December 3-9 #3

Something that I wished the book elaborated on was the emotions and how it affects reasoning. I'm very interested in how words can affect the way we think and behave. I learned a little bit in psychology, but we did not learn how to use it in a good argument. I want to know how to use emotions and what kind of words and reasoning to make people believe in my arguments. If I knew more, I could be able to use it in my everyday life. I think it would be helpful in any situation where I will need to convince people. The only problem is learning how to use emotions to reason with people can also lead to a lot of manipulation. It would be bad to use emotions for wrong reasons. I feel like a lot of people who are good at lying are good at reading emotions and understands how to use it. I want to learn how people use these emotions to get us to believe them or buy things. I would be able to tell when someone might just be trying to trick me.

December 3 - 9 #2

My favorite part of this class is that it was online. I like online classes because it saves me time for other classes and I am able to use time that could have been taken up by this class for other work, whether it be school work or actually work. I also like the required comments on other blogs. It lets us see what other people think about the topics of the week and it's nice to find someone who we can relate to or argue with. It's nice to see other point of views.
Something that I did not like was the group project. I liked the last group project because it was fun to see other people debate on the best person for the job, but it is so hard to find a time where everyone was available. It was very difficult to meet up with everyone. I don't think we were ever able to meet up as a whole group. I think for next semester, a good way to fix that is to match groups according to their schedule that can be given to the professor in the beginning of the semester.

December 3-9 #1

I have learned the steps of  making a proper argument. I didn't know anything about premises and and how to structure a proper argument. I can identify a good argument and a not good one. I also noticed that the news cover certain stories to keep their viewers interested. I didn't realize that the news do a lot of stories that makes us feel certain emotions because we tend to empathize with people.
I also noticed that marketing is a lot harder than it really is. Like commercials for specific people. I remember that in high school, one class of mine looked at the different McDonald sites the company provides that is geared towards different ethnicity. I thought it was strange but if they want to get as much money as possible,  I guess it isn't impossible. The placement for objects in the store is also a very interesting marketing strategy.

Ch 12: #3

The concept that I like this week is Scientific Method. When I hear it, I think back to high school and all the labs I did from Biology and Chemistry. I remember learning about it and how I thought it was very tedious. I didn't really understand the point in doing all those steps in my labs for science, but the steps make sense and is helpful in any situation. It is a good way to see if facts are only opinions and assumptions or could it be a theory. When a hypothesis is correct, then it can be considered a theory. The steps are not hard either. The steps of the scientific method can be followed for anything. I used to think it was only for science class but we can do it about everyday life. If think a neighborhood is a bad place to move in to, I can use the scientific method to figure out if the neighborhood is really safe to live in or not.

Ch 12 #2

There was a time I was sitting in a restaurant by the window at night. There was a game going on so the bar right next to the restaurant was packed with people inside and out. My friend and I were observing the people outside the window, trying to assume what they were up to. Some people were so drunk, they had to sit down and there were girls being hit on or maybe they were friends with those people. I'm not sure. There is only person I did incorrect assume about. There was a guy that was hunched over the seat of a bike and it looked like he had some sort of tool. I thought he was trying to steal the seat of the bike, but when he straighten up, the seat was still on the bike so I wasn't sure what happen. I then see him turn on a light on the seat that wasn't there before. I told my friend he was trying to steal that seat but we realized that he was only putting a bike light onto the seat post.

Ch 12 #1

On one site, my horoscope says "Your social life will be in full swing today, with invitations and group activities almost showered upon you. It's a shame you won't be able to take advantage of every activity, but at least make a point of catching up in the near future." 
I don't think it is true today. I did not get invitations and only got one email that is related to a group activity. I did not really talk to that many people today. Sometimes I feel like some horoscopes apply to me, but today, this doesn't. I think this could apply to make people because it is so vague, but some people might think this is really sad when it's wrong. I could think that other Cancer's are having lots of invitations to things and I could wonder why I'm not getting any. What if i slept in all day or didn't have internet for people to contact me. Well, maybe many people might have tried to contact me and it didn't get through. It could have showered me without me knowing. I never really believe in daily horoscopes because they never seemed to apply to me but I think the overall traits about my sign applies sometimes. 

Ch 11 #3

A concept that was in the Boss textbook that caught my eye was the one about the news. I didn't really realize until recently because of this class and my History class. We were talking about politics and the media. I learned that the news like to report disasters, violence and gossip because that is what people are interested in. Even though there are more important things that the people could be informed about, the news over look it because some actor is dating someone and it's a scandal or something. My history teacher said that if the news are not making money, than it is not important because that is what the bosses want. They want money. The way to get money is to affect another's emotions. Most people empathize with other people so when sad stories show up between your show as a commercial for the news, the person would most likely stay on the channel after the show to watch whatever sad story the news has to tell. The news doesn't show the more interesting stories first though. They want their news to be watched all the way through so the most important ones are always near the end or the last one.

Ch 11 #2

Sadler believes in a strict policy when it comes to plagiarism. Sadler does not feel like plagiarism is far for either teachers or students therefore the matter of plagiarism should be punished seriously for all who participated. Expelling students should be promoted in Universities to make a example of these students to prevent other students from trying it. Sadler believes that giving F's are not good enough to stop students from trying to risk the chance of getting away with plagiarism.

Hunt believes that plagiarism helps students. He also believes it helps teachers. Hunt believes that plagiarism forces them to teach their students the important things in the university.

Both writers have a good argument that appeals to our emotions. Sadler focuses on the negative aspects of plagiarism where as Hunt thinks plagiarism can help teachers help their students.

I believe the Sadler has a better argument because she explains her position well. She also tells the readers what plagiarism do to not just the person who chose to plagiarize but the people who do not too. 

Ch 11 #1

The media is everywhere. There is no way of avoiding it. It will definitely influence us even if not directly. If we try to not be influenced by media, our friends are still being influenced. Our friends will influence us so media would indirectly influence us. There are people who try to avoid being influenced by media and some people don't change by media. There are people who set trends and changes media. I feel like Lady Gaga is one of those people who make trends.
The media reinforces my worldviews and values by allowing me to choose what I want to see. Allows me to see what I already believe in, especially when I'm looking at news on the internet. I could ignore all the things I'm not interested in.Sometimes when I read something dramatic, I believe the first thing I see and then I read another's opinion. Then I don't know who or what to believe.

Ch 10 #3

The concept that I liked the most in the Boss textbook is the idea of product placement. The location where items are placed in a store is a very important factor in the sales of that item. Items that are placed higher up on shelves are less likely to be seen if the customers do not specifically look up there. The same with the items on the bottom. The items placed on the middle shelves will get the most attention and will probably be bought the most. The most the items are seen by consumers, the more likely they would be bought. This does not just apply to super markets. This also applies to the T.V and advertisements outside. If these commercials are posters are seen often, people will begin to recognize that brand and will most likely to try it. Most big name companies are well aware of this and spend lots of money on advertisements to make sure people see their products.

Ch 10 #2

I think Liodice's argument is better than Wootan's because Wootan has a bunch of guidelines that could eventually turn into rules. When there are rules that children have to follow, most will follow without thinking about why there is a rule for this and that or why this food can't be eaten or why that food can be eaten. The children will not learn anything about the right food choices and the wrong ones. Children have to be educated about the type of food there is and the ingredients in it. By calling some food, "bad food," the children that feel rebellious will want to eat those types of food even more. Parents have an important part in teaching their children what is healthy and what isn't. After time, the children will find the healthy choice the choice they will choose without thinking. Sometimes I wonder why people don't like vegetables, but I think it is because my parents taught me when I was young that they are good.

Ch 10 #1

There are advertisements on the T.V. and posters are everywhere. Some marketing strategies are so similar to the company's past advertisement that I can just know which company is being represented instantly. There was a commercial I saw recently with two cartoon cats in a cage. They were having a conversation about getting adopted and why they haven't been adopted yet. In the end they were going to sleep and one said, maybe tomorrow. I thought it was so cute and makes me want to adopt kitties, but I know they are not allowed at my house and my mom hates the smell of them.

I think marking strategies that are not effective depend on different things like the colors they use or the story in it. Sometimes I have no idea what is happening in some commercials or sometimes the colors are too hard to look at. Some strategies involve being different to stand out, but some are too strange to even comprehend.

Ch 4 #3

A concept that I liked in this Chapter is the Direct Experience and False Memory. One example in the book that I found interesting was the participants watched a video of two cars colliding together. Then the participants will be asked how fast were the cars going when they smashed/collided/bumped/hit/contacted each other. Depending on which verb used, the answers would be different. If the verb made the accident sound more intense, the participant were more likely to say a high speed. The book also said that eye-witness identifications can be up to 50% wrong. That's a pretty big percent. I can understand how though, when we see something at one moment, we either remember it very clearly or forget about it. When either of them happen, either trying to keep remembering or trying to remember later, the memory of the event will be slightly altered. Another example in the book that I've also heard about in Psychology is when a memory is suggested, even when it never happen, some people will claim to remember the event vividly. For example if someone starts asking if the person has every been lost and keep on suggesting such an event happened, some people might claim they do remember. This is the false memory syndrome.

Ch 4 #1

Knowledge is the information learned from one's environment and school that the person believes to be true. Wisdom is similar to knowledge, but it is more likely to be acquired through experience from the environment and not really from schools. Wisdom is the information we can take and put into action. I feel like wisdom would kind of be like the common sense we learn without it being taught to us. 
I believe in college we are learning more knowledge than wisdom. Classes are teaching us information that the professor believes is true and therefore, we should believe it is true. If not, we debate with the professor. All the information I'm learning in college seems like it is just knowledge I might have to remember to use in the future or just remember long enough to pass a test. If wisdom is being acquired in college, it is more outside of the classroom than inside. 
I think the information age has made us more knowledgeable than wiser because there is so much information on the internet now that we can easily access and read - and memorize to tell other people later. Wisdom is more like going out and trying things on their own. An example can be reading how to ride a bike and watching a video on Youtube, but without going out and actually trying, that person doesn't actually know how to ride it. That person only knows the steps down. 

Ch. 4 #2

Condon believes that studying UFO is not a study that can get a lot of fruit out of it. He believes that finding information on UFOs is hard because when we want information, we look to specialists and there are no specialist in this subject. Some people believe that they might be specialists in the topic of UFOs, but these people can not get the approval and acceptance from the rest of society. Although he thinks studying UFOs is not fruitful, he believes that the people who have the skills and training to do it should be supported. 
Hynek believes that UFOs exists in the world and wants people who claim that they have sighted UFOs to tell their story. He wants to gather more data on this topic 
I think Payner's argument is the most appealing to me, because he is pretty much saying that everything is a just a theory, until there is some actual proof. 

Ch 3 #3

Emotive language is an important concept that I learned in chapter 3. The type of words used when speaking  to another person is important in the way the person will understand the meaning of what one is saying. Some might misunderstand and take something that might have been a compliment as an insult. If emotions are not understood, the argument might not be as persuasive or the person arguing might convince the people to do the exact opposite that the person doing the argument want. Something that is good for us could sound awful if the person advertising the product sounds disgusted or angry. People usually side with sad stories. If the story doesn't sound sad, how will a jury side with you? Emotions help convince people onto a certain side. Sometimes I read stories so sad that it brings me to tears. I can't imagine a world that doesn't have emotions. We would all sound like the Clear Eyes commercial man.

Ch 3 #2

I have noticed that sarcasm has become very popular in my age group. I maybe use it at least once a day. Because of the internet, many people have sarcastic comebacks for their friend's obvious statements. If I were to say it was hot, one of my friends would say, "you don't say." Most of the sarcastic comments I hear or use are friendly and joking. I don't hear many sarcastic comments that have ill intent. Hyperboles are used often too. I have recently said that the weather is so hot that I could die, but I wouldn't have actually died in the weather here. Sarcasm and hyperboles are not actually really required to be in daily conversations, but it makes conversations more interesting. Sometimes, depending on the situations, sarcasm and hyperboles are not used in a friend and jokingly way that I use. People have used these rhetorical devices to make people feel bad about themselves.

Ch 3 #1

Sally Ride is a exemplary critical thinking, because she is able to set out plans in her life to get her to the position she wants to be in for the future. She is able to analyze, understand and figure out the solution to a problem. She also able to communicate with other people about her ideas in an effective manner. Because of her skills, NASA was impressed enough to accept her into the program. Since she can communicate well, she was in charge of speaking to the people on the ground and the people up in space. If she wasn't able to communicate well, something could possibly go wrong and the shuttle could go of track or something along those lines. She has to be a good speaker if she is to go in front of the United Nations and speak in front of these adults. I would not be able to speak in front of them. I'd get all nervous and get all my ideas messed up. Examples of her writings skills can be seen with her report and her children books. Other peers must have found her writing good enough to be published.

Ch 2 #3

A concept that I liked was under "Emotional Intelligence and the Positive Effects of Emotion" on page. The emotions people feel when someone gives a presentation to convince the audience to donate for a good cause has to be felt. People have to have empathy for other people. If no one feels sorry about the cause, they would most like not donate anymore. Rosa Park's decision to refuse to give up her seat inspired many other people. Inspiration can only happen with emotion.
Emotion is very important. I can't image going through a day with feeling emotion. That'd be like feeling numb. If we did not feel any emotions, we probably wouldn't have an American revolution against the British because we would feel no need to rebel. The Americans wouldn't notice how badly they were being treated by the British, because they either do not feel the emotions of anger understand other people's hunger, exhaust and discomfort.

Ch 2 #2

I think Aquinas is very persuasive in some of the reasons he has. He says science has decided that if something is in motion, it will stay in motion until stopped, but something has to be the first mover or nothing will be moving. He also brings up it would have been impossible to start something with nothing to start with. Both of these are similar, but if something needs to move something, how come nothing has to move god first or if there was nothing, how is god there?
I think I would side with Richard Dawkins more than Aquinas. His argument made more sense to me compared to Aquinas. I don't exactly believe in god, but I don't know if I could say he just doesn't exist. There were many men in the past like Thomas Jefferson who believed in God, not all the supernatural stuff that is with religion.

Ch 2 #1

Identifying my strengths is important in choosing a career, because I can't get a job as an accountant if I'm not good at math. I can't have a job that I know I wont be good at. If I like computer games and wished to work in creating one, I would suck at that job. Just because I'm interested in something, that doesn't mean I could do it for a living. If I didn't think about what my strengths might be, I would probably not know what I want to do in life right now. Strengths are not always easy to realize though. I did take awhile to figure out what subject would like to teach if I didn't teach K-8. I only realized last year that I was good at History.

I have a good imagination. I can't wait to put posters up in a classroom when I become a teacher. I like thinking about what kind of plans I would have or what kind of projects I can do with the children. I want to do arts and crafts and make caterpillars with cups ans wires and stuff. But then I think about older kids, and get sad because they have more serious class. I wouldn't know if we would have time doing fun stuff like that.

Ch. 7 #3

A concept that I really liked this week was Evaluating Inductive Arguments Based on Analogies. Analogies are great way to help other people understand the argument even if they don't know what the subject of the argument is. When I describe historical events to my roommate, I use analogies to explain to her how a war happened or how why something happened. When I explained every's country relationship during World War II, I compare it to people and drama. I'd say something like, China doesn't like so and so because they did this and that so China became friends with Russia or I'd say something like Italy was friends with this group at first because they were the "cool" group but later found out they were cool anymore so Italy tried to get with the other group to get privileges in the end but ended up with nothing. By pretended these countries are people and what's happening is a high school drama, my roommate was able to understand the situation better.

Ch. 7 #2

Dr. Novello used cause-and-effect inductive reasoning when she noticed there was a dramatic increase of children and teen smoking in 1988 after the commercials for Camel cigarettes first aired. This is inductive because it is only a guess that the commercials were the cause, but the commercial sounded like a reasonable reason for why teens would start smoking. Teens make up a large part of the T.V. viewers. I don't know what the commercials looks like, but it probably tried to make smoking cool to younger people. Dr. Novello believes the commercial is part of the problem so she worked in schools to education students on the negative correlation between smoking and their health. A good way to convince children and teens not to do something is to scare them into never doing it again. My aunt got my cousin to stop sucking his thumb when he was older by putting a fake bug on his thumb when he was sleeping. When he woke up, he was too scared to keep sucking his thumb after seeing that bug. By teaching the younger generation about disease and health problems, they become too scared to do it. By educating students and banning commercials aimed for teens, the number of children and teens that smoked decreased.

Chapter 7 #1

Within the week, I have used inductive reasoning. I have a friend who is not the best bicyclist in the world. She doesn't know how to avoid people, and she cannot bike with one or no hands. I can't bike with no hands either, but I can bike with one hand. She is not able to read other people's movements good enough to avoid hitting them. One day I saw her biking to school while I was biking home, and I greeted her with a wave and a "hi." She said hi and waved back, but as soon as she took that one hand off the handle bars, her bike swerved. I told her she doesn't have to wave anymore. Because taking a hand off, causes swerving and swerving might cause accidents. Therefore my friend might get hurt if she doesn't control her bike.
This is an inductive argument, because I have reasons to believe she does not always control her bike as well as people hope. When someone is not able to control something he/she are using, it will most likely lead to some sort of accident. My prediction actually came true when she got hit by a car coming out of a parking lot. She is a bit bruised, but she's fine.

Ch 8 #3

I like the Venn Diagram. It helps me because I am able to visualize the different parts of the argument. It is also useful to explain things to younger generations. The book used an example about no dogs are cats and some mammals are cats. With the venn diagram, I could show this statement to a young child and explain that cats and dogs are different things because they are in different circles. This is also a good representation for people who do not exactly understand the relationship between the three things. It can show how some statements do not make sense and is proof that it is wrong. I really like that it is easy to validate and clarify. If there were more premises, I would be too confused. I wouldn't be able to follow all the different segments because there are many lines and shaded in area. I would have to take a few minutes to think everything through and right some extra notes.

Ch 8 #2

Sister Helen Prejean believes that the death penalty is a violation of human dignity and thinks it is wrong. I believe than the saying, "An eye for an eye" is wrong and it does, "leave the whole world blind." If everyone believed in taking revenge every time someone has done them wrong, we will be in a never ending cycle of revenge. I believe in treating people they way I want to be treated. If someone treats me badly, then that person would probably treat me badly too. The person would probably think, "Why should I treat them nicely if they are mean to me?" The death penalty is not allowed in most of the world, and I wished America made it illegal as well. The reading said that the death penalty is legal in thirty-five states of America, which means only fifteen states don't allow it. Only fifteen states. Why do so many Americans support it? Why do so many Christians support it? The death penalty is wasting money and most of the people on death row end up dying of old age. The money spent on keeping prisoners on death row could be used on something more useful. I'm not surprised when I learned that we have the most prisons in the world.

Chapter 8 #1

I agree with Sherlock Holmes when he says people depend on opinions more than facts. I know lots of people who rely on what other people say rather than going to the actual source to get the real facts. I recently was told a dramatic story about my friend's friend and the group she is usually with. Something happened between her and this guy that is part of their group and he got upset over something she did or didn't do. He told everyone that she led him on even though she actually rejected him twice. He made her sound really bad and all the guys believed him. She found out about it and all the guys called her something bad so she got mad because they didn't ask her for her part of the story and just believed the guy. I asked why she didn't confront them about it. She said it has nothing to do with them and if they believe she's actually like that then she doesn't want them as friends.

Chapter 6 #3

I like Boss's concept of asking the right questions. Boss had an example about a lost wallet. Instead of asking, "Who stole my wallet?" which sounds hostile, the person could ask, "Where is my wallet?" The second question is better because it doesn't as mean and people would respond better to that than the first question. If someone used something of mine in my house and I asked, "Who took my candy?" no one will want to tell me she did it, because I sound angry. If I asked in a nicer way, someone probably would have told me it was them because they are not worried about whether or not I'm mad.
By asking the right questions in an argument, I can have people say the answers I want. If I ask a question for the person I'm arguing with, it will either backfire on me or help me in the argument. I have listened to some Oxford style debates in high school and it's all about how you form your questions and statements in a way the other person ends up agreeing with you or is left speechless and unable to come up with an answer. Before I read Boss's concept on asking the right questions, I just thought the people doing these debates were really smart, and wished I could have debates and persuade as well as these people. I thought it was out of my league, but it really isn't.

Chapter 6 #2

There have been times where I have stood my ground on an issue despite the risk of losing my friends or even my job. If I truly believe that what the other party thinks is not okay, then I will not agree with them. For example, if someone I knew told me to steal for them or our friendship will be lost, I would probably stop being friends with that person. If that’s what I have to do to be someone’s friend, then I was never considered a friend to that person to begin with. I don't believe in changing myself to make people like me. I don't want to just listen and agree with the rest of the world. Being a pushover is not a dream of mine. I'll be living in an unhappy life if I was just another sheep in a herd. 

My parents and I have also had some disagreements in my career choice and we have argued about it, but I stood my ground and they don't fight me about it anymore. They do try to make other jobs sound better though.

Chapter 6 #1

I don't think Barack Obama position is consistent with his beliefs in equal rights and opportunities for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, because he does not approve of same-sex marriages. If he does not agree with same-sex marriage, but approve of civil unions and equal rights for same-sex couples, then it sounds like he only supports same-sex couples to an extent. He doesn’t seem willing to support same-sex couples entirely, probably because he doesn’t want all those people who disagree to dislike him. He is just trying to please everyone. Obama would probably say it’s not a denial of the basic rights, because there are civil unions for them. 

I feel like if he was supportive, he should support the same-sex couples completely. Obama should support everything will all he has and not half-heartedly. A good example of someone who supported their own beliefs even when there was a lot of disagreement was President Eisenhower and Little Rock Nine. He supported African Americans going to school enough to send federal troops down to make sure they had a safe day at school. 

Introducing me

Hi, I'm from San Francisco, but I wanted to experience life outside of the city so I applied to San Jose State. It's my second year here so far. I have not experienced life in the dorms though since an upperclassman needed a roommate in her house last year. It's fun living with a bunch of friends.
I'm currently a Liberal Studies major with the goal of becoming a teacher. I'm not sure which grade I would like to teach yet, but second grade or high school History sounds fun.
I like to spend time outside, but I also like to stay in and be on the internet. I recently became interested in biking. I'm planning on commuting with my bike to San Jose's Caltrain and from the Caltrain station in downtown SF, I would bike home. It sounds like a lot of work, but I'd feel better about myself since I'm exercising.