What I Liked About this Class

My favorite thing about this Comm41 class was that it was online and like many students, it gave us free time to blog whenever we wanted, and read/study throughout the week for homework assignments and tests. I learned a lot of Critical thinking throughout this semester by reading the many chapters that our professor assigned, which were really interesting. Who knew that everyone could relate to some of these concepts in daily life? I also liked working in groups because it allowed us to learn more about different concepts and allowed us to make new friends. My least favorite thing about this class was that if we did not understand a specific concept, we couldn't have the teacher explain it thoroughly in person. However, I know we have office hours, but it doesn't feel the same as having an in-person class, and actually having the teacher provide examples or participating in class activities. One thing that can be improved is maybe giving out smaller homework assignments where we could match key terms with the definitions.

Further Discussion

Concepts from the textbook that I think needs further discussion are the concepts of Euphemism and Dysphemism. "Euphemism is a word or phrase that makes something sound better than a neutral description" and "dysohemism is a word or phrase that makes something sound worse than a neutral description" (Epstein 182). I feel that we use these two concepts more than we realize in life. Think about how many times when you are telling a story and something happened that you exaggerate it a little and use more dramatic words to make what happened seem more interesting or significant, that is using euphemism or dysphemism. Or when you are trying to convince something, it won't be so bad so you choose words that make it more or less of what it really is. When can see these concepts in our daily lives, our school lives, work lives and with our government, these concepts are always taking part in what we are doing or saying.

Things I Learned

When I looked back on this past semester, I felt overwhelmed with how much I learned within a short period of time. I learned that the important thing about making a claim or argument is that the way you form them plays a very important role. This was the concept that stuck out most to me because people make claims every single day, whether they are good or bad. Depending on the way you form these arguments and claim determine if they sound good or bad, or if people will agree or disagree with you. Now that I have learned about these concepts, I know now to make claims that are too vague or misleading because they can be considered as fallacies. Misleading and vague claims will determine that your argument is weak and you will not be able to prove your point as strong or valid. I can easily say that people today come across many arguments and situations that involve debating or speaking their own opinions, and that they must understand that forming arguments will prove your point. I believe that many people will use the many concepts we learned throughout this semester in the future, regularly or even in their professional career.