Interesting Concepts

There are a lot of interesting concepts in the book. One of the interesting concepts I found in the book is loaded questions. The loaded questions are used a lot in our society. This kind of question are usually used to misguided the claim or as an accusation. The question may be asked in the way to confuse people by making it sound like a claim. For example, why are you always hungry? This make it sound like the person is always eating. He or she might not be hungry but rather, the person may just like to snack through out the day. The question can also be an accusation. For example, do you have to wait until people around you die of lung cancer before you stop smoking? This may seem like a reasonable statement but it is really not. The true is that lung cancer can be from other causes as well.

Favorite

I like a lot of things about this class. First of all, this class is an online class which make it very flexible on the time. I do not have to sit there and work on something during the day. I can choose when I want to take a test, which give me time to prepare myself. So, I think that the flexibility is one of my favorites part of this class. I also enjoy the comments on blog as well. I think that by making comments on other people blog allow me to see what another people think, and get different ideas. However, my least favorite thing in this class is that I never really get the chance to know my classmates. Since on the blog, everyone use an alias name, no one know who the other person is. One thing that this class can improve on is the last group project. I do enjoyed meeting my group members, but due to the fact that this is an online class. It was difficult to set up a meeting time for everyone to meet. I think that maybe in the future, people can do a conference call or webcam even. It was just difficult to agree on a time that everyone is free. However, I really enjoy taking this class, it was a fun experience for me.

New Experience From This Class

Taking this class have show me many new things and ways of thinking. First, the concept of critical thinking in this class is really interesting. Since I am an art major, I have never thought of critical thinking as something that I will use everyday in daily life. The class will also help me to write a better paper and speech in the  future because I am now aware of the reasonings that can be use. The second thing that I have learn from this class is also a communication skill. This is the skill that I have not expected to gain from this class. I have taken one online class before in a community college, I remember that there were no group project or writing on blogs. This class have teach how to actually communicate through an online community with people that I have never talked to or met before. Also how to write a good email. In this day and age, everyone have written an email before but for most of the time, those emails are not formal. This class teaches me how to write a good email and how to communicate through them, even set up the chat room on yahoo messenger as well. So I think that this class have teaches me a lot of things that I did not expect when I enrolled into the class.

Interesting concept in chapter 15

In chapter 15, cause and effect there are a lot of interesting concepts that happening in the chapter. Before I read this chapter, I always think that cause and effect is something that is really simple and basic. Something that happen, cause another think to happen, just like chain reaction. For example, the light is not working may cause by a power failure in the neighborhood. However, there are a lot more to it than that. The light not working, there are other possible causes, not just one. The idea of cause and effect say that one should consider all the possible causes and than eliminate them out one by one. The last one that is left, is the cause. I think that this concept is really interesting because before I only see cause and effect as something simple, chain of reaction. Now I realize that there are a lot more to this concept than just a chain reaction.

Mission Critical

All the information in the mission critical website is really useful. The informations have been broken into categories, according to their subject matter. Each section went into depth and give more explanation. The format of the web is bullet points, which make it easy to find information and manage around the website. I think that it a way, the website make it easier to find information than the textbook, because we have everything broken down already. I also really the examples and exercises that the web use. I think that since it is interactive, it is easy to understand the concept and the points. I also like how the web will include other names that certain topic might be called on other websites or books. This make it easier to find more information about it. I think that my overall experience of the website is great. The website is definitely a really useful website for more information and another source to do research on, other than the textbook.

Cause and Effect Website

The cause and effect website is useful and insightful. I really how it first introduce the concept of something and also explain what it is and how it wok. After that, the concept got break down into little section and give more details about each little part. Than an example is use. The example is common situation that everyone can imagine and understand. The situation than get break down to little parts and see how the situation fit into the specific topic. For example, in causal argument, the example is just a common accident between vehicles and motorcycle. Than the argument get break down to the "one significant similarity or difference." I think that the way the example got break down to certain part and explain, make it easy to understand and see how it work. After the example, there are exercise questions that people can answer. The questions allow people to come up with the answer and if the answer is wrong, than it will explain why it is wrong. So I think that the website is really helpful, it makes the concept really clear and easy to understand. 

Interesting idea about reasoning by analog

The most useful kind of reasoning that I like to use a lot is reasoning by analogy. Like many people in different situation who like to make references and compare things even when they do not realize it themselves. I do compare things often. I think that stereotyping is also one example. Stereotyping might not make a good or strong argument but it can be use as some kind of reason (to certain people). For example, people may think that all dogs like to bark and cause bad odor inside the house. As the result, people always assume that if someone have indoor dogs, the house will smell bad and dirty. This can be a reason by analogy, one dog as a guideline and than compare other dogs to the guideline dogs. However, there can be other situation that reasoning by analogy can be very strong and convincing. I think that each situation is different and it depend on each situation if the reason by analogy will work or not.