Week 4: Chapter 6

Chapter 6 explained Compound Claim as, "One composed of other claims, but which as to be viewed as just one claim."  It typically uses the conjunction, "or" to connect two or more thoughts to make a new claim.  A compound claim can help people prove a claim with the given luxury of additional support without changing the original claim.  It simple terms, a compound claim helps us add extra flavor to the existing claim without having to change the main dish!  It's fun and everyone should try using this claim. =)

Everyday examples would be in the following:

"I'll wake up early tomorrow to make you breakfast or I'll owe you two breakfast meals."

Lol if I cannot commit to keeping my promise, I'll have to double it up.  I have promised to do one or the other.

"I better get good grades or I'll disappoint my parents."

Did I promise to get good grades?  No.  Did I promise to to disappoint my parents?  No.  I promised to do one or the other.

Compound claims can be very helpful to enhance a claim or to prove a point.  For me, compound claims are fun and useful because it gives me the chance to contrast a claim with more than one point.

Week 3: Common Mistakes in Evaluating Premises

Epstein uses Chapter 5 on page 96 to discuss about 5 topics about the Common Mistakes in Evaluating Premises in the following:

1. Arguing Backwards
2. Confusing Possibility with Plausibility
3. Bad Appeals to Authority
4. Mistaking the Person for the Claim
5. Mistaking the Person for the Argument

Mistaking the Person for the Claim stands out to me the most because we do this very often; We tend to make judgement and easily reject a claim because of who said it and we should not do that because it's one of the common mistakes in evaluating premises.  An example I've came across is from my humorous friend Kim, she's jokes about a lot of things and almost about everything.  Its almost hard to take her seriously because she's a goofy person to be around and it's fun for the most part.  She approached me last week and asked me to start hitting the gym with her because she has gained 5 pounds in the past week.  I did not take her seriously at all and disregarded her comment, stating she looks fine and that we should go get dessert instead.  Unexpectedly she got really sad and told me she wasn't joking.  I felt really bad and had to apologize on the spot.  After studying this Chapter, it teaches me to to evaluate premises more carefully and to make sure that I do not make common mistakes especially when it comes to hurting someone's feelings.

Week 3: Advertising on the Internet

Link of Advertisement: 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://jeiji.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/mcdonalds_finals.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://jeiji.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/defining-the-ambiguous/&usg=__5vXJpNF-tHlkJNY6plG_OrbRSBU=&h=783&w=603&sz=372&hl=en&start=44&zoom=1&tbnid=Llsfa-S2qSF9pM:&tbnh=161&tbnw=124&ei=86sDTsaqINDRiAL1mdGTDg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmcdonalds%2Badvertising%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1017%26bih%3D609%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=404&vpy=237&dur=2015&hovh=256&hovw=197&tx=104&ty=148&page=4&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:44&biw=1017&bih=609

Years ago, Mc Donalds came up with a stellar slogan that got everyone hooked, "i'm lovin' it."  I couldn't stop saying it, every one around me was saying it, as it was also all over television.  To my recollection, I even remember Justin Timberlake signing the slogan and doing an advertisement for Mc Donalds.  Haha, their slogan was an epidemic of the advertising world.  I choose the Angus third pounder advertisement from Mc Donalds because it looks extremely appealing to eat and I love meat! =) 

In Section A of Chapter 5, the book teaches us how to evaluate the premises in three ways for an argument to be good:  "There is good reason to believe the premises.  The premises are more plausible than the conclusion.  And, the argument is valid or strong."  In Section B, it teaches us to accept a claim from personal experiences or other credible sources.

After seeing the advertisement on T.V. just like many others, I excitedly tried their new burger for lunch since I was craving a beef burger.  Sadly, it was not what I expected it to be and thought since they were promoting the third pounder that it might just be worth wild to try.  Remembering the way it looked on the advertisement, I was thinking that it will probably taste close to a decent restaurant burger for the price that Mc Donalds was charging for the burger but I was wrong.  The burger did turned out to be a third pounder but it was so dry and overcooked.  It was so bad, I have never ordered it again since then.

I've concluded that just because the advertisement pressed for a good argument with their appealing picture, the premises are more plausible than the conclusion.  Their slogan allowed them to lure customers in and their pictures made the burger ten times tastier.  From my experience, I would not recommend this burger and go for the $6 burger from Carol's Jr. any day. =)

Week 3: Fallacies

In Chapter 11 in section D, Epstein explains the concept of, "Violating the Principle of Rational Discussion" and how the four principles creates a bad argument.  Begging the question is when someone is arguing that a claim is true making all premises of an argument more believable than the conclusion itself.  Strawman is when you disregard the other person's argument by not understanding it then by putting words into their mouth.  Shifting the burden of proof is not wanting to prove your own claims.  Relevance is when premises are not relevant to the conclusion but dont be tricked because it is not a fallacy.  It's an observation of a weak argument.

My mom occasionally violates the Principle of Rational Discussion by using Strawman and thank goodness it wasn't on me.  I feel bad that my dad is the bullet taker but that's why he loves her.  =)  A month ago for Mother's day, my dad asked me if he should buy my mom her favorite flowers or just to take her out?  I answered, of course you should buy her flowers, she'll love it.  Hence, he prepared a boutique arrangement for her and hide it outside.  The morning of Mother's day, my father went out for a hair cut in the then came back.  He noticed my mom was in the room so he quickly fetched the boutique and brought them in to display it on our dinning table.  My mom walked out with a smirk on her face and said, "WOW, aren't I special?  My husband got me flowers the DAY OF Mother's Day... how thoughtful?!  My dad replied, "I did planning to get you these flowers for you, I did NOT just get it now."  Mom replied, "Sure, that's why you were gone all morning."  I'm sure you guys can see where this conversation is going.  My mom exampled Strawman by disregarding  my dad's argument and exemplify hers by putting words into his mouth.  Too funny.

Week 2: Small Group Text, Leadership

In this week's reading, the Leadership role stood out to me most because it inspires me to be a good leader one day.  According to the Essential Guide to Group Communication book, leadership is define as, "Exercise of interpersonal influence toward the attainment of goals."  Then it is followed by three factors:  the leader has to bring desirable outcomes, enhance credibility with the group, and should be able to inspire and motivate group members to participate.

Although the definition in the book can be a little bit tongue twisting, how I interpreted the definition of leadership is, a leader should be responsible for positively influencing a group towards achieving one common goal.  A leader should be able to coach and guild their group to success by bringing desirable outcomes to the table.  A leader should be the greatest role model and have credibility with the group.  Last but not least, a leader should be able to entice people by motivating and inspiring them to do what they do everyday.

People in all different work fields come to work everyday to fulfill their task/ expectations to gain experience or to make money.  In my opinion, it is crucial to have a great leader to lead by example- One to set the right expectation then to give praise when it's being done correctly.  It will be difficult to work in a field without a leader because then, we will never know what's our progress.

Hence with a leader, we will have a set expectation on how to attain our goal and be content with a desirable outcome.

Week 2: Strong vs. Valid Arguments

In order for an argument to be valid, the premise and conclusion must both be true.  It is not a valid argument if the premises are true but the conclusion is false.


A strong argument can hold true premises but the conclusion can false at the same time.  


An example of a valid argument would be, "It is against the law to drink and drive in the state of California."  We cannot argue this statement to be false because it is a set law.  This statement is a fact, therefore it cannot be proven false.  Another valid argument would be, "Bob is lactose intolerance, therefore if he drinks milk, he will get a stomachache.  The premise is Bob is lactose intolerance leading to the conclusion that he will get a stomachache.


An example of a strong argument would be, "Drinking and driving is unsafe and will cause accidents."  There is a big correlation between being under the influence of alcohol and getting into an accident.  It is a strong argument because it is dangerous to drive under the influence of alcohol but it cannot be proven as a true statement every single time because not everyone who drinks will get into an accident.

Week 2: Subjective and Objective Claims

A Subjective claim is based on one's belief, value, or opinion.  And because the claim can be based on someone's emotion, the claim cannot be proven right or wrong.

An Objective claim is the complete opposite of the subjective claim because this claim contains facts and knowledge that can be proven.  Once the claim is made, the information can true or false.  An objective claim can hold more creditbility because this claim uses actual facts.

An example of a Subjective claim is when I tend to make comments like, "Wow, that person is 5'10 and she's tall!"  I'm a very small and petite girl so I feel as if a lot people are taller than me.  Although, these people are taller than me it doesn't make the statement true as a general idea.  My statement is only based off of my own experience and opinion.  Hence, it holds no facts or validity becuase if someone were to be 6'5, he or she will not think someone being 5'10 is tall.  I think I will continue to make these subjective claims because I'm so petite and everyone seems so much taller than me but now I know that it's only within my own opinion.

An example of an Objective claim is when my manager tells me, "You are scheduled from 9-6 to come into work everyday.  It is the company's policy to abide to these working hours therefore, it is a factual statement that I have to agree to in order to keep my job.  My manager's statement can be proven true or not true because if I had an event of an emergency, I may not be able to come in at exactly 9am even if it is the company's policy.  An Objective claim holds fact and knowledge and can be proven.

Linda's Introductory

Hi Class!

My alias name is Linda and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.  A little bit about myself:  I love being outdoors.  I cannot stay in my house for longer than a few hours unless it's studying or bedtime.  I enjoy the fresh air of nature and the lovely sunshine when the weather permits.  When it's the summer time, my friends and I enjoy camping and hiking very much.  Then when the winter comes, we also love our cabin and snowboarding trips.  If I'm not working or studying for school, I'm a sucker for finding new eating spots.  I love food too!  Hopefully, we'll have more time to get to know each other. =)

I'm excited to take this course because I can always better my communication skills in the things I do everyday.  My current job is in the customer service field where my employer has a set expectation of how I should deliver good service day in and day out.  Typically things would go well but when it doesn't, we have customers going irate.  My solution now is to escalate the matter in hopes that my manager would be able to solve the issue.  In this course, I hope to learn about the different levels of communicating to people and how to explain things thoroughly with logic and reasoning.  I want to be able to analyze arguments in a situational setting.

I've never taken an online course before, but I love it how everything is very straight forward and to the point of what's expected of me.  I'm still re-reading everything many times so hopefully I would catch on to things quickly. =)