Week 16 Question 3

3). Pick one concept from throughout the semester that you feel can use further discussion.


I feel that some parts of Chapter 9 (Concealed claims) could be further discussed only in the sense of examples. Extra examples of downplayer, up-player, hyperbole, weaselers, and shift the burden of proof, would have been a lot more helpful for me at least, only because the book did not do a good job in my opinion giving examples or explaining exactly what each term was. Also for me Chapter 7 (Counter-Arguments) could have been a little more explained outside of the book, because for me the book just did not do justice on giving good examples throughout this chapter. Also I found that Chapter 8 (General Claims) had too many things within the chapter to explain individually, so it was a bit hard to understand exactly what contradicted with what and so on. I just wished sometimes while reading all of the chapters, that the book gave a couple really simple examples of each term or idea and then gave a couple complex examples of each term or idea because when there was only complex examples it was a little hard to follow with such a huge explanation as to why or what was being explained.

Week 16 Question 2

2). What was your favorite thing about the class?  What was your least favorite thing about the class?  How can this class be improved?  Again, be specific.

I would have to say that my favorite thing about this class was being able to be flexible with when to do the assignments and the understanding of the online instructions. When I signed up for this class I had never taken an online class before and I had never done any blog type web posts before either and lucky enough for me, this class was really easy to understand. I also liked that this class did not exactly get in the way with my other classes and I could do what was needed for me to do, when it was the right time for me. In addition, I also really liked the accessibility of the professor and quick responses that the professor gave.  What I was not too fond of with this class was the weekly due dates for this class, it was a bit confusing and hard to remember that this classes deadline for everything was Saturday and not Sunday. The week seemed to go by faster and I felt that sometimes time ran out too fast with the deadline for everything being Saturday. I think the only thing that I might improve about this class would be to maybe not have as many group assignments, but rather individual assignments, only because it is so hard to coordinate in person meetings for some of us.

Week 16 Question 1

1). What have you learned in this class over the course of the semester?  Be specific.

This semester I learned a lot. However most importantly, I learned about claims (and all the types of claims: compound, descriptive, prescriptive, subjective, objective) and how to make a valid and/or strong argument from a claim. I learned how to repair claims, make weak/false claims into strong/valid claims and I learned how to make implausible claims into plausible claims. I was also learned how to make sure arguments, claims, analogies, comparisons, etc. were trustworthy or not through many sources. I also learned all of the appeal to emotion points of view. I am now able to see in a lot of papers that I write or that are written by others, which appeal to emotion perspective they are writing in. I also learned all of the fallacies (slippery slope, false dilemma, strawman, begging the question), which helped me a lot. Although I am still a little confused with some of what we learned through the semester, such as counter arguments, concealed claims, and general claims, I learned a lot that I am taking away with me as we end the semester.

Week 12 Question 3

3). Pick one concept or idea from the assigned reading, that we have not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting, and discuss it

I thought that the outline of how to evaluate an analogy was really helpful. There are several steps to evaluating an analogy. Some include questioning of the analogy is an argument, and if the analogy is an argument then what is the conclusion. Another step to evaluating an analogy is to figure out what the comparison is within the analogy. Another step includes figuring out what the premises of the analogy on one or both sides of the comparison are. This then leads to questioning what the similarities in the analogy are, and if there are similarities determining a premise that makes up a general principle that covers both sides of the comparison. The next step would be to really deciding if the general principle can be used to cover both sides of the comparison and if the differences matter. The next and final step to evaluating an analogy is to determine if the argument is strong, valid, or good.

Week 12 Question 2

2). Sometimes when something is difficult to understand, it becomes a bit clearer when we try to explain it to someone else.  Which type of reasoning was most difficult to understand?  Please do some additional internet research on that specific type of reasoning and discuss what you learned.

I think the reasoning by criteria was the hardest because although there were examples of what to do for an example of my own of the reasoning by criteria there was no specific clarification on which type of example would be best for this reasoning. I think the sign reasoning was the most helpful and the easiest one to understand. I also really liked the website that was used for explaining the sign reasoning, because it also really helped me on understanding the other types of reasoning and lead me to make better examples of each type of reasoning. The other websites that were mentioned were not as straight forward and although there were not that great of examples from the website for the sign reasoning, the very simple examples that were mentioned allowed me to be able to come up with more complex examples on my own.  I also kind of had a little trouble on the reasoning by analogy, but once I referred back to the actual book, I was able to understand the definition and how to make an example much more clearly.

Week 12 Question 1

1). Read through the different types of reasoning posted to the instructors blog.  Give an example of each type of reasoning outlined on the instructors blog.  The example should be something the folks in class can relate to, so try to use real world examples.

1). Reasoning by Analogy
Example: Doing drugs because it is "cool" is like committing a murder because your "role model" told you to.
2). Sign Reasoning
Example: Where there is girls, there is drama.
3). Casual Reasoning
Example: Drunk driving causes injury or death.
4). Reasoning by Criteria
Example: Either when I walk outside my home it will be hot or cold. If it is cold outside when I walk out, it is not going to be hot.
5). Reasoning by Example
Example: You should go to the Jessica's party and make friends. My best friend went to one of her parties and she ended up making over a dozen friends.
6). Inductive
Example: I drive to school every Monday and Wednesday morning at 7:00 am. Tomorrow is Wednesday so I will drive to school at 7:00 am. 
7). Deductive
Example: All green vegetables are healthy. Broccoli is a green vegetable. Broccoli is healthy.

Week 11 Question 3

3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading this week, not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

I think that in the first question I pretty much covered everything that helped me in this chapter and I feel like this chapter was by far the most interesting to me, because now, especially while viewing advertisements on the television and on the internet, I will be able to use and connect these appeals to emotions with the advertisements.  Granted not all of them will be good arguments, but this chapter really helped me I think now and will continue to help me in the future.