Something Useful

During this semester, I found that fallacies are really useful. A fallacy is “a bad argument of one of the types that have been agreed to be typically repaired” (Epstein). There are three types and most of them are bad. I think that the content fallacies are important such as false dilemma, appeal to emotion, drawing the line and etc.  Also, in chapter 14, I found that generalization is interesting. We generalize every day with a claim or an argument. To better generalize, we have to have examples; that’s just how the world works. Everyone generalizes from regular people to scientists. Generalizing is “when we are generalizing, if we could conclude a claim about a group, the population, from a claim about some part of it, the sample. To generalize is to make an argument” (EPSTEIN). I think everyone makes an argument everyday, they just do not know yet because they haven’t learned these critical thinking concepts.

What I Learned

We have covered many chapters during this fall semester. I think that I learned most of the stuff that we have covered so far. Most concepts I never even heard of until now. In addition, we use most concepts as an everyday life thing. Some of the concepts that I learned in COMM 41 class is useful because I am also learning it in my English class. I knew almost all of the concepts in my English class because I have already learned it in this class such as strawman, begging the question, appeal to pity, appeal to emotion, appeal to fear, question authority and many more. When I saw that in my English class, I said I was going to get a good the quiz because I know it already. First time I read about vague I understood it so well. I think that was one of the easiest definitions and concept. I learned about accepting and rejecting claims and when to accept, or reject claims. I really learned a lot this semester. Though sometimes the book can be confusing, my blog mates helped me out with their examples and then somehow I get it.

Feed back.

2). What was your favorite thing about this class?  What was your least favorite thing about this class?  How can this class be improved?

My favorite thing about this class was that it is online. This class saved a lot of my time. I have work and I am traveling from and to school so it gives me the opportunity to do something else. If this class were on campus, I would not be able to have a break in between my classes. I am taking all my classes in one day and I have a 2-hour gap for lunch. If I did not have that gap, I would be miserable and cranky in class. Nevertheless, thank goodness this is an online course. My least favorite thing about this class is that we have to meet up with our groups. I do not have problems with that, but we all have our own busy life to live. Not everyone would be able to meet at the same day and same time. It took my group forever to pick a day so we can work on assignment 3. In my opinion, I think that there should not be any group work; just make it individual work. Group work is too hard because not everyone can get together. If there will be group work, it should be mandatory that everyone in the class show up on campus plus the professor. That way everyone can get into their groups without a problem.