Last Week Discussion, Question 3

Finally the last post! A concept that I feel could use further discussion from this class is probably making decisions while working in small groups, especially designated towards the group facilitation assignment we just completed. In the process of making these decisions, the participants in the sample used various types of communication styles like assertive, passive, and passive aggressive. However this was the only thing I went in depth about in the paper. I feel like there are more topics to discuss when making these decisions in such a limited amount of time. In 20 minutes, hypothetically, the group was supposed to hire one of a given amount of candidates for a Public Relations job. However, the group could only discuss so many pros and cons about the candidates in such a small amount of time. I feel like there could've been more progressive ways of making such a significant decision. But since we didn't have the experience, there wasn't much we could do.

Anyways, thank you all for the great semester. I hope you all have great success in your endeavors. Peace out!

-Chandler Martin  

Last Week Discussion, Question 2

My favorite thing about the class was definitely getting together with the groups and having the group essay assignments, because for me, it makes it a whole lot easier getting quality work done when 4 people put pieces together and are able to edit it the way you want them. Also being able to share thoughts makes for interesting discussions and even broader, more in depth responses to questions. My least favorite thing was hands down the fact that it was online. Although it was me who signed up for the class, it was my first time doing an online class and I never really adapted to not going to class twice a week and having to remember to check the website constantly. Unfortunately, this hindered my grade, but I know that I could've done much better had it been a physical class. Honestly, I don't think the class can be improved. It was a good class, and was fun yet challenging at the same time.

Last Week Discussion, Question 1

Throughout the course of the semester, I have learned many things. I think the most significant concept I learned was the difference between the various types of arguments, such as: deductive, inductive, and elimination. In the Think book, the example given in form of a syllogism is that:
1. All men are mortal
2. All fathers are men
3. Therefore, all fathers are mortal
I find this to be really interesting because we as people argue generally every day when we disagree about something, but to look at these claims from a broader, more in depth perspective is very curious. Also, the fact that you can have these same types of syllogisms, but they can be flawed too. An example given in the book is:
1. All men are tall people.
2. Tom Cruise is a man.
3. Therefore, Tom Cruise is a tall person.
However, generally people know that Tom Cruise isn't very tall. I just think the way it can go back and forth between true premises and can easily be either valid or invalid is compelling.

Chapter 12 Question 2

Events where your assumption is wrong and it causes you turmoil are really annoying and inconvenient. In the past I have done things like wake up for class late and I have missed tests because my alarm was set for PM instead of AM at like 6 in the morning and all I do is sleep in for like 5 hours extra. Another instance was when my friends were saying they couldn't hear me until a point where I was border line yelling and then they told me they could hear me the entire time and it was funny afterwards. All it was for was a quick joke and it turned out to  be really funny afterwards. However this can get really serious where you can make a false accusation or something and it has lead to a suicide or something. Like maybe someone joked about cheating on someone somebody truly loved and then the result is them killing themselves.

Chapter 12, Question 1

This is a time of personal beginnings, when you find yourself shot into the limelight and all eyes turn toward you to see what you're going to do next. This may be somewhat startling, as it's rather different than what last month brought, and you will need to step up and display your self-confidence in a way that wasn't called on before. In a volatile situation you will need to have your wits about you as you will have a particularly high profile. The trick is to handle it with grace and not let it go to your head, as this too shall pass and you'll want to look back on a performance that maximized the opportunities dropped into your lap.

In today's horoscope for a zodiac sign Cancer it's pretty much telling me that I am going to be in the spotlight and that all eyes will be on me for a solid amount of time. The horoscope is telling me that I need to handle this attention in a humble manner and not let it get to my head. However, if I let all of this constant attention get to my head and get too self confident or cocky, I'll let the opportunities that fall into my lap slip away. The prediction in my opinion has its correct and incorrect portions. It's right in a sense saying to stay self-confident when I get attention and not let myself fall under pressure, but I don't agree with the fact that it said I will be found in the limelight now. I don't feel like any eyes will be on me anytime in the near future and I think that I'll continue living a normal life. The prediction is definitely falsifiable because I can tell whether I'm getting a lot of attention or not and I can manipulate the outcome of the prediction by becoming more social or antisocial. For example, if I were to just stay on routine, nobody will think any different of me. However, if I become more social or antisocial, then people will begin to notice and then all the eyes will be turned on me.

Chapter 11 Question 3

Social Networking is a topic I found very interesting in Chapter 11. Over the course of the past 10 years or so social networking has really launched and made an immense impact on todays society. Social networking helps build relationships and makes it incredibly easy for someone to contact a friend. This process is extremely convenient for its users and has been proven to make people's lives much easier from a communication standpoint. I believe however the problem with social networking is that people lose a sense of how to communicate in the real world by social networking too much. If we're constantly talking through text on a screen, I feel like over time talking one on one will become more difficult. Another problem of social networking is that nobody really knows who you're really talking to. I could be talking to someone who shares my friends name but I NEVER actually know if it's really him or her. I could be talking to someone who created an account under my friends name. It's a mystery sometimes and it can result very badly.

Chapter 11 Question 2

In the argument about whether or not plagiarizing should be allowed or not, both authors Sadler and Hunt make valid points. Sadler makes good points about why plagiarism is bad and should be avoided at all costs by students. He makes a list of ten reasons why plagiarism is bad. The way he feels about plagiarism is that it's unethical and that students shouldn't do it. On the other hand, Russell Hunt makes good points as to why it should be alright for students to be able to plagiarize. The argument is a curious one especially from a student's standpoint. I obviously would like to see plagiarism be okay just because it would make assignments easier, but I know that it will never happen because it really is essentially stealing ideas from someone else. I've also had bad experiences when I have plagiarized resulting in strict punishments so I know never to do it again.

Chapter 11 Question 1

The media has an incredible impact on the world. The impact the media has has significantly increased over the past 5 years due to things blowing up like facebook and twitter. The fact that people follow individuals' personal lives on twitter makes an incredible impact on the followers' lives. Anything anyone says on twitter can be used against them and can be seen by many and is essentially a 160 character press conference. The poster can say anything they want about any topic in the world and millions of people will have then found out the poster's standpoint on that topic. The election causes a stir especially around the media. When things like the debates happen, twitter is a centerpiece to hosting any discussions about what occurs during the debate and potentially who's winning. Through the use of this simple website, the significance of media in the world changes drastically.

Chapter 10 Question 3

The concept that I found most interesting from Chapter 10 was the concept of marketing strategy. I find it really interesting that companies can find so many different ways of getting consumers to purchase products or join movements or whatever their goals are. They can use anything like humor, guilt, celebrity endorsement, sex, slogans, etc. There are so many different techniques it's nearly uncountable. The ones that tend to work the best I believe are sex and humor. The ones that shine the brightest are definitely during the Super Bowl where they pay millions for the air-time, so they make it count. These commercials are watched by literally millions all at once and have so much power when it comes to marketing advertisement. The fact that millions of people are gathered, watching these commercials and laughing at these commercials and using sex appeal to persuade make it very easy to motivate a consumer to purchase what they're selling.

Chapter 10 Question 2

This argument is one that's difficult to really pick a side. Wootan's claim makes sense because the advertising towards children easily persuades them to want to buy the products being offered which contributes to our unhealthy youth. It is a big problem in today's society. However, Liodice's claim is pretty much that any companies that are trying to advertise have every right to use anything permitted by Freedom of Speech and legal to publish. I have to take Liodice's claim on this subject because the children are not buying the products and it really comes down to parents disciplining their children. They need to learn how to tell their children "no" because if they allow the kids to consume the junk food that's being sold, the nation's youth will suffer. It's perfectly fine to advertise in the manner they're doing now. It's just a matter of whether or not the parents will allow them to watch the commercials or buy the products for their children.

Chapter 10 Question 1

An advertising strategy is a technique used to motivate the consumer to do what's wanted by the seller or one trying to persuade. Different marketing strategies I have experienced this week include an Audi commercial where all of the scenery was black and white and the Audi was colored red. This was not a good marketing strategy because I didn't feel very motivated to buy an Audi afterwards. All it did was show me a 2013 car that's coming out with not very many new features. It's just a car. On the other hand, the new Samsung Galaxy Note 2 features LeBron James in the commercial and it shows how much you can do on the phone all while James is enjoying using it. This makes me want to purchase the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 because it has many new features and they make an effort to point that out.

Chapter 4 Question 3

In chapter 4, I found that the controversy between rationalism and empiricism was the most interesting concept. A rationalist is someone who makes his or her judgment based on solely logical reasoning and an empiricist makes his or her judgment based on sense-experience. An example of rationalism is like when you look at a straw in a cup of water and it appears bent, but you know it is not. Another example is like going to a magic show and you watch someone get sawed in half. You know they really didn't get sawed in half or else they'd be dead. This is logic being put to work. These same examples can be used as examples of empiricism because without past knowledge on the subject, you wouldn't be able to apply logic to the situation. It would appear that the straw is bent or the person got sawed in half and you would assume that was correct.

Chapter 4 Question 1

The heritage dictionary defines knowledge as "facts, information and skills acquired by a person through experience or education." The same dictionary defines wisdom as "the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment." Knowledge is just informations and skills learned through experience and wisdom is the quality of having knowledge. As students in college, we gain knowledge primarily through our classes, studying and doing homework. We also learn other facts through life experiences and other situations. For example, if one is studying math and a professor teaches a formula, when you retain that information, that's considered knowledge. However, we gain wisdom by acquiring this knowledge and experiencing different situations. When we experience these situations more than once, we can correctly analyze the situations if we hadn't before, thus having good judgment. For example, if I fail a test, I'll know next time to study harder to assure I don't fail next time.

Chapter 3, Question 3

One of the sections in Chapter 3 that I found interesting was the nonverbal communication portion. The fact that animals generally use nonverbal communication is incredibly fascinating. Especially like bees dancing to let each other know what they're saying, stingrays using sonic waves to tell each other what's going on and things like that. I for one have a lot of experience with nonverbal communication just because I use it so frequently. For example, while playing basketball, a simple hand gesture or head nod can tell somebody what position I want them to be on the court or where I'm going or where I want them to go. Gestures can also make teaching or persuading a whole lot easier just by explaining through hand motion or body motion to tell the learner what to do. Nonverbal communication is an important factor on a lot of people's lives and is used by almost everyone on a daily basis.

Chapter 3, Question 2

A rhetorical device is the use of euphemisms, dysphemisms, hyperbole, and sarcasm to manipulate and persuade. An example of a rhetorical device that I experienced in the last week or two was when I was just talking to my friends over the internet. I simply stated to them that I have no friends just because I was lonely or something (But really I have no friends) and they understood that by saying "I have no friends," it was a form of sarcasm for actually saying that I have friends but none of them were present. Another form is a Euphemism that I experienced just the other day. On account information on Facebook/ Myspace, you can put your body type as "A little extra" which generally means you're on the chunky side but not obese. A friend of mine who is not "a little extra" but much larger, had said that he was "a little extra." Although we take it as a joke because we know that it's not true and he doesn't actually mean that.

Chapter 3, Question 1

As Sally Ride was finishing up her Ph.D. in Physics at Stanford University, she noticed an ad in the college newspaper for a job opportunity at NASA and out of 8,000 applicants, she was one of thirty-five people chosen. Obviously the biggest reason she got it was the Ph.D. in Physics, but other characteristics that got her the job were her analytical and critical thinking skills. Ride was chosen as capcom for the first and second shuttle flights, which is the person who handles all ground-to-staff communication. Due to her communication skills, she became an icon at NASA, helping address the United Nations and putting together the report for NASA, Leadership and the American Future in Space. Being the first woman in space, Ride also took the time to write several children's books encouraging girls, for the most part, to develop their interests in science, leadership, writing, and communication skills.

Chapter 2, Question 3

For the last question of this weeks chapter, I wanted to go more in depth about Dawkins vs. Aquinas perspectives on the debate of God vs. Evolution. In one of the arguments brought up by Aquinas, it is concluded that "things in the world look as though they have been designed. Nothing that we know looks designed unless it is designed. Therefore there must have been a designer and we call him God..." Why does there HAVE to be a designer? Why can't things just be the way they are naturally? This is where the theory of evolution comes into play because the theory basically proves that things don't need to be "designed" in the beginning and that organisms adapt to their surroundings to survive. It's a much more logical theory to believe than "God just designed them because there was no reason for living things to appear as advanced as they are."

Chapter 2, Question 2

This question is difficult to answer considering the standpoints you have to take into account. If you take Aquinas' standpoint, evolution wouldn't even be considered an option. Most of his claims are based on an infinite regress. An example of his claims is that everything must have came from something; something cannot exist without the existence of something else. If you were to believe that nothing existed from the beginning, then there would be no way of anything existing now. This proves that God must be real because there must have been something non-physical to bring at least 2 things into existence to make anything exist. The problem with this statement is that the infinite regress doesn't apply to God. Since nothing from the beginning was in existence, there must be a God, who is immune to the regress, that makes things exist, all for the satisfaction of the theory. There isn't a way this can be proven.

Chapter 2, Question 1

Out of the possible reasonings, I personally believe that the strongest reasoning I can use to my advantage and potentially use in a career choice would be logical reasoning. I feel like logical reasoning would generally be the best to associate with most careers. In most situations common sense is used in every basic job, so that would accumulate to an immense amount of occupations. Since common sense is used generally every day, I have to make a conclusion that possessing strength in logical reasoning would make any job easier considering common sense falls under the category of logical reasoning. Not only the fact that common sense is associated with logical reasoning, but because a majority of people don’t use deductive or inductive reasoning or they don’t dissect an argument enough to win. Most arguments are generally based on logical reasoning so you’d be winning a majority of your arguments.

Chapter 7 Question 3

Chapter 7 Question 2

Chapter 7 Question 1

An inductive argument that I experienced last week happened during my job. I was working as the guy who makes sure all the food is stocked up and ready to serve to customers. During my job, the person who was working the grill asked me to fetch him more burger patties, so I did. However, these burger patties need to be refrigerated or kept in some sort of cooling environment to assure quality. Unfortunately, they were left out in room temperature for more than two hours. I told him we needed to throw them out due to the exposure to a high temperature for so long. I know for a fact that if the frozen burgers are left out in the open for that long, they're gonna go bad. He told me they'd be fine, but it was obvious from how they looked that they could potentially make customers ill.

This is an inductive argument because it's a fact that burgers must be kept refrigerated to assure quality and that too much exposure to high temperatures (aside from frying them) will make them go bad.

Chapter 8 Question 3

A concept that was quite interesting to me in chapter 8 were the deductive reasonings and syllogisms. In the chapter, one of the examples of a deductive argument was that "All men are mortal. All fathers are men. Therefore, all fathers are mortal." By using these 2 supporting premises, one can make a conclusion based on deductive reasoning. However, this concept is not always correct. In another example, it was stated that "All men are tall people. Tom Cruise is a man. Therefore, Tom Cruise is tall." The deductive reasoning in this statement is incorrect because one of the premises is incorrect. Obviously, not all men are tall people, and Tom Cruise isn't a tall man. This shows how it is important to make sure your premises are correct in order to make a logically correct deductive argument. Even the smallest of errors in your argument can make your argument invalid.

Chapter 8, Question 2

In this situation, I don't believe a death penalty is completely necessary, but I do believe something more along the lines of total isolation from the outside world (prison, solitary confinement etc.) should be incorporated into the lives of killers.

In Exodus 21:12, it is stated that "Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death." This verse pretty much states that whoever kills a man should be killed. I believe the death penalty is a bit extreme, but if it works, then the law should adopt the death penalty to prevent murder.

In Romans 12:19, it is stated that "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." This excerpt says that God will avenge all who have been murdered and will send all murders to eternity in hell for what he or she has committed. The problem with this scenario is that how will that prevent people from killing once he or she has already murdered? Killing everyone on earth and killing one people would ultimately have the same penalty: An eternal afterlife in hell. This doesn't do a justice to me. Action needs to be taken place throughout the course of a murderer's life in order to stop them from killing more than one person.

Chapter 8, Question 1

I've realized in past experiences that most people who I've argued with try to win the argument without proper sources of information and end up losing the argument because he or she lacks correct information. I've also witnessed situations where someone is trying to win an argument when he or she has no clue what he or she's talking about. I've experienced this situation at my job in the dish room where one of my coworkers was trying to tell me how the machine cleaned the dishes. He was explaining which way was the correct way to put the dishes in and all of his "facts" were going right over my head because one week before the incident, an Ecolab agent (Ecolab is the brand of the dishwasher) was in the dish room telling me, personally, how to correctly put the dishes in. Needless to say, I won the argument. This is just one of many examples of this type of situations I've experienced.