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During Comm 41 this semester, I liked having blogs as the homework assignments. I felt like it allowed for me to write out what I have actually learned rather than my other online class where the homework is only multiple choice. I also enjoyed the group projects. At first I thought the idea of having group projects in an online class was crazy, I ended up learning a lot during the projects. My group worked very well together and we all got along great, which I think helped make them better. While at times the projects were slightly confusing, I still feel like I was able to learn the course concepts better by being able to discuss them with other class members and apply them.
I didn't like that the blogs had to be posted twelve hours apart. Some weeks I was able to do it, but a lot of times I would be forgetful and not remember till last minute. That is mainly my fault, but I feel like I would have much rather of had no time restrictions so I could turn all posts in.
I think something you should try to include in this class is a forum. I think it would have been really helpful to have been able to talk with other classmates about questions or anything pertaining to the course.

What I Have Learned

During the course of the semester I have learned how to better communicate and write using critical thinking. Before this class I knew nothing of fallacies and all the different types of arguments. I now know that a fallacy is a bad argument that is typically unrepairable and that there are different types of fallacies such as structural and content fallacies.
All the concepts I have learned during this course, I feel, have made me a better writer. I can now look through my papers that I have written and see what things I said and understand if parts of it are incorrect. I can spot fallacies, contradictions, and even what types of claims I am using.
Aside from the book learning this class gave me, this course also forced me to learn to have time management. There were times where it was difficult to get all the posts done twelve hours apart, but I feel now that after being forced to manage when I post things, I am better able to manage other time factors in my life.

Mission Critical

Reading through the Mission Critical website I was able to review and learn more about statements and arguments. Since it has been a while since we have talked about statements I focused on reviewing and learning more about them.
   A statement is something that could be true or false. It doesn't need have to be known that it is true or false, it just has to have the possibility of being so. Common types of statements are qualified and specific. Specific statements are ones that give exact figures or implied language. An example would be if somebody were to say, "This was the first year the Giants won the World Series while in San Francisco." The use of the word, "first," implies that it is a specific statement. A non-specific argument would be one that had no specific number cited. An example would be "Approximately 49% of those casting ballots voted for Kennedy." The use of "approximately" makes the argument weaker and harder to disprove.

Casual Argument

The website provided about cause and effect arguing was  a helpful reading on understanding certain arguments that are used to prove that something is someone else's fault. The example given about the car accident is a perfect way of explaining how people such as lawyers use the "cause and effect" argument. While I personally would have put blame on the illegally parked truck because he was the initial cause of the incident. If he hadn't been parked there than the bicyclist wouldn't have swerved which then means the car never would have stomped on their brakes causing the accident. The bicyclist's lawyer used this as the bicyclist's reason, but the other lawyers blamed the person directly in front of them. This is the main concept of "cause and effect." If it the illegally parked car wasn't there than the bike never would have swerved; if the bike never swerved then the car never would have stopped; and if the car never stopped than the second car never would have crashed. The three main points to a casual argument are:
 1.how acceptable or demonstrable the implied comparison is
 2. how likely the case for causation seems to be
 3. how credible the "only significant difference" or "only significant commonality" claim is

This better helped me understand how a cause and effect argument is used and how a casual argument is often not informative enough.

Exercise 6:
An appeal to spite is people reacting to things for their beliefs. Politicians take advantage of this type of appeal because they know that if they can say the right thing then the people will react and vote according to their beliefs and what the politician has said. Here is a piece of a speech that Woodrow Wilson gave on the topic of war:
"Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must
be made with a moderation of counsel and temperateness of judgment befitting our character
and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be
revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication
of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion."
In this portion of the speech Wilson is making it believable that the war will not be for revenge, but for the rights of the people. Saying this will get people to think that this war is only for their own rights and not just to get back at another country. This is also very effective because some people are selfish and if there is something that can be done to benefit them then they will be all for it.

Too Much Emotion

An appeal to emotion is stating that you will do something or believe in something just because you feel a certain way. Emotions are a vital aspect of our lives and we follow how we feel to make decisions. Companies, politicians, and promoters use appeal to emotion to their advantage. They know that if they say certain things then people will respond according to their emotions. The different type of appeals are appealing to fear, appealing to spite, calls in your debts appeals, feel-good argument, and appealing to vanity.
An example of appealing to spite would be if a person didn't help a person out because they once asked for help and they didn't receive it from the person now asking for help. This would be a person holding a grudge and is trying to get even with the other. This type of scenario is something that always bothers me. While somebody may feel the need to get even, I feel that it is necessary to just help somebody out of kindness. It can be frustrating when others won't lend a hand, but the best thing is to do to others as you would want others to do to you.

Writing Assignment #2

Doing an assignment on social organizations was useful because it helped clarify the use of fallacies, reasoning, concealed claims, and use of emotional appeal. While doing this assignment we learned the importance of fallacies and how to not use them when it was easy to by pass the things we were saying. The main thing from this assignment was how to use the things we learned in the book such as reasoning from hypotheses in real life situations. While learning these types of things it is easy to brush it off and think nothing of it, but when focusing on these certain aspects of a social thing then we realize that we do use these things in everyday life. It was also interesting to learn about concealed claims and then use it in the assignment. It was interesting to realize how many social organizations use concealed claims to get their point across without saying it directly.