December 2-9 Question 3

I think throughout this whole semester, my favorite was when I learned about generalization. Generalization happens so often and the strange thing is that I was never really aware of it before this class. Once I learned about it, I was able to see it over and over on TV, in the magazines I read, in conversations with other classmates, etc… The strange thing is that I even find my teachers making generalizations about the students in their class. It’s disappointing really, and always hearing them making the same mistake is actually quite scary. I think that there is a point at which teachers should learn about generalizations as well as students because each semester, there is a very easy one that can be made about their students. Generalizations are dangerous and can lead to many problems and assumptions that might end up being bad. To be a good critical thinker, one needs to avoid making generalizations and understand and recognize when there is a generalization being made.

December 2-9 Question 2

My favorite thing about the class was definitely the open forum aspect of the blogs. We were able to comment on each other’s blogs and give each other feedback on each other’s ideas and thoughts. I think that this aspect is missing in a lot of classes. The sharing of information and ideas is missing in a lot of the classes that I attend now. We tend to, as students, keep to ourselves and forget that college is really a place to share information. My least favorite thing about the class would probably be how we didn’t really have as many application opportunities for what we learned. We did have a few projects here and there, but I think the best thing when learning about critical thinking is putting it into practice and knowing how to think about different things that you encounter in your everyday life. The class could probably be improved by more projects, ones that challenge the student to really put what they’ve learned to the test.

December 2-9 Question 1

Something that I have learned and been reminded of over and over is how easily it is to be taken advantage of when you are not able to think about problems critically. There are many different aspects of this class that have helped me to become a better critical thinking such as being able to recognize different fallacies. Many times in ads on TV or in magazines, there are logical fallacies and someone who is not seasoned in his or her critical thinking skills will be easily taken advantage of.

Another thing that I’ve learned is that it’s very important to spread information and spread your ideas with your peers. I think that the experience of blogging and commenting on each other’s blogs has really helped me to realize how important it really is. I believe that I’ve learned a lot about writing and dissecting writing this semester. I’ve learned to see the biases or see the generalizations made by authors and writers. It’s been an eye opening experience.

November 12-18 Question 3

The topic that I have decided to write about today is the scientific theory. The scientific theory is “a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.” The scientific theory is very important because it explains some parts of the natural world hat a lot of people don’t know about. Scientists, however cannot prove anything with the scientific method because it is an inductive process. Things cannot prove that a theory is correct or incorrect. Theories cannot be proved right or wrong so they stand correct until proven wrong and so far it has worked. An example of this would be the theory of relativity. People need to begin tests by forming hypotheses and then testing them to explore their hypothesis. The steps of the scientific method are all necessary to correctly research an idea or hypothesis. “The scientific definition of a term is generally a theoretical or operational definition.”

November 12-18 Question 2

One time that I drew the wrong conclusion was when I accused someone I know of being lazy and not wanting to work all the time. This individual always asked to switch shifts with me and it was really getting annoying. Only later did I find out that he was having serious problems with his family and suffering from depression and a lack of sleep. I understood and felt really bad for my assumptions. I think that it’s very important to find out all the details before you make a conclusion about something. After learning about his situation I was a lot more understanding and tried my best to always switch my shifts to help him out. The role scientific knowledge played in correcting the misperception was being able to observe the way that he looked. When I worked with him he always looked like he was in a daze and never really completely there. That was the first thing that I noticed. I should have known from that point, however, it didn't occur to me and I was blinded by my assumptions.

November 12-18 Question 1

If your partner acts quickly on his or her passions today, Libra, you will probably want to slow things down a bit. "Nice and easy" is the phrase of the day for you, so create an environment that will allow for more time in such circumstances. Let your partner know how you feel and what you'd like to see happen. No one is a mind reader. There's far less chance of any misunderstanding when there is open communication.

My horoscope is Libra and today, my horoscope tells me that if my partner is quick to act on her passions then I am to tell her to slow things down and tell her what I want so that there are no misunderstandings. In my opinion I don’t think it’s that accurate because my partner is not very quick to act on her passions. Also, I think that our ability to communicate is pretty good, we try our best to always tell each other what’s going on and what’s happening. I don’t exactly believe in these horoscopes because it all really just seems like a hoax to me. There’s no real way that anyone could predict what is going to happen. I think people believe in these things because it they find a reason for it to be true while dismissing all the reasons that it’s not true. This is one of the dangers of listening and believing in horoscopes. You may be misled and tricked into believing what they say.

November 5-11 Question 3

The topic that I have decided to discuss this week is the topic of media literacy. Media literacy is “the ability to understand and critically analyze the influence of the mass media on our lives.” In essence, it is being able to make your own decisions about what the media tells you. This is a very important skill because the whole purpose of the media is to sway you to believe the things that they believe. For example, the elections that just finished were absolutely brutal. Ads on TV were targeting the candidates and the different propositions and constantly mudslinging. The one that I heard most was the commercial for Proposition 32, what it said was “Prop 32 is not what it seems, large businesses actually pay for the ads…” These commercials are made to instill fear in their audience, the fear that they might be misled by the commercials and taken advantage of. That is the reason that media literacy is so important. In order to not be taken advantage of, we need to be able to critically analyze the media influence.

November 5-11 Question 2

Both Sadler and Hunt have good arguments about interne plagiarism. Although I don’t fully agree with either Sadler or Hunt, if I had to choose which I agreed with more, I would have to choose Sadler. Sadler believes that plagiarism is not just copying of another’s work, but an attempt to mislead the reader, an attempt to deceive the reader. Because the reader expects your information to be yours and true, there is a boundary that is crossed. The reader trusts your expertise in the subject in which you are reporting on and is misled when you plagiarize. It is important to Sadler for students to educate themselves about plagiarism and the dangers of plagiarism. Hunt on the other hand, believes that there may be some benefits to internet plagiarism. Although it is wrong, it makes sure that teachers are actually paying attention to their student’s work. Plagiarism has always been looked down on and considered wrong, but Hunt brings an interesting perspective to the playing field

November 5-11 Question 1

Media experiences can definitely reinforce your existing worldviews as well as challenge your views in many ways. For me, I believe that we are always influenced by media in this society. We’ve built up our society around media and it seems as if we find all of our information from media whether it be current events, political information, or even personal beliefs. The way that media can reinforce your beliefs and values is when they agree with your prior beliefs and values. For example, say Fox news says that it’s okay to abort babies and that was your prior position on the issues as well. Then, when you go to reevaluate your position on the issues, you will have Fox as one of your sources for where you received your information. Media can definitely expand your views because it can give insight on information that you didn’t know about. One of the best ways to learn about new things and expand your views is watching the news. The news gives many different perspectives as well as provides a lot of different information.

October 29 - November 4 Question 3

The topic that I’ve decided to write about for this week is the topic of Advertising and the Media. The reason I choose this topic is because the two are so closely related that we don’t even know we’re being advertised to when we watch TV. There are three points to advertising, “to create product awareness, to inform consumers about a product or service, and to motivate customer demand for the product.” Creating product awareness is very important because just due to logic, if the product is not known, nobody will buy it. To inform consumers about a product or service is important because people might know the name of the product, but not truly know what it does. For example, the product Hydrocortisone has a long name and without a proper explanation, nobody would know what it does. Hydrocortisone is a very strong drug that helps people with itch such as a bug bite or even Eczema [a skin condition]. One would never have known this without the proper explanation. Motivating customers to buy the product is a technique that is used all the time. For example, the Gianst winning the World Series was an automatic income boost for sports stores such as the Giant’s Dugout or Sports Authority. “If you’re a real fan, then you need these shirts or this jersey.” All of these are part of Advertising and Media.

October 29 - November 4 Question 2

Chapter 10 comes up with a lot of good arguments when talking about the idea of children’s food advertising. I think that Wootan and Liodice explain what they are saying very thoroughly and completely. Wootan takes a different side where he agrees with the government’s regulation in advertisement towards kids. This includes things such as censoring certain things on TV. We are currently trying to cut down the large amount of obese children. Liodice argues that we need to stop the regulation of advertisement. He believes that it is the rights of the companies to appeal towards these children and make profit from them. This approach is geared towards a business man approach; everything is about the business and the generated revenue. I think that taking away the advertising would definitely cut down on the obesity, however many of the obese children are learning their eating habits from their parents. That is where the root needs to stop. Parents need to teach their children how to eat and buy the right types of foods for them to stay healthy.

October 29 - November 4 Question 1

Some of the different marketing strategies that I’ve encountered in the past week would be pricing strategies and name brand strategies. First off, pricing strategy is the strategy of cutting the price of a particular product in order to up the consumption of this product. Where I encountered this was in the workplace. I currently work at Andersen’s Bakery at Valley Fair Mall and we just lowered the price of an item called the strawberry pastry. We did this to increase the profit made from this product. Even though we lower the price, more of the product is bought and therefore, we generate more income from the strawberry pastry. The strategy of name brand is a strategy in which companies will come up with either a catchy phrase or a name that just seems to run off the tongue easily. These types of names will spread like a wild fire among the consumers of the world. For example, the name American Eagle has an almost patriotic touch to it. The product and the name brand are so appealing that people from all over the world come to buy clothes from this store. These strategies help generate income and in a sense, trick the public into spending money.

October 15-21 Question 3

The concept that I chose for this week is the concept of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is the tendency to look for evidence that is in line with our assumptions or original ideas and dismisses evidence that is against our assumption. The reason that I chose this topic is because confirmation bias happens all the time without our being conscious of it. For example, in the up and coming election of Obama and Romney, it is possible that someone who is originally a republican or who is originally a democrat might only look for information and statistics that buffer their nominee for their view. Without even knowing we have already decided who we want to vote for without looking at all of the facts and all of the discussions between the two nominees. Also, it is possible that with the information that’s given, we will distort it in a way that suits our purposes. Confirmation bias is a very dangerous thing and can lead us away from being good critical thinkers. We need to be able to consider all aspects of an idea to be the best critical thinker that we can.

October 15-21 Question 2

Although Condon believes that UFOs do not exist, he states “… any scientist with adequate training and credentials who does come up with a clearly defined, specific proposal for study should be supported …” Condon does not seem to have enough substantial evidence to argue that scientists should not study UFOs and instead, he states that schools should not discuss this phenomenon or give credit to students who are finding sources from UFO books and magazine articles. Unlike Condon, Hynek believes that UFOs are worth studying. He states that scientists must start from scratch with data gathering and data processing. I believe that Hynek makes the best argument. He believes that a small percentage of sightings are alien space craft, but he makes it known that the only way to prove such a thing is to collect new and legitimate information. Paynter is skeptical, but he believes that there is a slight chance that UFOs exist. He writes in a way to persuade readers that there is no such thing as UFOs, saying things like “just because a given UFO sighting cannot be explained it does not follow that it has been proved to be an alien space ship,” and “there is no probative physical evidence that compels us to conclude that aliens are visiting the Earth.”

October 15-21 Question 1

The difference between knowledge and wisdom is that knowledge is having the facts and data which can be available to anyone while wisdom is the ability to make good decisions and give good advice, the ability to understand. At college I believe that I’m acquiring both knowledge and wisdom depending on the situation. For some classes I feel like I’m just acquiring knowledge and not complete understand to the point where I’d call it wisdom. I say knowledge because the class is pure memorization and about the ability to retain knowledge, not so much as understand what I’m learning. Wisdom is the ability to know how to put the information given, the knowledge, to use and into action. I think that the information age has made us more knowledgeable and less wise. This is because we live in a fast pace information society where search engines are our first resort. We’re bombarded with information and are forced to skim looking for key words and not fully understanding the information.

October 1-7 Question 3

One concept that I thought was interesting was another rhetorical device. A dysphemism is the opposite of an euphemism, it produces negative effect. I don't usually hear people using dysphemisms, however I always here people exaggerating and using euphemisms. The book says that people use this method to appeal to one group while out casting another which I thought was very interesting. 

The time that this would be seen is when younger kids form their own little groups and outcast other people. I think that from now on I will most likely notice the use of dysphemisms and be aware of the negative effect that it might cause. I don't think it's necessary to use dysphemisms, but I do still think that it's interesting. Dysphemisms can be used to help an argument or statement of an idea. The uses of rhetorical devices can change the decisions of your audience on whether they agree or disagree with you.

October 1-7 Question 2

One of the rhetorical devices that I have used in the past few weeks is euphemism. Euphemism is the replacement of a negative term with a neutral or positive one to cover up or sugarcoat the truth. One example that I have used in the last 2 weeks is  when one of my coworkers accidentally burned something in the oven. Instead of saying, you burned that, I just simply stated that the pastry was heavily toasted. That is an example of euphemism. Another rhetorical device that I have used is a hyperbole. A hyperbole is a type of rhetoric that uses exaggeration or overstatement to distort the facts. One instance of using a hyperbole is when I was hungry and I said that I'm dying of starvation. I'm obviously not dying of starvation and I'm exaggerating the situation to make it more serious than it actually is. Rhetorical devices can be used to sway your audience and convince them of your point or idea. Euphemism is a very strong rhetorical device.

October 1-7 Question 1

Sally ride is described to be a very good critical thinker. Some of the ways that Sally Ride distinguished herself as a good critical thinker was the way that she could analyze situations. She was able to recognize problems and find the heart of the problems. In addition to her analytic expertise, Ride was a very creative person. Sally was able to problem solve in ways that nobody else could think up of. Ride was also very good at communicating with other people. Because of this, Ride had effective communication skills which led to her writing and speaking skills. She was aware of able to speak to others in an effective manner. Overall these characteristics made Ride a very good critical thinker. In order to become a good critical thinker one must learn these skills and abilities. In my opinion, I think the most important skill is to effectively asses the situation and find the heart of the problem.

September 24-30 Question 3

For my topic and concept this week I decided to choose emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is “the ability to perceive accurately, appraise and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feeling when they facilitate thought…” I chose this because I thought that it was interesting how different types of emotions can have a positive effect on our reasoning. Some of the emotions include empathy, moral indignation or outrage. These can actually help us to understand ourselves and our own emotions. When one is in an emotional bind, they can overcome it and learn to control it. This is part of emotional intelligence. We need to know about ourselves and about our emotions so that we can control and understand them.

                Emotional intelligence is not only for how to perceive feeling, but also how to express it. Some people have problems conversing with others or even just being around other people because of their inability to express their emotions. Emotional intelligence would help those individuals greatly.

September 24-30 Question 2

Evolution and a belief are incompatible according to Dawkins. Dawkin is an atheist which is someone who believes that there is no God at all. I personally don’t think that it is possible that both can exist because evolution claims that the world was started by a natural disaster that we now call “The Big Bang.” When one believes in God then they believe in the Bible. The Bible states that the world was created by God and not some random colliding of large masses.

Aquinas would definitely be against Dawkin’s atheism; however I do think that he would agree that the belief in evolution and the belief in God cannot coincide together. Dawkins actually questions the validity of Aquinas’s claims and states that he is assuming that God is as powerful as he is. Dawkins does not believe that God is as powerful as he claims to be. The debate between Aquinas and Dawkin would definitely be interesting.

September 24-30 Question 1

I think that one of my strongest types of reasoning is my ability to empathize with others. To empathize means to understand another’s situation and connect on a personal level. The difference between sympathizing and empathizing is that sympathizing is when you also have gone through the same situation that the other person is going through and therefore are able to connect with them.

This might be helpful in a career choice because I plan on becoming a business major with an emphasis in managing. As a manager, I would want to connect with my employees or coworkers in order to receive the best results. If my workers feel that I don’t connect with them on any level and instead of empathizing with them, I just don’t understand any of their situations and they would lose confidence in me. Therefore this is a very important strength that I have and want to use to my advantage for my future career.

September 10-17 Question 3

For this week, I decided to discuss the idea of generalization. The part of generalization that I want to talk about is stereotyping. A lot of times we see a certain race or ethnicity of people and automatically have these conclusions about them. For example, a lot of people associate Islamic religious people to be terrorists. That is a negative generalization which actually really sad. People conclude that because a small group of individuals are terrorists, then the rest of them must be terrorists. In the same way, I feel like a lot of people generalize that Asians like rice just because a lot of them eat it every day. I find it almost offensive the way that people generalize all Asians and don’t even say our real nationality whether it be Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc…  Generalization is drawing a conclusion about a certain characteristic of a group or population on the basis of a SAMPLE from that group. Sometimes this method can be positive and sometimes it can be very misleading.