Week 6-Post 1: Repairing Arguments

Repairing Argument Example:

All babies in the world wear diapers. Therefore Ricky wears diapers.


Analysis: According to the text it is inferring that “Ricky is a baby” which is making the argument valid or strong. What this argument is also inferring that “Ricky is a baby” is because Ricky wears diapers. After the argument is done making a light describing that “Ricky is a baby” since he wears diapers. Once the statement “Ricky is a baby” is added to the end of the argument makes the statement a little more clearer. Also if this last statement is not added onto the argument it would not be a clear argument and the only person who would know that Ricky is an actual baby would be the person who is stating the argument. Therefore it leaves the listener to infer that Ricky is a baby because the argument does not clearly state who and what is the baby. The argument should only be corrected as needed.

Week 4-Post 3: Respond To Sexual Harassment

I choose to talk about a section in “Essential Guide to Group Communication” called “Respond to Sexual Harassment” where Dan O’Hair and Mary O. Wiemann talk about some of the causes that lead to sexual harassment which have been problems in recent organizations. According to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines, “sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances and requests for sexual favors” (68). According to O”Hair and Wiemann, “Sexual Harassment is also characterized as verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature if submission to the conduct is made a condition of employment or if the conduct creates an uncomfortable, intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment” (68). O’Hair and Wiemann talk briefly about some causes which are attraction and power which are the causes for sexual harassment. O’Hair and Wiemann state that communication is another cause for sexual harassment. O’Hair and Wiemann talk about how women and men communicate differently where women might send flirting messages like smiles, eye contact, and touch to indicate interestin a person and men use “nonverbal” behaviors as openings for sexual intimacy. This was just really interesting to me because it went into detail how communication is a big cause of sexual harassment. Sexual Harassment is a big problem in our worlds among students, workers, and other people and will remain a big problem unless people know how to communicate and report when sexual harassment occurs. I feel that this is still a problem because many people don’t report it and O’Hair and Wiemann state, “the victim is reluctant to press charges because the harraser has authority and status” (69).

Week 4-Post 2: Bad Appeal to Common Belief or Practice Fallacy

I was looking at all the Content fallacies and the one that grabbed my attention and that I could relate to was bad appeal to common belief or practice fallacy. Bad appeal to common belief fallacy means if a group or certain people believe that something is true then it must be true. There are many real world examples that came to my mind but they all date back to my childhood times. For example, in elementary school every kid in my school started collecting Pokemon trading cards and all the kids wanted to collect all 150 cards so because everyone else was collecting these cards I also started to want them. So I convince my parents to buy me the packages of cards at least one package of cards each week until I collected all of them. The Pokemon cards were pricy, but I thought I needed to have them but I only wanted the cards because everyone else had them. Another example, in the 7th grade most kids in the school started wearing air force one shoes and I had to have them to because it was the trend that every cool kid must have. So I had my parent’s buy me a pair of air forces ones because I wanted a pair shoes that everyone else was wearing so that I wouldn’t feel left out. They were the coolest shoes at that time and is a belief that everyone was following.

Week 4-Post 1: Complex Arguments

3. Las Vegas has too many people.1There's not enough water in the desert to support more then a million people.2 And the Infrastructure of the city can't handle more then a million: The streets are overcrowded, and traffic is always congested; the schools are overcrowded and new one's cant be built fast enough.3 We should stop migration to the city by tough zoning laws in the city and country.4
Argument: Yes
Conclusion: We should stop migration to the city by tough zoning laws in the city and country.
Additional Premises needed:Its best to continue claims 1,2,3,4 AND 5 a better ending sentence that joins all arguments together,
Identify any Subargument:2&3 are independent arguments that help support claim 1.
Good Arguments:The Argument is overall valid but the concluding sentence needs to be improved in order to to help support and prove a better ending sentence.
 I found this exercise  to be useful. The reason is that it helped me identify the claims to an argument but also helped me identify when an argument is not correct. The best part about this exercise is that it was easy and it provided the tools into small subgroups that helped identify weather the argument has sufficient evidence and a strong conclusion to prove the argument correct or not. Also this exercise helps improve our arguments and may help us in the long run write and share a proper argument with others. I believe that exercises like this help improve our writing and arguments.

Week 3- Post 3: Individual Evaluation

     In "The Essential Guide to Group Communication", O'Hair and Wiemann give good pointers on how to evaluate every individual in your group to make sure that there was leadership establish as well as the rest of the group participating. O'Hair and Wiemann state the eleven topics to evaluate group members are "preparation, speaking, listening, open-mindness, sensitivity for others, value of information, value of thinking, group orientation, value of procedural contributions, assistance in leadership function, and then the overall evaluation" (53). I found these to be very important because I have worked in groups numerous of times and most of the time these groups were picked by the teacher. This is really good way to think of when you are evaluating a person in your group because most of the time not every person in the group contributes to the project or assignment in the same way. There might be people in your group that do no work and receive credit while the people that did all the work feel upset because not every person did the same amount of work. Also evaluating is good to receive feedback because I always like when I receive feedback for the hard work I did on a assignment and what I could work on more. I feel that its always good to receive feedback from your own group members that way individuals know what they did great and what they need to work on. 

Week 3-Post 2: Strong vs. Valid Argument

      In the Epstein text, a valid argument is defined as " an argument in which it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false at the same time" (399). Valid: Smoking is bad for your lungs. Therefore smoking is bad for your health.The reason that this argument is valid is because both of the statements in this argument are both found to be true and there is no proof challenging this statement that smoking can be good to anyones health.

     In the Epstein text, strong argument states, " invalid arguments are classified on a scale from strong to weak. An argument is strong if it is possible but unlikely for the premises to be true and the conclusion false at the same time. An argument is weak if it is possible and likely for the premises to be true and the conclusion false at the same time" (398). Strong Argument:I love to eat pizza which contains cheese. But when I eat any other food with cheese in it, it makes my stomach hurt. Therefore the cheese is the cause of my stomach ache. The reason that this argument ends up being strong is because my conclusion is that the cheese is the cause in the stomach ache. But others can argue that this argument can be false since I can eat cheese in pizza but not in anything else. Therefore the conclusion to this argument can be different in others eyes.

Week 3: Test for an Argument to be Good

         Upon reading Chapter 3 in Epstein text, Epstein states that the test for an argument to be good the following must occur : the premises are plausible, the premises are more plausible than the conclusion, and the argument is valid or strong. An example of a good or valid argument is: "Siberian huskies have a great chance of surviving in freezing temperatures due to their warm fur. So all dogs with fur should be able to survive in freezing temperatures". The premise of the argument is truthful and even reasonable because Siberian huskies have warm fur and other advantages to surviving in freezing temperatures. The second test for an argument to be good is for the premise to be more convincing/realistic than the conclusion. In this argument,  the premise is more realistic than the conclusion because we know that Siberian huskies are more adapted to colder habitats than all other dogs with warm fur. For the last and final tests, the argument needs to be valid or strong. My argument is credible and strong because Siberian huskies come from descendants of wolf and are naturally adapted to colder habitats therefore more likely to survive than other dogs. Even though there could be a counter argument that Siberian huskies are just like any other dog. That Siberian huskies are to dependent on humans just like any other dogs, but my argument is still good to pass all the the three tests to be a good argument. Even though there might be other dogs who have warm fur, adapted to the cold weather, but this doesn't change the fact that Siberian huskies have more advantages to survive in freezing habitats for longer periods of time than other dogs.  

"Monitoring Perceptions in Groups" -Question 3 (Post 3)

     In Chapter 2: "Participation In Small Groups" Dan O' Hair and Mary O. Wiemann make good points in "Monitoring Perceptions in Groups". O'Hair and Wiemann go on to talk about how group members have or come up with perceptions about other people that may sometimes not be true. In other words the authors are talking about how assumptions can be made about people among a group but these assumptions aren't always true. O'Hair and Wiemann state, " in short, you can make many interpretations of another person's behavior, but not all of them will be accurate" (13). This section in the book caught my attention because it is very true what the authors are talking about. People can have a perception of another person just by looking at them or by what they have. In general people are just judge mental and will always critique someone without truly knowing them. For instance some people might have a perception of me as a quiet guy who isn't much fun, but the people who actually know me know that i am a outgoing person always willing to try new things. So people will always have perceptions of other people, but if they stop to think that these perceptions of the person might not always be true because they are just "perceptions".

Vague Sentence

  Vague Sentences are the easiest ways for us to communicate several thoughts and feelings to one another. Today my dog was running around the house after he woke up in the morning. He was running around looking for a place to pee since he had just woke up. He disappeared for a while and we began to call his name, “Bean?!, Bean!? Come here.” He popped out of nowhere and showed up coming out from behind the T.V. table and then we began to get a stinky smell, which was from his poop. He ran out towards me and gave me that cute little innocent look that he had not done anything. Soon after my cousin said, “He is so bad.” This then came to be the vague sentence. The reason is because he did not specify by what he meant in which, why the dog is bad. As we can see vague sentences are everywhere in our everyday life.

Subjective and Objective Claims

    Subjective and Objective claims are part of our everyday vocabulary but we just don’t realize that we use them all the time.

    Subjective claims are those found to be true or false depending on a person’s point of view.So my girlfriend and I have different taste in foods but we seem to always reach a compromise. So when she always tries to explain to everyone how I am such a picky eater she points out meals that she loves which I do not like. For example, She will say, “Pasta is the best meal ever!” Trust me she says it with so much enthusiasm and excitement. As for myself and I believe many other people may agree that pasta is not the best meal ever.

As for and objective it is a statement that can be proven right or wrong which is based on facts or proof. This is not a statement that can be proven to be right or wrong, based on ones opinion.

For example today in class I was talking to a fellow classmate about football. He went on to ask me what my favorite football team was and I told him that I liked the SF 49ers. My classmate went on to bash the Niners because he liked the Oakland Raiders so; we began to talk about the football game that they recently played against each other in a pre-season game this past Saturday. He went on to say, “The 49ers suck that’s why they lost against the Raiders.” This then became the objective statement. The reason is because the statement is false and can be proven to be false anywhere online and by any of those people who watched the game. In reality the Niners beat the Raiders in their own turf this past Saturday. It comes to show and prove the Niners don’t suck.

            As we can see no matter what situation or argument one gets into there will always be an Objective or Subjective claim.