Preference

My favorite thing in this class was the blogging.  I liked being able to apply what I learned in class in my blogs and have the students comment on it allowing me to get feedback and get more information that I can apply later.  Blogging also has taught me how to effectively communicate online since I had never had a blog before.  This will help down the road with my profession because almost all companies are now big in social media and blogging and marketing online.  The least favorite thing bout this class was having to write the 2 papers.  Even though it taught me alot, writing papers have never been a strong suit of mine.  To be honest, I dont think there are many things that need to be changed with this class.

What I learned

Throughout this semester in Comm 41, I have learned many things that have been beneficial and will continue to be beneficial for a long time to come.  One of the most important things I learned was how to blog correctly and speak on the internet correctly.  Personally, I have never had a blog before or had the urge to blog before but after going through this class I have learned many techniques and proper use of blogging that will help with my life down the road.  Another topic that I learned alot from was fallacies.  I had never really worked with fallacies much before in depth and this class gave me the knowledge about what fallacies are and specific definitions that relate to them.  This new knowledge will help me out with my writing and reading in college and in life.  Another item that I learned was how to correctly disect an article and write an essay that breaks down the different techniques that the author uses.  Personally, this is one of the classes in college that I have been able to take alot from and will be able to put to great use.

Mission Critical

As stated in the about section of mission critical, the goal of mission critical is to create a virtual lab, capable of familiarizing users with the basic concepts of critical thinking in a self-paced, interactive environment.  The mission critical website describes different arguments, analysis of arguments, fallacies and non-rational persuasion, and other commonly used fallacies.  Many of these arguments and fallacies on the website have been explaned previously in this class.  One section that I learned alot from was conjunctions and disjunctions.  The simplest deductions are those involving two or more things connected by a conjunction or a disjunction.  Conjunction and disjunction are governed by multiple rules.  These are and, affirm all, negate one and or, affirm one, negate all.  These rules helped me understand the proper uses of conjunctions and disjunctions because they were never really gone over in class previously.  Also, the examples given in the two sections helped me understand them with a real example.

Cause and effect

As it is stated on the website, one of the most important uses for inductive reasoning is to argue casuation.  I thought the example that the website gives about the accident gives a good example of casuation and cause and effect and a real life example of how it is used.  By arguing that the bicyclist would have not caused the accident if the truck wasn't parked illegally in the bike line would prove that the effect wasn't his fault because the bicyclist would have kept going on as normal instead of having to swerve into the road to avoid the traffic.  I also found it useful when the website gave three reasons for the strength of a casual argument.  1) How acceptable or demonstrable the implied comparison is 2) How likely the case for causation seems to be. 3) How credible the "only significant difference" or "only significant commonality claim" is.  By using these three different statutes, you can determine the strength of the argument such as the ones given in the exercises.

Media

In todays society, we are drowned with media everywhere we go.  According to the Boss book, Americans spend an average of 9 hours a day watching television, going on the internet, talking or texting on the phone, or using some other form of media.  Mass media is forms of communication that are designed to reach and influence very large audiences.  Some examples are television with networks like ESPN, CNN, MSNBC, and many other forms of news medias.  Lots of news medias now a days are skewed towards the networks beliefs, some being republican or democratic or having a mixture of both.  Niche media is forms of communication geared to a narrowly defined audience.   Some types of niche media would be like ESPN were they cater to sports fans or the home network where they cater to housewives.  Mass media since the middle of the 19th century has changed the way we view and perceive things.  Personally, I am a fan of todays mass media and the way that we find information.  Even though some networks are skewed away from all the facts, I don't know what I would do know a days without the many types of media sources feeding us information.

Horoscope

Cancer, 7/26/12

Once your brain gets hooked on something, Cancer, you're likely to take it to the extreme. Be careful of overworking yourself in a certain issue that requires a more rational, temperate attitude. You may get into trouble if you insist on going off the deep end. Don't tackle issues you aren't ready to handle. Take things slowly and maintain a moderate, conservative viewpoint. If you go too far, back off and take a break.

 

I think that this is actually an accurate description of myself.  Once my brain gets hooked on something, it is hard for me to not take something to the extreme and not do it.  However, not everything I do I get hooked on.  Personally, I do have an addictive personality but not in a bad way, but a good way.  For example, I get addicted to school but in a good way because I like to get good grades.  I think that this horoscope can be falsified because not everything that you get hooked on can be bad.  For example, getting hooked on working out is necessarily a bad thing because it can be very good for you allowing you to transform your body. Personally, I don't believe in my horoscopes but I do like to look at them every once in a while.

Plagiarism

The article by Brook Sadler gives ten quick arguments for what is wrong with internet plagiarism.  A couple key ideas for why internet plagiarism is wrong are the issue of copyrights and theft of someone else's property, plagiarism involves the intent to deceive professor's and higher education by using someone else's work.  Plagiarism is unfair to other students because it takes away from their honest work.  Plagiarism is diminishing the students education and in turn teaching them that cheating is ok.  He believes that a strict poicy works best such as failing the course if any assignment is determined to be plagiarised.  Russel Hunt's four reasons to be happy about internet plagiarism gives reasons for which certain practices are threatened by the increasing ease of plagiarism.  He believes that our institutional rhetorical writing environment is challenged by this and it is a good thing and that the problem can be addressed by assuring the students that they are real writers with meaningful and important things to say.  That the institutional structures around grades are challenged which is good because the system that is built makes students only care about marks, credits, and certificates.  By pushing students, he believes that we can break the pattern in students of cheating.  Personally, I agree with Sadler because I think that cheating and plagiarism is wrong because I put in alot of hard work into my school and for someone to get a better grade because they cheated isnt fair.

Wootan and Liodice

Wootan's claim is that major companies are influencing poor eating decisions through the use of advertising.  Wootan has come up with "Guidelines for Responsible Food Marketing to Children," to provide criteria for marketing food to children in a manner that does not undermine children's diets or harm their health.  According to Wootan, over the last 20 years the rates of obesity have doubled in children and tripled in teens.  He believes that parental authorit is undermined by wide discrepancies between what parents tell their children is healthful to eat and what marketing promotes as desirable to eat.  Robert Liodice believes the complete opposite of Wootan's claim. His basis is that as Americans, we have the fundamental right to free speech.  He is stunned that the CSPI would suggest restricting or modifying the free speech of perfectly legal enterprises as an approach to solve a problem.  He address three major flaws in the guidelines.  First, the information provided about obesity among our youth is bloated.  Second, by not promoting good eating rather than taking away those type of ads.  Third, it doesn't address the positive advantages of promoting proper eating over the last 30 years.  Personally, I agree with Liodice because these guidelines shouldn't be able to take away our rights that they are trying to.

SWOT

The SWOT model is used to analyze a company's strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats in the business environment.  This type of strategic model can be used for developing a marketing strategy and for deciding whether to launch a new business or expand an existing business.  I actually just used this model in one of my summer business classes to help examine a food industry and disect its business plan.  The SWOT model helps determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with expanding and launching new businesses. 

Aristotelian Logic

In the first paragraph, the author describes his reasoning and basis for his set of logic.  He describes that he avoids using the phrase can be rewritten as because there are so many phrases or words that can be similar but different due to the multiple meanings of the same words in our English language.  One of the rules that I use that he states in his piece is whether the claim is universal or particular or affirmative or negative.  For example, when I hear someone describe something different than the way I would, I think whether it is a one particular case or it is a universal thing.  Also, I decide whether it is a good or negative thing that they are stating.

Moral Reasoning

Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. argued that violence can never be justified by moral outrage of any sort.  Instead, they insisted on using moral reasoning to solve dillemas that they come upon to develop nonviolent strategies for repsonding to violence.  Moral reasoning is defined as an individual or collective practical reasoning about what morally one ought to do.  Ghandi and MLK both pracitced this throughout their lives.  Ghandi was a peaceful person that led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence and civil rights across the world.  Martin Luther King Jr. helped break segreation and discrimination in our country through the use of peace and nonviolent rallies even though he was abused multiple times.  I personally agree with these two great men.  I myself like to think before reacting therefore not putting me in a situation where violence is involved.

Rhetorical Devices

We use many rhetorical devices in our everyday communication.  One rhetorical device that I have used recently is euphemism.  Euphemism is defined as the replacement of a term that has a negative association by a neutral or positive term.  I was downtown the other night and some guy was super wasted and being a fool.  The euphemism that was used was I said that he was the life of the party instead of saying that he is a drunk or embarrasing.  Another rhetorical device that I have used recently is sarcasm.  Sarcasm is defined as the use of ridicule, insults, taunting, and/or caustic irony.  The example of sarcasm is used was when I described the A's baseball team and called them a minor league team to describe their poor play and players.

Reason and Emotion

In the book, reason is defined as the process of supporting a claim or conclusion on the basis of evidence.  It involves the use of intelligence and the application of rules for problem solving.  Reason is used everyday in our lives.  Without reasoning about everything we do, we wouldn't be making strong decisions due to the lack of depth provided in them. 
According to many philosophers, to achieve happiness and inner harmony, we must live a life of reason.  Emotion is defined as a state of conciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, etc.., is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of conciousness.  In the western culture, it is thought that when emotion plays a role, it causes slopiness among our decision making.  Many of us have high and low emotional inteligences depending on our ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion.  Personally, I think people that do not have a high emotional intelligence are more likely to have problems in life due to the lack of ability to handle different circumstances as they are presented in front of you.

Beliefs in God

Accordingto Dawkins claims, I believe that he thinks that believing in God and in evolution is capable but not at the extent that Charles Darwin states.  Dawkins says that thanks to Darwin, it is no longer true to say that nothing that we know looks designed unless it is designed. This relates to Darwins belief that God is the creator of everything, he is the one that started everything and was the push to everything in existence and there is no other alternate solution.  Dawkins believes that evolution by natural selection produces an excellent simulacrum of design, mounting prodigious heigths of complexity and elegance meaning that evolution by natural selection provides a resonable understanding to how everything started and has evolved over time.  Aquinas would most likely respond that the five 'proofs' asserted in the 19th century are the only belief and the only reasoning behind evolution stated in this five proofs.

Fallacies Ad

The first time I read the ad on pg 143, I thought it was extremily feminist and an unfair depiction of woman.  I understand that in the late 1960s things were different and different ideals were accepted than those today.  A couple fallacies I noticed throughout the ad, was for one the picture at the top of the ad of women dressed fancy in what was the early 1910s. By saying that they have "come a long way" misrepresents what women were fighting for at the time.  Yes they were fighting for their own equal rights, but they weren't trying to be snobby about it such as this ad depicts.  I feel that woman are probably more snobby today than they were back then.  Another fallacy I noticed was the picture of a beautiful, skinny woman that at the time didnt depict the true woman.  By saying the slims were just for woman was to instill this superficial idea.  No wonder they attracted younger girls due to the sex appeal and independence displayed all over the ad.

Leadership in Groups and Teams

According to the Essential Guide to Group Communication, there are four different main styles of leadership. Authoritarian, consultative, participative, and laissez-faire.  Each style has many different advantages and disadvantages associated with them.

Authoritarian leadership is defined as the exercise of control by the leader without input from other group members.  This style of leadership allows for faster decisions but only take in one persons point of view, the leaders.  It can cause problems that could be corrected by asking for peoples opinions.  This type of leadership is displayed in communist countries where the citizens have to follow orders of their leader.

Consultative leadership bases decisions upon the opinions or ideas of group members.  Unlike authoritarian leadership, this type of leadership takes in their counterparts opinions and ideas to allow the leader to come up with a decision based off his opinions and his fellow peers.

Participative leadership involves a leader working with his fellow workers or group members to achieve a goal.  This type of leader enjoys to work with his workers and use their opinions and ideas along with theirs to accomplish a task or goal. Yes it may take longer to accomplish, but it will be more in depth.  Personally, this would be my go to leadership style.
The last type of leadership style in Ch 3 is laissez-faire leadership which involves little or no direct leadership.    This type of leadership is uninvolved unless the group members go out of their way to make sure they are involved.

Inductive Argument

We face many inductive and deductive arguments everyday in life.  One of the inductive arguments that I ran into within the past week is as follows:
Personally, I have set goals for myself this summer to get straight A's in my 3 summer classes, to put away $2000 dollars this summer from working, and to lose 10 pounds this summer.
Goal 1- To accomplish straight A's, I must work hard, study alot, and keep up daily on class due to the fast nature of summer classes.  If I work hard and complete all the assignment's assigned, I will therefore get straight A's in my summer classes.
Goal 2- To save money, I will have to make more money than I spend and come up with a strict budget that will allow me to put away $2000 dollars.  Therefore, If I stick to my budget, I will save 2000 dollars by the end of the summer.
Goal 3- To lose 10 pounds by the end of the summer, I must workout daily, stick to a strict diet, and cut back on my alcohol intake.  Chances are that if I stick to my fitness goals I will lose 10 pounds by the end of the summer.

Same Sex Marriages

Barrack Obama's stance about same sex marriage not being legal on the federal level but allowed to form civil unions and have equal rights is ridiculous.  As president, I believe that he shouldn't be saying that one view isn't allowed but allowing a similar view.  Either all civil unions and same sex marriage should be illegal or legal, not one or the either.  Personally, I believe that same sex marriages should be allowed because it does nothing to people.  It's just two people in love that deserve the same marital rights and equal rights as every other couple in love.
After reading Michael Nava and Robert Dawidoff's article called "The Case For Gay Marriages," I agree with what they are trying to say and the message they have in the article that gays and lesbians just want the right to marry for the same reasons that other American couples want to get married.  Barrack Obama may respond by saying that yes, because they are Amercian's they deserve the same rights as every other couple, however, being from his religious past he would not agree with making same sex marriage legal and would be looked as a hypocrit by many Americans.

Intro Post

Hello Class.
Currently I am a senior at State and looking to take this class to get credit.  During summer, I hope to get straight A's and improve my overall GPA.  I am a Business Finance major and have had one previous Comm class before this.  I will be graduating spring 2013 and I am a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.  I hope everyone has a great summer.
SJB77