objections to counter certain arguments. This concept states that instead of directly evaluating an argument, they will simply raise objections to disprove that claim or argument. In doing this, we are showing that the argument or claim on the other end is false or weak. This is usually how arguments go between people who disagree about something. Someone will say a claim that is made, and then in order to show how that claim is weak, the other person will raise an objection. I think a lot of students use this in their persuasive essays when they bring up the other side of their subject. Though they will recognize the main points of the counter-argument, they will bring up objections to make their paper stronger. This way, they are not only showing how the counter-argument is weak, but they are also showing how their argument is stronger.

Chapter 6 Interesting Concept

One concept which I found interesting and one which caused me to immediately think of a story I could apply to this concept was reasoning with "or" claims. This concept states that if the premise is true, then there is no way for the  conclusion to be false at the same time. So basically, if A or B plus A, then B will occur. One example I thought of was at my work, Camp Kids, we have to do different things to try and get our kids attention. One way we do that is let them decide how long they want to take to quiet down. So we might say "Either you all need to be quiet and listen up, or we will just stand out here until you are quiet". So, if they didn't quiet down, then we would just stand out there until they realized they needed to be quiet. So because the A wasn't true, then the conclusion would be true and we would wait. But if they did immediately quiet down, then we wouldn't have to stand there and wait for them. So if the premise is true, then the conclusion would have to be false.

Interesting Concept

One concept that I read about that I thought was very interesting, and that I totally agree with, is the concept of rational discussion, and what that entire principle covers. I think that the example in the book is very helpful in understanding what this principle is trying to say. Basically, this principle states that in this situation, we automatically assume the other person knows what we are talking about, and has the capability to converse about the subject with you logically and rationally. The example in the book is a professor dropping off his car at an auto shop, coming back later, and having the mechanic tell him he "needs a new fuel injector". The professor questions her, asking if he really needed a new one. In this situation, the mechanic does not realize the professor does not know what he means or is talking about because the professor is not a mechanic, and doesn't understand how is car operates. I think this happens more and more in everyday life and people do not realize it.

Advertisement

http://10steps.sg/wp-content/uploads/article99/13-nike-futbol.jpg

In this advertisement, Nike is trying to promote their soccer gear, while making a joke about scuba divers compared to soccer players. For me, all I need to be able to see if this claim they make is acceptable is to use my own personal experience, since I have played soccer for many years, and have also purchased many items from Nike, so I can use that to my evaluation as well. Also, I have many friends who play soccer or who are and have been very active in sports, who also have bought many items from Nike to use. In my experience, I have always found that Nike's products have not worn out or broken down easily, and I have been able to wear them out very nicely. Though their products are a little more expensive, it has benefited me more to buy these things to be able to use for a longer time. My friends have also never really complained about what they have bought from Nike. So I think the claim that Nike makes in this ad is an acceptable claim.

Chapter 11 Fallacies

In chapter 11, one content fallacy that I see a lot of times nowadays with kids my age is the bad appeal to common belief or practice fallacy. This fallacy states that if a certain group of people believes in an idea or do something that supports that belief, then it is a good belief or action that is justified. In simple terms, it is the "bandwagon" fallacy, which means that if enough people do something, then it is cool, and to jump on that bandwagon would make you cool. A classic example that I remember my parents using on me if I got into this situation would be "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?". Nowadays though, I think a good example is that so many party and drink, which may pressure other into thinking that if they do the same thing, that will make them look cool because they jumped on that "partying bandwagon". Some of my friends in college tried to convince me to drink because they thought it was fun or cool. Though it may seem that way to people who do it, from my perspective, it is a bad appeal to common belief, which is that there are more consequences than benefits that come from drinking and partying.

Interesting Concept

I think an interesting concept that we read about was about being able to evaluate certain premises concerning arguments. I think it is good that one of the most important things we are able to use make our argument stronger or more valid is our own real life experience. It is key to do this because we are able to trust our own experience's, which can make our arguments better and clearer. Also, being able to judge arguments that seem to not have much support is important. This way, if you can tell the argument is weak, you can construct your own argument with plenty of support and facts that make it clear and valid. I personally believe be able to rationally argue with people is important part of communications. By being able to construct strong, clear arguments and statements to people, it will become easier to converse with others whose opinions may differ from yours. So by being able to evaluate the premise of certain arguments, you can become better with speech overall.

Strong versus Valid Arguments

When talking about valid arguments, as long as the original premise is true, then the conclusion that can be drawn form that premise should also be true. An easy way to remember this to me is through some simple math equations. As long as A=B, and B=C, then A=C. Though this is just with letters and not with actual statements, I believe it still helps in determining whether or not an argument is valid or not. An example for this is that "Students must pass Calculus AB to take the AP Calculus test". I could say that "I took the AP Calculus test yesterday". Therefore, "I must have passed Calculus AB". Because it is stated that I took the AP test, that agrees with the fact that I had to have passed Calculus AB, which is a true conclusion.
On the other hand, strong arguments, though with similar premises, have false conclusions that are usually drawn front the original statement. Though the argument in itself may seem to have strong points or facts to back itself, the conclusion can still be false. One example is to say "Teens must be at least 16 years of age to receive their drivers license". If I were to say "My friend Jordan just had his 17th birthday last week", a false conclusion would be to say "Then Jordan must have his drivers license". Just because Jordan is old enough to have his license does not necessarily mean he does.

Subjective and Objective Claims

When I was in my Public Speaking class last semester, me and one of my friends would always argue about basketball because he liked the Lakers and I am a Kings fan. The claim I would always make, which was a subjective claim, was that "The Kings would have won the 2002 Western Conference Finals against the Lakers if it had not been for the referees". I believe this is subjective because you are able to watch highlights of the game and see how terrible the referees were, and years later, some of the referees came out and said they had been paid to call the game in favor of the Lakers. Though this could also be an objective claim because its just my opinion, I think it is more so a subjective claim because they are many ways to see how this claim can be proven true.
I have hung out with one of my friends a lot this summer, and whenever we do, we always compare our cars that we have. I always tell him that "My car is better than yours". Now this is definitely an objective claim because it is purely my opinion, and it could easily be proven either way that my car or his car is actually the better one.

About Me

Hello, my name is John Krabbenhoft. I am 18 years old, and live in Carmichael, California. I like to sleep and eat a lot. Hanging out with friends is probably what I do most during summer, but I also will be working. I am excited to be able to take an online class for the first time, and will enjoy the challenge. I took a public speaking class last semester, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Hopefully, I will be able to challenge myself to stay on top of the assignments in this class because it will be solely my responsibility to do so. While at San Jose State, I was a civil engineer my first year. Next semester, I will be undeclared, and hoping to apply to the kinesiology department the following semester.