week 8 post 2

Chapter 8 in Epstein's book was all about general claims. Two important topics that were discussed in this chapter included both precise generalities and vague generalities. These two topics basically help you find a good/bad or a strong/weak argument hich is important in communication. Lets start with vague generalities. These generalities use words such as most,all, and most rather then using specific numbers or statistics when referring to a group of something.
Ex. Almost all wealthy people have a college degree. Bill Gates is wealthy. So Bill Gates has a collegr degree. This is false because he does not have a degree and thr term almost all could be misleading because it doesnt show the exact number which would be a lot more specific.
Precise generalities use precise numbers or statistics when referring to a group of something.
Ex. 96% give or take 1% of all gamblers get into some sort of trouble when they first start. I am a gambler. So i got into some sort of trouble when i started out gambling. This is a good strong argument because 96% is a huge number and most like i fall into that category. Using a precise generality is good because it can reinforce your argument and make it strong. Dont use vague generalitiea unless you have to. They can make things seem more or less important than they really are.

Week 9 post 1

The second major course assignment I felt provided much usefulness to us. This class is a communication class and we had to work together as a group during this assignment. This alone helps with our communication skills as a group. The better our communication the easier the project was going to be and if we needed to improve communication this assignment will help do so. Another useful aspect of this project was digging deep into an organization. The one my group chose for example was the ASPCA. While writing our paper and answering the questions it helps us really find out how the company thinks to an extent. How do they use certain tactics to appeal to the community. We learn how these companies use these tactics for their advantage. One example for the ASPCA was their appeal to emotion. They would play a sad song while they showed pictures of animals who were in need of help. This plays to anyones emotions because no one can just look at a starved puppy and be like,” haha so what?” No matter who you are this tactic they use gets to you in some way.

Post 3

In chapter six we learned about false dilemma and the slippery slope concept. i felt that both of these topics should be addressed because the slippery slope concept i thought was interesting and false dilemma was discussed on our test we took last week.A false dilemma normally comes up when you find yourself thinking "is this a versus claim?" False dilemmas occur when the"or" claim does not list all of the other possibilities. My parents tell me i have to give up gambling or i am going to be in debt. This or claim that my parents are making is not necessarily true because i could potentially make money and acquire no debt whatsoever.
Slippery slope argument sorta ties into false dilemma because it also talks about statements being false. i sort of got a little confused with the two subjects. A slippery slope argument is a bad argument that uses a chain of conditionals at least one is false or dubious. slippery slopes can be exaggerated in my opinion let us refer to my poker example above. If i gamble online then ill get addicted. then ill spend money i do not have and i will go into debt. This chain is all correct only if i become addicted. If i do not come addicted then the other statements most likely become false.

chapter 7. counterarguments

One topic discussed in chapter 7 was the concept of raising objection. Raising objection is basically when you question an argument whether it is your own or someone else's. This helps to show how bad the argument really is because these objections point out weaknesses in the argument. Your argument may seem strong with good premises and a conclusion that flows together, but if you can think of objections then your argument is not as good as you think.
Another concept discussed was refuting an argument. You can do this by either directly or indirectly and there's 3 things to look for when doing it directly.
show at least one of the premises is dubious.
show that the argument is not strong or valid.
show that the conclusion is false.
refuting indirectly is when you can't pin point a bad premise or anything but you can prove that the conclusion or end result is not wanted. This chapter focused on how you can use "argument" to improve your one argument and make them stronger.

Conditionals , Contrapositive, and contradictories

Chapter six was an interesting read for me. It let me hone in on specifics of a sentence which was a nice concept for me. One thing mentioned in chapter six was necessary and sufficient conditions. I thought this was interesting. I liked the example that they used in the book referring to taking an eye test and getting your drivers license.
A is necessary for B means If not A, then not B is true
A is sufficient for B means If a, then B is true.
A claim and its contrapositive is equivalent. It is sometimes easier to understand a conditional via its contrapositive. A claim is conditional if it can be rewritten as an “if . . .then . . .”claim that must have the same truth-value. This brings us to a contradictory of a conditional which establishes if A, then B has a contradictory A but not B. This contradictory is a but statement which proves B to not necessarily be a true statement.

repairing arguments

Repairing an argument can be a good skill to learn to do properly when it comes to communication.repairing an argument correctly will make the argument stronger. Repairing an argument focuses on the"glue" that will hold the argument together. Premises will be added to the weak argument in the repairing process. An example is...
Smartphones are expensive.
Messaging phones are inexpensive.
Smartphones are.better phones.
There is nothing here to backup the statement that smartphobes are better. One person might believe that smartphones are better and others may not agree. Just because one perwon says they are better doesn't mean that they are. Smartphones have better quality material because they are expensive therefore they are more durable. Messaging phones have a lower budget therefore cheaper parts are used and they can not be as durable. Smartphones have more advanced technology in them which allows a better and more advanced user experience. These premises are what gives the argument more strength. By doing this we repair the Argument and make it valid and strong. Repairing arguments can be a key part of communication so learn about it.

suspend judgement.

i chose this topic because i feel that everyone can relate to it. Everyone in today's society makes judgements based upon first looks and first impressions. People need to not jump to conclusions and find actual evidence to back up their reasons. This is where suspend judgement comes into play. It is the time you take to find their "evidence" in order to support their decision. One example I can think of would be....
I received an F on one of my tests.
My classmates assumed that since I received an F that I must be unintelligent.
If they took a little time.to fins out I had an A in the class and that's the only test I ever failed then they would have a better assumption about my intelligence.
People jump to conclusions far to often without having the right facts. If people just applied suspend judgement then maybe these incorrect assumptions would happen far less often compared to now.