week ( sept. 25- oct. 1)- q1

Arguments are easy to make but do they all make sense? No, some arguments seem to be missing a part to make them sound right or rational. For example, my brother has been waiting a husky and he is been trying convince my parents it’s a good idea to have one.

 His argument is, “Huskies are big. Huskies are full of energy. Huskies are protective. So a husky would keep the house safe.”

My parents asked, “So how can that guarantee the husky will keep the house safe?”

My brother’s argument is incomplete. In the book Critical thinking by Richard L. Epstein it explains how to repair an argument. Epstein says the guide to repairing an argument is to add a premises or conclusion to fulfill “1) the argument becomes stronger or valid. 2) The premise is plausible and would seem plausible to the other person. 3) The premise is more plausible than the conclusion” (62). To make repair my brother argument he would need to add that since huskies are big, full of energy, and protective it would keep any unwanted visitors out, therefore, keeping the house safe. The only thing my parents see when they think of a huskie is a huge dog running inside the house.

week ( sept. 25- oct. 1)- q3 concept

Mistaking the Person for the Argument

A topic that I found very interesting and useful is “mistaking the person for the argument”. Mistaking the person for the argument according to Critical Thinking by Richard L. Epstein is “a mistake to reject an argument solely because of who said it” (98). The definition means that the argument is completely ignored just because of the person or group that said that argument. The complication with that is the argument is being placed a side not because it is good or bad but just because of who is saying it and it is not fair. The person saying the argument should not have an effect on the argument, the argument should be judged for itself. For example, at my job we are fundraising money for our local hospital for the children’s miracle network once I had this respond after asking,

-       “Would you like to donate a dollar to Salinas Memorial Hospital for the Children’s Miracle Network?”

-       They say “No, do you know the money is kept by the corporations and not given to the hospitals? “

The customer is making an argument that money should not be donated to me because I represent a corporation that is going to keep the money. The truth is that the corporation I work for actually matches what we fundraise and donates as well.  But that person t is just ignoring my claim to donate money because I represent a corporation.  

week 3 (sept. 11-17) - q2

Slippery Slope

Fallacies are bad arguments that cannot be repaired. There are there types of fallacies which are Structural, Content, and Violating the Principle of rational discussion. When looking under Content fallacies there you can find slippery slope. Slippery slope is when reasoning happens to where the conclusion is false. For Example, the argument starts with a claim that is true but exaggerates jumping to a not related/possible conclusion.  When people say : “Do not be nice to strangers people! If you do, they kill you” or “If the government helps the poor. Then the poor, will use all the government’s money,” they are making conclusions that are not supported and are an extreme from the claim. When people make either claim about people using all the governments money for just helping the poor they are jumping to extremes about a simple help to a group. Also, when people say that being nice to strangers will get you kill is a slippery slope because they there is no support that all strangers kill you. 

week 3 (sept. 11-17) - q1

Complex Argument Analysis

“I’m on my way to school.1 I left five minutes late. 2 Traffic is heavy.3 Therefore, I’ll be late for class.4 So I might as well stop and get breakfast.5”

Argument? Yes  claims would be 2, 3 and 4 .

Conclusion: the conclusion would be 5.

Additional premises needed? The additional premises would be a person is that heavy traffic make makes a person drive very slowly. Since a person is in a time restrain to get to class but they are running late with traffic they will not get to class in time.

Identify any sub-argument: 1, 2, and 3 are independent and support 4. Then 4 supports the conclusion, 5.

Good argument? Yes

This exercise was help because it helps to analyze a simple argument a person would have verses a long argument they would present when trying to argue.  This is helps to connect claims that are independent to the claim that supports the conclusion. By seeing their reasoning in a ways that is broken down as such: because, because, because, then therefore it makes it simple to understand the claims and conclusion. 

week 3 (sept. 11-17) - concept

Negotiate Effectively

Negotiations are bargains reached by two or more parties that are needed to communicate in all areas. An effective negotiation is not done not placing goals to high that can discourage any type of negotiation. Negotiations are normally helped by a compromise or help reach a compromise. A compromise could be seen as the agreement the parties reach that pleases them both the most. A compromise could be reached by supporting your position and brainstorming the agreement and suggesting other solutions. Being able to have an effective negotiation according to The Essential Guide to Group Communication, means following five easy strategies such the parties must place a side their emotions, have an open mind, listen, understand the other parties perspective, and being introspective (66). For example, my sister is 14 meaning that she still has to ask for permission when she wants to go out to the movie the first time she made plans to go out to the movies with her friends she failed to inform my parents of her plans until last minutes forcing my parents deny her permission. After that my sister was angry at them so my parents and my sister talk/argued that day until my parents and her agreed she was not able to go out that day but in the future she would be able to go out to the movies with her friends as long as she informed them of the basic plans days n advance, who would be going, the time and day. The negotiation was effective only because my parents and sister where able keep an open mind, keep cool and reach a solution they both agreed on (compromise). 

week 2-q1

Strong or Valid Argument Test

The test an argument should pass to be good is according to the Critical Thinking book  in page 42:

• o    the premises are plausible
• o    the premise are more plausible than the conclusion
• o    the argument is valid or strong

The test helps by making sure an argument has reasonable claim. Then it asks for the claim to be more reasonable than the conclusion. Then it asks for an argument that is valid or strong. If an argument is valid the premises must be true as well as the conclusion. While for a strong argument a argument most be invalid but very likely to be true.

For an example:

I can make the argument that…

My dog is 10 years olds.

10 year old dogs move slowly.

So my dog moves slowly.

My premises is true and my conclusion does follow the premises but there is some possibility the conclusion could be false. Therefore my argument is a strong argument. While the claim that all dogs 10 year old move slowly could be questioned. It is unlikely that 10 year old dogs moves quickly since they are old and tired.

week 2-q2

Strong vs. Valid arguments

Valid argument is when there is no way that the premises is true and the conclusion false versus a strong argument is when there is some possibility the premises is true and the conclusion false. A valid argument is defined by a premise that is followed by a conclusion in comparison to a strong or weak argument. For a strong argument the conclusion is invalid since there is some possibility the conclusion could be false. Since there are different degrees of a strong argument it is normally placed on a scale (strong to weak), the difference between a stron and weak argument is the possibility the conclusion is true to the premises. The conclusion must follow the premises to make a strong or valid argument but the conclusion is either valid or invalid making it a valid or strong/weak argument.

A valid argument would be: The earth orbits the sun. So the earth is part of the solar system.

While a strong argument would be: My brother’s room has been light blue for the past 2 years. Today when I went into my brother’s room, his room was green. So my brother must have painted his room.

week 2-concept

Time Pressures

Time pressures in groups’ causes an effect on decision making by interrupting the planning and affecting the leadership skills used. The best way to avoid time pressures is to manage time wisely. In The Group Communication book it states that 1/3 of the time spent in a meeting is used unproductively and that only 3 out of 4 meetings fail to finish on schedule (43-44). While meeting time is not used correctly and productively there are ways to use leadership skills to correct the problem, by taking a nonbinding poll, restricting discussion time, or by not making a decision. A nonbinding poll results in restricting the topics that will be discussed since it shows the places a group is either interested or the topics they already agree on. Restricting time to discuss a topic forces the group members to discuss the topic in a timely manner, by either restricting the floor time of each group member to the discussion or by restricting the discussion time for each topic. Not making a decision can be a better settlement than making wrong decision because of time pressures. The example used in The Group Communication book is of a group given 5 minutes to move from first platform to the 2^nd and 3^rd platform using 2 wooden planks; since the time was so small a person took leadership and informed all group members of the “plan”. The plain fail and for the second try they were given unlimited time and completed the task in 12 minutes (44). The example enforces the idea that making a decision because of time pressure is worse than not making one at all since one person taking control over the situation leaded to a fail in the task. Time pressures in groups should be avoided if trying to complete a task to satisfaction 

week 1c

Communication apprehension is when an individual gets scared or worried about communicating with other people. Communication apprehension seems to have an effect to how well a person does in class or over all in school. In the book the small Group Communication used for class, it says that communication apprehension affects 20 percent of the population (13). When transferring that percentage to numbers it makes it clear that apprehension affects about 20 out 100 people. I can personally say that when I was a child I was very apprehensive about communicating with new people. When growing up children are normally kept with a few of their classmates if not most for the next school year meaning that children are used to those student and are not so apprehensive until they are moved from elementary to Junior high or from Junior high to High school. When I reach college I left the comfort of my high school classmates. As the first college semester started I was scared about having to communicate with other people, as the semester continued I learned to control such the anxiety. When a person lets their anxiety or fear control their communication skill they are not liked by others since they do not contribute to group discussions or society. The main focus with communication apprehension is that it can affect how well a person does in school or liife and makes a person look socially awkward but the apprehension should be controlled by the individual.

week 1b

Being a vague means that the person is not being specific enough to understand what they are talking about. A vague sentence refers to that idea of a sentence being open for interpretation. A vague sentence can be read and mean many things. An ambiguous sentence is vague but is limited in interpretation to just a few options. An ambiguous sentence mostly inner changes the meaning such this Wednesday when I was fixing my room and I asked my friend for a hand and she said “sure but I am not sure how my hand is going to help.” She knew what I was talking about but she pointed out how ambiguous my sentence was. Most of the time people are ambiguous because the meaning of words can be interchange. I personally think that most commercials are ambiguous such Trojan condom commercial when they say “you just can’t wait to get it on” because they can be referring to using the condom itself or actual the fact that the people want to have sex.