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.

Chapter 15 -- Cause & Effect in Populations

In Chapter 15 of the Epstein's text, I learned about Cause & Effect in Populations. The textbook states that "cause in populations is usually explained as meaning that given the cause, there is a higher probability that the effect will follow than if there weren't a cause. (Epstein, 320). The example that the chapter provides is about how smoking causes cancer. Like the DUI example, it isn't always true, but it is a fact that if someone smokes for such a long period of time, then cancer will eventually develop in one's body. As well as if someone drink and drive, they will eventually get caught one day.
 Generally, I have noticed that a lot of people generalize claims that involve large populations and in cause & effect situations. We make claims that if you do a, then b will happen (such as the example given in Chapter 15). Some generalized claims may be true or false. What we are doing when we make generalized claims about a population is called a "Cause in Populations."

Mission Critical

What I liked most about the Mission Critical website was the part where I participated in. When I clicked on the answer to the question, it explained why I would choose that certain answer and why it was either correct or wrong. When I answered the questions, I was able to find out if it was the right answer or wrong answer, which I find really useful. It helps me A LOT when something is analyzed and explained in further details. I thought that the Mission Critical website was quite useful because it had a lot of information about the key concepts our class has covered throughout this semester. The website was well-organized and convenient as to clicking the links to read something I was interested in reading. However, I felt like everything was kind of blended in together, like the colors of the hyper-links were hard to read while there were multi-colored bullet points.

Cause & Effect

What I found most useful on the Cause & Effect website was reading the examples. It really helped me understand how cause and effect works in real-life situations, whereas almost everyone can relate to them. On the website, there are several examples about how people have driven, have rode a bike, or even have seen accidents. Reading the Cause & Effect website helped me realize that not everyone stops and thinks about the similarities or differences by reasoning, as well as coming up with our own opinions how "something" like accidents can happen anywhere and anytime. I think Cause & Effect situations can be a helpful way of forming a good argument by listening to what a person has to say first. By listening to the other person's argument, a person may be able to pick up and understand something better.

Fallacy of Composition

In Chapter 12 of the Epstein's textbook, there are many examples on judging analogies. One of them is called "fallacy of composition." This term means whether or not something is true just because another individual or group believes it is true. Fallacy of composition reminds me of Generalization because things are usually assumed without more information. If something is true for an individual, then it is true for a group. Vice versa as well. An example to give better understanding is: A bus causes more pollution than a car. Therefore, cars are less of a pollution problem than buses." This may or may not be valid or strong. Most transportation would cause pollution, and people do not really know whether it is true or not. If one person said that buses make more pollution than cars, then other groups and individuals would believe so. Many people draw analogies between people and bigger groups, but they usually have no premises. Therefore, people would not be convinced that something is true or not.