Further Discussion

In this class I have learned a lot and I found all of the concepts learned in this course to be interesting and helpful. I know that all of the material I have learned throughout this course will help me in my future. On concept that I really enjoyed learning about was the marketing strategies and about advertisements. This was my favorite chapter because everything the book talked about was true. I had no idea about the store strategies when they try to get us customers stay longer to buy more things that they didn’t plan on buying in the first place. Before reading this chapter I had no idea this took place, however, when I think about it now, I realize that their strategy does work, because in the end I do end up buying something I didn’t plan for. I learned a lot of new information about marketing and advertisements through this chapter. 

Favorite and least favorite things

One of my favorite things about this online course was having the ability to work at my own pace. Even though it did require a lot of work, I was willing to put in the effort and take out time just for this class. Another thing I liked about this class is that I was able to meet new people. I didn’t think we would meet our peers because it was an online class but with the Group Facilitation project, we got together and worked on it as a team. The last thing I liked about this class was all of the information learned throughout the entire course, because I know it will benefit me in the future. One of my least favorite things about this class was having to wait 12 hours for the next post! Sometimes I just like to get things done in just one go and do everything all together. This cannot really be improved because some people actually do work better when their work is spaced out. 

What I have learned

I have learned a lot from this class. Prior to taking this class I assumed that this was going to be a very simple and easy class because it was online. However, I was proven wrong because this class requires a lot of work. But in the end this class has taught me so much. For example, I am able to manage my time more wisely, because with this course I had to make sure I took out time to focus on this class in order to get an A. One of the main concepts I leaned thought this course was how to examine and how to form an argument. This is an essential thing to know and learn because you use it in your every day life and in your future career. Having skills to examine arguments will allow you to be affective in your own arguments and will allow you to succeed further. 

Chapter 12 Question # 3

The scientific method is something I found really interesting and I remember learning about this also in middle school The scientific method is “a proves involving the rigorous, systematic application of observation and experimentation”(373). Likewise to the three levels of thinking, it is dynamic with analysis of the observation to check for similarities and interpretation for more revision. The scientific method includes steps that guide the scientist through the analysis of their observations. The first step is to identify the problem and the second is to develop a hypothesis. This is followed by the third step, which is to gather more information and to improve the hypothesis. Finally, the fifth step is to evaluate the results of the tests or the experiments. Each and every single one of these steps are important. Without any one of them your experiment may not be a success simply because you didn’t improve the hypothesis or because you didn’t analyze your observation. 

Chapter 12 Question # 2

There has been many times where I was mistaken and thought something of a certain situation and I was wrong. An example of this is one day when I came into work, my boss was in a really bad mood. Usually she is extremely happy, smiley, and bubbly. However, on that particular day she was very grumpy, sad, and it seemed like she was really pissed off. I thought that she was mad at me about something that I did wrong during my entire shift. I was constantly paranoid and was rethinking my steps and trying to figure out what I had done wrong. I was so scared that she was going to fire me. However, by the end of the day we all found out the real reason she was upset and it had nothing to do with any of her employees and it has something to do with a person reason. I realized that you can’t just assume something unless you really think about the situation. 

Chapter 12 Question # 1

Libra Daily Horoscope

Libra Daily Horoscope

Today's Libra Horoscope from Cafe Astrology
November 12, 2012
A Solar Eclipse occurs tomorrow, dear Libra, and this generally acts to stir up activity. However, considering the last New Moon was in your sign, overall this will be a calmer, less visible period for you. Nevertheless, important decisions may be required of you in the next few weeks, particularly revolving around personal finances and business, so today it would be wise to clear your head. Avoid the compulsion to control events today.
Creativity: Excellent ~ Love: Good ~ Business: Fair

This was my horoscope for the day according to cafeastrology.com. I do not believe in horoscopes at all. Sometimes when I’m at the doctors or at the dentist and there is a magazine in sight, I will look at it and turn to the horoscope page and read it. However, I do not believe anything it says because the prediction isn’t really accurate. Some people really do believe in horoscopes and its true sometimes they are true for some people, but not everyone. I feel like there is a 50% chance that it may be right or may be wrong.  On page 381 of the text, Boss states the hypothesis that, “‘all swans are white’ was based on observations of hundreds of thousands of swans, every one of which was white. However, the hypothesis was falsifiable, since it would take only one swan to prove it false.” Likewise to my horoscope’s hypothesis, I will have important decisions revolving around finances and business.  I don’t work at my old job anymore or do not own anything so I don’t have any business, and for finance, I have a guarantor for my apartment at the moment, and I have enough money for my utilities and for other expenses from my bank. This is falsifiable because I do not have any business and do not think I will have any finance problems, therefore my horoscope is most likely incorrect.

Chapter 11 Question # 3

The section about Internet was the most interesting to me this chapter for this weeks reading. This reading portion talks about how Internet affects our daily lives, what a large impact it has, and analysis social networking and the misusing of Internet. According to THINK by Judith Boss, “The internet is affecting daily life by reshaping social dynamics among young people” (353). I agree wit this because it really does have an impact on the way I communicate with others. Social networking is one of the biggest reasons students spend so much time on the Internet. Internet has both a good and a bad side. It is good because you are able to spread the word throughout Internet sites, such as yahoo news or ads. However, there is a downside. The Internet allows information to be so easily accessed. So many peoples privacy is stepped upon and are left with no privacy what so ever. Internet is an excellent type of technology; it just needs to be more secure so that it doesn’t invade privacy. 

Chapter 11 Question # 2

In, “The Wrongs of Internet Plagiarism: The Quick Arguments” by Brook Sadler, he talks about how plagiarism is obviously a bad thing for students, even if they earned a better grade or not. In the article, “Four Reasons to Be Happy about Internet plagiarism”, Russell Hunt believes that plagiarism is an okay thing to do because students need some extra help in order to pass. I feel like Sadler presented the best argument because not only did she give a clear face to why plagiarism shouldn’t happen, but she also talked about why it wasn’t fair, how it betrays others, how it wont benefit you at all and how it wont help you at all in your career. Lastly, Sadler gives a solution to the problem of plagiarism where as Russell Hunt does not.  Hunt barely states any reasons on why plagiarism isn’t bad and how its not helpful in helping a student understand plagiarism. The reasons he pointed out are not really adequate to cover his argument, which is why Sadler has the better argument. 

Chapter 11 Question # 1

Media experiences have reinforced my existing worldviews and values and also have changed and expanded my views in many ways. According to the textbook, ““If we are unaware of the impact media has on our lives and decisions, or if we engage in self-serving bias by fooling ourselves into thinking that the media affects others but not ourselves, we run the risk of being controlled by the media rather than being in control of our own lives” (357). In addition, on page 358, the text talks about how only watching programs that confirm your worldview has a big contribution to confirm bias and narrow-mindedness. The text proposes watching or reading of the same issue or news event on another channel to overcome narrow mindedness and the bias. Personally, I do this exact thing because you can’t just easily rely on one source for your news because even just one simple story can be analyzed in various ways. 

Chapter 10 Question # 3

An advertising strategy that I found to be incredibly interesting was product placement. According to the text, product placement is a strategy in which a real commercial product is used in fictional media, and the presence of the product is the result of an economic exchange between the company and the business that produces the product” (321). Personally, I feel like this is an effective way for companies to advertise something because they don’t even need to use a commercial. Nike is one of the biggest sport apparel company’s around. If someone is watching a running match and the runner is wearing a pair of Nikes and the logo of Nike is clearly shown through the television screen. Then the views watching the race may want to purchase the item, especially if the runner won. This is because they may thing that the person won the race because of the Nike shoes that they wore, so they would purchase the same thing which profits the company because of their strategy. 

Chapter 10 Question # 2

Both Wootan and Liodice have strong standpoints and make really good arguments. In Wootan’s argument, he talks about why the legislation is able to regulate food advertising to children with the support of CSPI. His intentions are good since their goal is to protect our nations children and to keep the healthy, I kind of felt like he was going a little too far. Personally, I feel like it’s the parents duty and responsibility of what their child is consuming. His arguments faced towards what advertisement agencies need to fix or not to provide any facts but to talk about how child obesity exists. Liodice, takes an opposite standpoint of this situation. His argument is based of from many opinion and responses to Wootan’s article. Additionally, he also talks about protecting the first amendments and how he feels like it is wrong that the guidelines are so restricting. When evaluating both arguments of Wootan and Liodice, I would most likely agree with Liodices position because it is more valid and effective.

            

Chapter 10 Question # 1

This past week I feel like I have been a victim to all of the marketing strategies that were mentioned in the text. The text says that marketers come up with strategies to get customers to stay longer than they usually do to buy something they wouldn’t buy if they had been inside and outside the store quickly. According to the textbook, drug stores purposely make customers wait extra time while picking up prescriptions, just so they can make extra purchases. A few days ago I was picking up some antibiotics with my mom for her eye at the local Walgreens. While I was there I bought some hair ties, a notebook, and some pens. This was because I had some time to spare and was walking though the aisles simply browsing and had no intention of buying anything. But when I do that, I tend to buy something saying in my head, “oh I might as well buy it now because I’m going to need it soon anyways…” even though I really don’t need it. Every day I encounter many different marketing strategies and I always give in and buy something, which pretty much shows how effective the strategies really are. The most effective strategy is product placement especially when trying to promote the product. The least effective strategies are the marketing strategies I see in magazines, because if you see something in person it is more desirable and realistic. 

Chapter 4 Question # 3

Self-serving Biases or errors that we make is one of the things I found really helpful to recognize. These biases or errors obstruct our thinking. Some of these, which are important, include; the tendency to exaggerate out strengths, to minimize our weaknesses, to misjudging by overestimating ourselves when comparing us to others, and the misperception that we are in control. Sometimes we believe that we are always in control even though we really aren’t in certain situations. This misperception of control is the same thing when you believe in some superstitious behavior. For example, if sit on your lucky couch, the 49ers will win the game. If people carry the belief that we are in control too far sometime it can mess with out thinking which leads to many bad decisions in our life. Additionally, having the belief that we are in control of situations where we have very little or absolutely no control over can result in posttraumatic stress syndrome or irrational guilt. 

Chapter 4 Question # 2

Edward Codon believes that UFO’s do not exists He concludes that there has been no scientific knowledge gained from the twenty-one year study of UFOS. He also supports his argument by stating that there is proof of the “thing” in the sky being something else but not the UFO, and that the reason we don’t study more about the UFO is because scientists have better progression to make in science rather than of something that doesn’t exist. The second scientist, J. Allen Hynek, believes that there is a possibility that UFO’s exist. The evidence used is the reported sightings of the UFO by people.  Additionally, he believes that to make some progress, we need more data to make the final call. The last scientist Royston Paynter is unsure whether UFO’s are real or unreal. He argues that we should have physical evidence, which supports the belief that UFO’s are real and that aliens are smart enough to not leave evidence, if they were in fact real. I believe that Paynter has the best argument because he actually looks at it from both sides and proves that there is no direct legitimate evidence to prove either side of argument. 

Chapter 4 Question # 1

I believe that wisdom is something you can acquire with experience and knowledge is what you learn to gain the wisdom. According to Boss in the textbook THINK, knowledge is information or experience that we believe to be true and for which we have justification or evidence. Rationalists believe this comes through reason, and empiricists believe the truth is discovered through our physical senses. (97) Wisdom, is “knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight”. In college, you gain knowledge that you will use in your life. Wisdom like stated before, comes with experiences, which deepens with the increase of age. The knowledge that we gain and acquire as we grow up helps us become more wiser and smarter. This is because sometimes when we experience something earlier in life, we may not have the ability to solve the situation but in the future when something similar occurs, we are able to connect the experiences that we have and know the conclusion that will change our lives. 

Chapter 3 Question # 3

From this whole chapter I found the rhetorical devices most interesting. The four common types of rhetorical devices that are used to manipulate and persuade are Euphemism, Dysphemisms, Sarcasm, and Hyperbole. The first rhetorical device is Euphemism where you use a replacement term that has a negative association by a positive or a neutral term. In other words euphemism is a description in which something sounds less unpleasant or forceful, basically an understatement. The second rhetorical device is dysphemism where a word or a phrase is chosen to produce a negative effect. The third rhetorical device is sarcasm where we use ridicule, insults, taunting and/or a caustic irony. The last rhetorical device is hyperbole, which uses exaggeration. These literary devices are used for usually explaining a particular situation. They use psychological persuasion rather than reason to persuade others to accept a particular position. Most people use at least one of these four in their daily lives every single day because it comes to us naturally. 

Chapter 3 Question # 2

Rhetorical Devices use “Psychological persuasion, rather than reason, to persuade others to accept a particular position” The most common rhetorical devices are: euphemism, dysphemism, hyperbole, and sarcasm. In the past week I have used both hyperbole and euphemism. A hyperbole is an exaggeration or a possible overstatement. This week I was meeting my friend for lunch and she came about an two hours late. I was starving so I texted her, “Hurry up. I’m starving to death. I’m going to eat everything on the menu even the restaurant itself for reals if you don’t hurry up.” This is an exaggeration because I would not actually die from not eating, I wasn’t going to eat everything on the menu, and I was definitely not going to eat the restaurant itself! A euphemism is the use of a positive or a neutral term to cover up a negative term. Last week I was talking to my friend who had gotten fired from her job however instead of saying, “I got fired” she kept saying to people that her employers “let me go.” She was using a positive term to cover up a negative term. 

Chapter 3 Question # 1

After reading about Sally Ride, I noticed a few qualities that she demonstrated from the Boss Text in Chapter One. A skilled critical thinker have many characteristics which include good analytical skills, possessing effective communication skills, being well informed and possessing good research skills, being flexible and able to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty and being able to adopt a position of open-minded skepticism. Some other characteristics include being a problem solver, being mindful and attentive, and also having the ability to engage in collaborative learning. Likewise, Sally Ride was described as being a focused, composed, and having being able to quickly figure things out. This shows that she is creative with problem solving. Additionally, she used strategies such as making a plan to reach her goals. Rides effectiveness of her communication skills were brilliant because she was a good writer and a speaker. Overall she demonstrated many characteristics of a skilled critical thinker. 

Chapter 2 Question # 3

Emotional intelligence according to the Boss text is “having the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.”  As human beings we have various different types of emotions such as empathy, anger, sadness, or happiness. One of the most important and common type of emotion is empathy which is the ability to understand others experiences and the emotions of others.  A person who is empathetic is more open to other people’s perspectives, is more flexible, and can adapt to different situations almost instantly. They also have important skills in forming an acceptable argument for a planned event or action. Some empathetic people are often also very sympathetic. In other words they really do feel for the other person and have no control over it. 

Chapter 2 Question # 2

Evolution and a belief in God are incompatible as Dawkins claims. If you believe in evolution then believing in God doesn’t fit or make any sense. This is because Evolution is the idea that all living things on this Earth came from a single organism, like how from a cell came a human being. Believing in Evolution, God would not have been able to create this earth and the world we live in which is the common belief in today’s society. Dawkins bring out many points, which support the belief in God and how the belief in evolution is incompatible. An example of this is, the argument from degree.  He states that just because someone is not the maximum of something that doesn’t mean that there is God or a higher being. To this Aquinas would probably respond by arguing that the idea that God does not exist is not fully supported by Dawkins with examples or evidence, rather than just from personal beliefs or his own view points. 

Chapter 2 Question # 1

When choosing a career, it is important to know your strengths and your weaknesses to ensure that you will have great achievement in whichever career you are trying to pursue. For example, if your math skills are a little weak, you may find alternate careers that do not involve math and try to stay away from a careers such as being math teacher or an accountant since it involves a great deal of math. I believe that the type of reasoning I am strongest in is Inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning in other words is constructing or evaluating general propositions. This can be used in a career choice because I can choose something where I have the opportunity to evaluate and to prove something to be possible if I did something in the legal courts department. Before choosing a career it is important to know what your strengths are individually because that will help you be more successful and will keep you happy with your position in that specific career choice. 

Chapter 7 Question # 3

A method that is used to ensure that a generalization about a population is reliable is called sampling to collect dada about a population at large or diverse. Sampling consists of selecting only some members of group and then making a generalization about the entire population that is based on only those few members of the group. A representative sample is a sample that is similar to the larger population from which it was drawn. When a pollster wants to get a representative sample, they use the method called random sampling. Random sampling is where every member of the population has an equal chance of being a part of the sample. Another type of sample is self-selected sample. The self-selected sample is a sample where only the people most interested in the poll or survey participate. This usually occurs on polls that are sponsored by television shows such as American Idol or award shows such as the VMA's where it is unrepresentative since its relied on the phone calls from viewers or the subscribers. 

Chapter 7 Question # 2

Dr. Novello uses cause and effect inductive reasoning when she begins to explain how the number of children and teens who smoked are increasing dramatically once Camel cigarettes were introduced in 1988. The effect Dr. Novello states is the dramatic increase in the number of the smokers who are teens and children, which was caused by the Camel cigarettes, Joe Camel ads. Overall this concludes that that all of the ads that were use for the Camel cigarettes were managed to be directed towards teens and children’s which then caused the increase in smoking for teens and children. Dr. Novello uses the cause and effect inductive reasoning to find a solution to this problem and worked to ban ads of cigarettes that were targeted towards young youth since it had caused much harm. With Dr. Novello’s use of cause and effect inductive reasoning, the ban of these ads actually did bring a decrease in the number of teen and child smokers, which concludes that Dr. Novello was successful in the use of cause and effect reasoning. 

Chapter 7 Question # 1

If an argument is inductive, then you should look for certain words or phrases that suggest the conclusion. Inductive arguments happen in our daily life almost every day. For example, this last week I was trying to figure out what to wear to school the next day. I used my judgment of what the weather was like the day before to help me decide what to wear. If it was a little chilly in the morning but became hot in the afternoon, I would know to wear a light jacket to school in the morning. If it were hot in the morning and hot in the afternoon, I would not wear a jacket. If it were cold in the morning and cold in the afternoon, I would bring a heavy jacket to school to make myself feel warm. Additionally, listening to the weather channel that day helps make a decision by the use of pictures and words the reporter is giving. In this case, my conclusion was right using inductive reasoning. 

Chapter 8 Question # 3

Deductive arguments are presented in a form of syllogisms with two supporting premises and a conclusion. A deductive argument is valid where the form or patter of reasoning is where the conclusion must be true if the premises are assumed to be true. There are several types of deductive arguments including; arguments by elimination, arguments based on mathematics, and arguments by definition. The first one, argument by elimination is a deductive argument that rule out different possibilities until only one remains. The second one, an argument based on mathematics is a deductive argument in which the conclusion depends on a mathematical calculation. The last one is the argument from definition which is a deductive argument in which conclusion is true because it is based on the definition of a key term. These are all important ways to present deductive argument and the different forms of syllogisms. It is important to have a valid form of a deductive argument. 

Chapter 8 Question # 2

In Perspectives on Death Penalty, Sister Helen Prejean maintains that the death penalty is a violation of human dignity and is contrary to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, “who taught us to not return hate for hate and evil for evil”. From this quote, I believe that this passage prohibits the use of the death penalty. This is because the death penalty is pretty much giving back evil for evil. Having someone’s life taken away from him or her is evil. The death penalty is taking away the persons life as a punishment for a serious crime that was committed. Therefore, the death penalty is evil. From the scriptural passage the quote with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, “who taught us to not return hate for hate and evil for evil,” I placed the meaning of the death penalty, and the fact that having someone’s life taken away is evil which is based on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth to make my point a valid deductive argument.