Further Discussion

Everything that I have learned in this course I find to be extremely valuable but one thing I wish we could further discuss is how words can be used to manipulate our emotions because I found that interesting. I knew that our emotions played a part in the decisions we make but I never realized how much until I took this class. I would like to talk more about false memory syndrome. That extremely interesting to me how people altar their memory and change a story. I never knew that there was an actually name for it because saying that they were over exaggerating. People do not realize that they are altering their memory they usually go with what sounds best to them. It Amazes me how your mind is controlled especially when it comes to telling a story of what happen because you usually say what you think happened even after you saw exactly what happened.

Course Improvements

My favorite thing about this class was that it was not an overwhelming course. The blog was pretty easy. My least favorite thing about this course was the the three group assignments. The reason I choose to take an online class was because I do not have time to sit in a class and do group work. I work full time and go to school. I created my schedule to make my life easier. Working with groups in an online class is difficult because we had never seen one another and theres always that one person who has an excuse I would rather do my own work rather than worry about if the others are going to do their parts. The class can be improved by not having the blogs due 12 hours apart that can be very time consuming. I also think that you should only have one group assignment because it was hard getting together with our schedules.

This Semester

Throughout this semester I have learned a lot in this course. I learned about the different fallacies and how to have a strong argument. I learned about direct experience and false memories, which I found really useful.  Our mind alters our memories, which gives us inaccurate memories. They way questions are ask can determine whether someone is altering their memory or not. The wording plays a major part in that. I also learned the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience and knowledge comes from learning and reasoning. Wisdom is life experiences and knowledge is gained from reading. The rhetorical devices, was another concept I learned more about. The rhetorical devices are euphemism, dysphemism, hyperbole, and sarcasm. I use sarcasm often because I am a very sarcastic person. At times that’s good and bad. A euphemism is used to replace a negative term that is associated with a positive term. Dysphemism is a phrase that is used to produce a negative effect. A hyperbole is used to overstate the facts and distort them. Sarcasm is used by those who trying to insult or taunt someone. Over all I have learned a lot in this class.

Mission Critical and Causal argument

Both the Mission Critical and the Causal Argument websites were extremely helpful. The Mission Critical website discusses the basics of an argument. It tells you how to analysis the arguments with the different types. It tells you about the appeals and the fallacies. It explains the misdirected appeals and the emotional appeals. One thing that stood out to me on this website was the universal statement because the “all or none” idea. It is considered to be the universal term. A lot of unqualified terms are meant to be universal terms, which includes singular and plural nouns. The causal argument website discusses the strengths of a casual argument. The strengths in a casual argument are how acceptable the implied comparison is, how likely the case of for causation seems to be, and the creditability. Complex casual arguments usually use commonality and difference reasoning to show that the suggested cause is the only significant difference.

Scientific Knowledge

I have had several moments where I have drawn an incorrect conclusion but I always find ways to find out the right answers. Recently one of my friends has been taking a lot of photos with a girl and they have both been posting them on a application called instagram. From the looks of it you would automatically assume that they were an item now because they were cuddled up. The way that I corrected my mistake was by asking him if they were together or friends, his response was that they were only friends and not to get the wrong idea. I texted him and asked him which is how I discovered my observation to be misleading. There was not much scientific knowledge used in finding out the correct answer I just decided to ask the source instead of assuming. Before I asked him about it I did look into it more because I put two and two together but I was incorrect and he did tell me the truth.

My Horoscope

TUESDAY, APR 24, 2012 Share with friends:   A love partner could contact you out of the blue, Sagittarius, perhaps proposing that the two of you get together tonight - alone. You're in just the mood for this, since you're feeling especially sexy and not particularly afraid to show it. An evening at home or in a dark corner of your favorite restaurant might be just the ticket. Don't be surprised if your friend orders champagne and shows up with flowers! Have fun!

My horoscope is pretty accurate. I did recently run into an old friend and we did hang out but it was not on a romantic level. We are just really good friends that haven’t seen each other in almost a year. The part about being sexy is not so much an accurate statement I would consider that to be  falsifiable. the only accurate part of my horoscope is the first sentence “A love partner could contact you out of the blue, Sagittarius, perhaps proposing that the two of you get together tonight - alone.” He was an old love partner but we figured out we were better off as friends. What makes this horoscope falsifiable is the fact that it states that I am feeling sexy and also about being surprised if my friend orders champagne. I believe that horoscopes can be true at times but this particular one is extremely inaccurate.

Mass Media and Niche Media

The concept that I am focusing on this chapter is mass media and niche media. Mass media and niche media are two forms of communication.  Mass media was created to reach and influence large audiences where as, niche media focuses on a narrowly defined audience (page 341 Boss). I never paid much attention to what the media was directed at but now that I learned about both of these I can definitely see the difference. When watching the news it is trying to stay broad and have something for every ones interest. Cartoons would be considered a niche media because it is directed towards children such as Nick Jr.  I feel that both are very interesting because I watch things that are focused for certain people like MTV, which is directed towards young adults. Mass Media helps you keep up with the current events from gossip to government policies. When most people watch television or get on the Internet they do not realize that there is a certain audience they are trying to get.