| Chapter 7 & 8: Analyzing Arguments (p.136-167) |
[Dec. 3rd, 2006|03:33 pm] |
This is my fifth attempt to blog this and it wouldn’t let me do it until now. Livejournal is beginning to become a nuisance.
Anyways, after reading the chapters, I found it quite confusing. I don’t understand how to do standard logical form, but I will practice it. I’m not sure what is really considered a good argument. When I read this, I became worried about how I should write my essay. I feel that I might go against the rules that I was reading earlier in this course. That’s why I think it’s important for me to really understand it when I read it. I find that hard sometimes.
I enjoyed reading the first chapter, because it was straight-forward and easy to understand. One that I can remember is standardization which is a method that is used for summarizing long arguments. There are five steps to describing how you would keep it short and relevant. I think this helped me a lot because when I write an essay I feel that the information I have in it doesn’t seem to be important. I noticed that in order to analyze an argument you have to divide it into various parts. That makes sense because if you want to understand it better you should take other factors into consideration.
From chapter 8 it defines what is considered to be a good argument and what is not. It also mentions about unsupported claims which can be true if it does not conflict with a personal experience, background beliefs and it comes from a credible source. This relates to different types of essays that can be written. For example, a personal essay is based on your personal experience. Furthermore, chapter 8 describes how an argument should be evaluated. Throughout this chapter, it was important to ask questions to evaluate your arguments. I think this would be helpful because then you can think critically about what you want to write in your essay and be clear about the point you are trying to make. |
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| Chapter 12: Moral, Legal, Aesthetic Reasoning (p.90 - 104) |
[Nov. 29th, 2006|09:27 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | the usual | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  its my birthday todayyy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Me & You - Cassie ft. Ray J | ] |
First off, I would like to say "Happy Birthday" to me =) Okay. Please continue to read my blog. Thanks
Sometimes there are times when you have to think about what is the right thing to do. And when it does come to a decision it may either be a good one or a bad one. In the end, it may not make you happy because you believe it's the right thing to do but you still think that it's not. Most of us go through this process when you decide who you want to be with. I've experienced it and I don't like it. Although I don't like the idea of it and I know that it is wrong, my morals are always nagging at me to do the right thing or what is best for my situation. If it's not my morals then it's usually my friend.
I don't understand why you have to sacrifice so much to do the right thing. When I was reading the first entry about how Elliott got a position as a manager and he couldn't leave his father. It's tough to make a decision and sometimes the reason why we do sacrifice what will make us happy is because we feel sympathetic and guilty. There are reasons why you do the things you do, it's because you think that it's fair and right. Whenever you make a decision there are so many factors that play a role in what you want. That's why I think that when you do make a decision, it's important to decide what you want and forget about everything else. If you think of the other factors you will begin to not go for what will make you happy.
Maximize happiness and minimize unhappiness. I believe that I'm a utilitarian because I will always try to make someone else happy and my happiness won't matter unless I make them happy. Basically, when it comes to me making decisions I don't think of myself, instead I think of the other person's happiness. This is one of the characteristics I don't like about myself. I want to be happy, but before that can happen I have to make someone else happy. It's hard for me to take myself into consideration, but I know that I'll be able to soon. Once I know what I want, then I'll decide base on my own happiness. |
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| Thinking Critically About the Media (190 - 224) |
[Nov. 26th, 2006|12:14 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | room | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blah | ] |
| [ | music |
| | the noise of msn | ] |
This is it, the last entry and I'm done.
It's a fact that each and everyday we are exposed to the media. If I would to walk to a street and stand at a corner, I would see at least one advertisement popping right at me. As I'm typing this blog, I see an advertisement by Comcast trying to convince me to get high speed internet. It's strange, but that's expected.
I've realized that the news would never broadcast stories about suicides on the air. I've seen news about suicide for other countries such as Japan, where a group of students committed suicide with a bomb (I think that was the one I saw on the news). I'm just wondering why the news wouldn't consider something like that to be devastating or shocking to be broadcasted. Some people say the reason why it's not broadcasted is because it will influence others to do it. Another reason is that, people will commit suicide because they know that they will be in the news, so they do it. I can see how that could be a reason to not broadcast it. Now, it's coming all together. I guess the more I write and think about it, the more I tend to think of why they would do it.
I think that the media has influence everyone in the world. I feel that we've been brainwashed from advertisements. I find this ridiculous! I think the reason why we are naive is because we want to feel that we belong in society. It's common sense to know that it's not true and it's just bs. But still, people have the tendency to believe that it is real. I think that if our society has been brainwashed. The new trend nowadays is being 'beautiful'. Sometimes, I just wish that people would start to use their head to think clearly of things and not just live up to what is expected in our society. Forget about the media and focus on yourself. You should be happy with who you are and not what you want to be. If you just keep living up to what is expected, who knows what will happen if you go overboard. Happiness is more important than beauty. |
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| Reflective Teaching (pg. 225 - 272) |
[Nov. 20th, 2006|05:05 pm] |
In this chapter I noticed that after reading this chapter I had quite a few invariant teachers at my high school. During my elementary years, most of my teachers tend to be reflective teachers because tried to get involved with my development rather than following the lesson plans. I remember how we would go to an area where we would be doing activities that involved building blocks and using strawberry baskets to build a tower. When I was in grade 10, I remember that every time I went into class he would put notes up on the overhead and wait until we finish writing and talk. It was hard to pay attention to him.
Anyways, I find it unfair to really classify a group of people because of their skin colour. It's similar to stereotyping, but there's really nothing we can do to stop that type of generalization. It states that we are alike, but why do we have subcategories if we are the same species? Homo sapiens. I think the only difference between us is the skin colour and where we are located. It may depend on whether you are close to the equator or farther. The book mentions that the reason why people are dark is because it protects them from the UV rays that are exposed from the sun. Honestly, I can't see how ‘yellow’ is the skin colour of an Asian person.
I think this chapter gave me a better understanding of how I should approach teaching. I wouldn't want to be a boring teacher who would teach only what is written down and the instructions are step-by-step. I rather have the students be involved in activities and not be sitting all day. I guess I would want my students to be creative and expressive in their own ways. When I was in school, I preferred being active and I hated sitting at a desk. I will try my best to work around the curriculum instead of following it. |
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| Critical Thinking: Language (104-135) |
[Nov. 13th, 2006|11:26 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | in my room | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | awake | ] |
| [ | music |
| | none, although i want some music | ] |
Language is a very important aspect in our lives. Most of us tend to speak English and never really try to understand what it means because we are use to speaking in our language that it has become automatic. We don't need to think over things to understand what another is trying to say. I feel that the only times when I do THINK about what I say is when I am making new friends and/or asking a teacher a question because I don't want to be seen as a fool and/or give others around me the wrong impression.
It's interesting to see how words can be manipulated to lure people into believing what is being said. For example, "Students appreciate the personal attention in the class room, the relatively small classes and the dedicated faculty..." As you can see these words are trying to convince us to believe certain aspects that are associated with this college. The basic message is "it's a good college and you should go to it because of this and that". I know for a fact that this type of manipulation has worked on me because I'm a naive person and I don't tend to think of the other consequences. However, there are times when I do read things that have this kind of language and I do not believe it because I tend to recall certain experiences that made me learn my lesson.
I enjoyed reading this chapter a lot because it gives me an insight on how it is important to think about how I should use my language. For example, if I'm not specific enough it may lead to miscommunication. I never knew that definitions tend to have different parts to it before being placed into a dictionary. However, it makes sense because in order for a good definition is has to be narrow and precise. And if it is not, as I mentioned earlier, it may lead to miscommunication. |
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| Writer's Resource: Editing |
[Oct. 15th, 2006|11:25 pm] |
After reading this I thought to myself 'I really need to go back and read it again so it will stay in my head forever and ever’. I honestly feel the things I read in between the three tabs can be quite useful. Hopefully, what I am typing here won't go against with what I just finished reading. If it does, then I guess I have to re-read it again. This is bugging me because I feel I have to backspace every few seconds because I think I'm violating a rule. I guess it can be good in some ways because it's making me be cautious of what and how I should write my sentences.
I noticed some of the techniques the book mentions focuses a lot on sentences and how it can help you improve what you want to say. You can say that it's more effective and easier to understand what you are trying to communicate with others. Reading over a few techniques, I remember I had a few of these conflicts whenever I wrote a sentence. However, I learned from it and now I consider other ways of making it more appealing and effective. I remember how I use to write a lot of run-on sentences and being confused with using the words 'a, an, and'. Now, I feel more confident using it because I understand the concepts.
It's funny to see how some of the errors I see, I still use. Since I'm aware of it, I believe I should learn from it. I still need help with using the semi-colon, I still don't know when to use it and how. I've been taught it once before, but the teacher wasn't that helpful. What I really like about each section is at the end of the chapter because it gives you a helpful guide. This is useful because I can look back and see if I can use it. For example, misspelling words and terms and how they are used. I must say, I'm familiar with most of these grammatical errors, but I still need to figure out how to correct them. I feel that it's important to re-read these 150 pages and I think I will soon. |
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| Chapter Three: Basic Logical Concepts |
[Oct. 15th, 2006|10:31 pm] |
Deductive argument is defined as 'the conclusion is claimed to follow necessarily from the premises' and Inductive argument is 'conclusion is claimed to follow only probably from the premises'. These arguments are the two main topics in this chapter, from pages 55-89 it focuses on these arguments. It was quite a lot to consume, but I did it. And I understood a bit of it.
It was interesting to see how both arguments intertwined with one another. That was one of the confusing parts. Most of the examples were good, but it was used so many times it got me even more confused. I really liked the example with the drinks; I enjoyed figuring out which drink belonged to whom. The reason is because it's similar to what I learned in data management.
When I read the part that mentioned what tests should be used to decide if it was a deductive or inductive argument, I was amazed to see that these techniques would help you determine if it was either this or that. I remembered the 'principle of charity' from the previous chapter, it said that you should 'treat doubtful arguments in whatever way is most favorable to the arguer'. This shows that you, being the reader is showing empathy towards the writer. I guess this would tell the reader to give some sympathy to the arguer.
I didn't know that arguments could be so complex and complicated. The chapter goes into greater detail about deductive and inductive arguments. In the deductive reasoning, I enjoyed reading the part that talked about 'arguments based on mathematics' because it was easy to understand and I guess math is an easy concept to take in. For one of inductive reasoning that I seemed most interested in was the 'argument from authority' because my English teacher would always tell us to use 'higher authorities' when we want to prove our argument. I noticed that having numbers and a high authority helps the argument seem more convincing. |
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| A Writer's Resource: 6, 7and 8a |
[Oct. 13th, 2006|09:32 pm] |
I noticed that most of what we are reading is so repetitive. This small, tiny book has a lot to say, yet it is the same in some areas. I guess the point of reading it over and over again is to get this information embedded into our heads. Hopefully it will work and it won't be forgotten. Anyways back to my entry.
Whenever I write a topic, it's sometimes hard for me to relate how meaningful it is. I believe that if it was defined differently it would be easy for me to express how it relates to my experiences. I'm the type who just follows the instructions that are given to me and sometimes I don't find it interesting to do it, but I still do it. I guess I have to learn to think outside of the box whenever I want to write about something. This section helped me understand the importance of looking for answers from different point of views rather than just to one right answer.
Most of what I read in the first section (6) about the introduction was similar to how my English teacher taught me in Grade 12. Basically, have an interesting introduction involving relevant information; bring in your topics and then your thesis. And she would usually ask us the question "So what?", every time we had an essay assignment. I found this pretty annoying and I hated it. Whenever the word 'essay' comes up, that question seems to pop up in my head.
I remember I had to write a comparison essay for my culminating activity in English class and the teacher would keep telling us to do both the similarities and differences because it will help you figure out the stronger position. I noticed that this book mentioned it and when I read it I was thinking "ha ha, I knew that already". Anyways, this book has a lot of information based on essay writing and I guess you would expect your teacher to be aware of these things.
I honestly prefer writing personal essays because it helps me reflect how I feel and how my experiences can connect with others. I find this the easiest essay to write and it tells you a lot about the writer's personality. The reason why I prefer it is because I enjoy writing in my journal sometimes and I record my favorite memories and so forth and maybe because it's easy for me to relate it to myself and I like to reflect how I feel about an issue. For me, I rather write something down than speak it out. |
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| Re: Let's see who gets these! |
[Oct. 12th, 2006|08:41 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | pleased | ] |
For question one the answer is a coffin! =))) The person who buys the coffin doesn't use it because the coffin is for someone who doesn't know because they're dead. And for number 2, I'm going to say none because once the person shot the birds they flew away because of the noise! Those are my guesses. =) Hope they're right. |
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| Chapter Two : Recognizing Arguments |
[Sep. 26th, 2006|07:22 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | desk at home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | awake | ] |
| [ | music |
| | none | ] |
Before reading chapter two, I thought arguments were constant yelling between two individuals. However, after understanding what arguments meant to a critical thinker was quite clear and straight forward. It defines argument (in critical thinking terms) as a claim defended with reasons. From that definition you can conclude that you have to support your arguments with evidence.
Every time I was in English last year, my teacher would never use the term premises whenever we wrote our essays. This was the first time I've ever heard this word in terms of writing. So, next time if I want someone to give me evidence to support their argument I'll say "I need some premises to support your argument". I always thought that a statement was something an individual believes is true. I never thought of it as a sentence that can be viewed as either true or false. I would never argue against what the individual believes is true. I do it sometimes, but never thought of it that way (Wow, this book is opening new doors to my thinking).
My favorite part of an essay is the conclusion because you feel that you have completed your essay or each paragraph of the essay. Having a conclusion indicates that you are finished what you have argued. I would usually use if-thenarguments in my essay. However, it was rare. I didn't really like them. If I needed to use them I would and try to see if it works with the essay. Most of the time, I try not to use them because it feels like you're making a generalization. I've always used illustrations for my essay, but only as evidence never an argument. It helps to support what I have to say and others are able to visualize the evidence.
The section where it mentioned about "what is not an argument?" was interesting, because the ones that were listed I knew about and it was obvious to figure out they were not arguments because you can see that it would be used more as evidence. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 18th, 2006|06:33 pm] |
So far, I've read the first part and I must continue and for now I'll blog what I read. I find this book extremely useful because I know it will definitely help me and others improve our writing. Although, I keep a journal and write about my life once in a while (and it's good practise) I feel that it's so repetitive and I want to learn new things to improve my writing skills. Reading the summary part helped me because now when I jot down notes, I'll take the important bits. I still find it hard to determine what is important and what is not. Reading this book reminds me of Grade 12 English Class. Logical Fallacies, I remember those days.
I noticed that the book had mentioned considering the opposing viewpoints of the arguments in the writing critically section. My teachers in high school told me about this, but whenever it comes to that I could never really relate it to the other side because I was too focused on my side to refute the other. Sometimes it's hard for me to write a strong thesis, it seems that it's always vague and it needs to be more specific. I try, but sometimes after I revise my thesis, it's still vague.
After writing an essay I believe that it is important for others to read it over and edit it. Although, you've read it over so many times you don't really notice any errors in the essay because you believe that it's okay and no changes need to be made and you seem confident in the piece. Even though you believe that it is your best copy, you get use to the way you write and it makes it harder to find mistakes. I find this true because whenever I feel that I've completed my work and it's the best, I find that when I allow someone to edit it. I get it back and I see quite a few mistakes. It helps you understand your mistakes and the next time you write an essay you'll know what you did wrong. That's why it's good to have someone look it over for you.
I'm glad there are a lot of people that are willing to help you with your work. There are times when I need help, but I can't really ask for it cause I'm scared (sometimes) and too shy. However, my goal is to have a few chats with my instructors and get to know them a bit and maybe I won't be that shy and I'll try to get involved with the class discussion. |
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| Chapter One : Competent Learner and Reflective Practitioner |
[Sep. 18th, 2006|04:06 pm] |
After reading chapter one of the book and I started wondering to myself, "Am I a critical thinker?" On pages 26-27 I noticed a chart that listed characteristics of 'Critical Thinkers' and 'Uncritical Thinkers'. While I was reading through that section, there were times I fell under either a critical thinker or a uncritical thinker. So I concluded that maybe I'm becoming more of a critical thinker than an uncritical thinker. The point that really got me hyped up was "Are intellectually honest with themselves, acknowledging what they don't know and recognizing their limitations". This is true about me because I never feel that I know more than another person and I know what my limits are when it comes to how much I know. If I don't understand what is happening, I will seek for help because I know that I won't get it until someone else explains it to me. Another point that tickled my fancy was "Tend to engage in "groupthink," uncritically following the beliefs and values of the crowd". This was found under "uncritical thinker". Although it is believed that I agree with the crowd, I'm the one who always has a problem with what they say and I can never tell them that because 1. I have no guts 2. I'm afraid to see to the outcome of an argument and 3. The consequences I may face if I did tell them what I think. For example, rumors and other ways in which they can try to ruin your life. I had a couple of these experiences in my high school life with certain friends, but now I'm going to try and place an argument in where ever I can because what they say about others are unfair, unreasonable and unrealistic. I'm not a fond of them anymore.
However, the benefits of critical thinking is extremely helpful because it gives us a better insight on how you can understand arguments, evaluate the arguments and defend the argument with your own. I just realized that this is similar to our in-class essay. We were asked to write an essay using the interview and answer the question "What does it mean to be a teacher of yourself". Correct me if I'm wrong, but the interview was another argument, we were expected to understand it and know how to use it in our essay. After understanding the interviewee's information we had to use our own arguments and the interviewee's to support our thesis. Basically the steps of how critical are useful in the classroom. I might be wrong, but I find it similar to that situation. Also, critical thinking is useful in life when it comes to making important life decisions, promoting democratic process and studying for its own sake. So far, I believe that critical thinking will help me in the future if I want to make my own decisions and I found this course pretty interesting once I entered the class room. Maybe because it's a reflective class where it's "all about me", but I would like to bring some enrichment into my life and be more aware of what is around me as well as thinking more clearly of what I want.
Making assumptions are the worst. I've done it before and regret it. Sometimes, it makes you look like an idiot and that's how I felt when I assumed something before. It's better to just not think about it until you know your facts. Whenever I try to assume something, I think about that experience and try not to do it at all or else the outcome might be bad. |
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