Mentoring from Small Communications Book

In the Small Group Communications Book there is a section in CH. 4 that talks about mentoring and what a mentor is. A Mentor is described as a member of an organization who is usually older and more experienced. A person who is well respected and is a role model to the rest of the group. A person who is known to be less experienced is knows as a Protégé. These relationships between each other benefit organizations by getting things done faster as well as creating a positive and enjoyable working environment. The mentor and protégé but benefit from this relationship, gathering separate but equal information from one another. This relationship depends on a understanding of the roles and characteristics of each member. The mentoring process usually develops through four stages and they are Initiation, Cultivation, Separation, and Redefinition. In each of these stages important lessons are learned about the mentor/protégé relationship. With each stage progress is made and the protégé starts to learn the ropes and come out of the stage of learning and into the stage of teaching someone else, the cycle starts all over again.

Slippery Slope Fallacies

Epstein describes an argument as having a fallacy only if the premises is dubious and no other premises support the conclusion. A slippery Slope fallacy is where the reasoning in a chain of events that lead to them all crashing together down hill. The conditions where at least one of them is false or dubious. an example of a Slippery Slope Fallacy would be "If I fail this test, I'm going to fail this course, and then I will never get into my major, then I will drop out of college. Dropping out of college will lead me to never getting a job, and then I will end up homeless and out on the streets dying alone." This example although extreme shows us how one bad thing leads to another and they all go down hill in a downward spiral. Slippery slopes are something that we hear everyday in the media and in conversation out in public as well. These types of statements can lead to fales accusations. Many people get ahold of wrong information when it comes to these types of statements. When a person thinks of statements like this or they get published for the public the outcome can never be good, someone will always believe it is true when most likely they never are.

Complex Argument Exercise

Exercise #2

1.)I'm on my way to school. 2.)I left five minutes late. 3.)Traffic is heavy. 4.)Therefore, I'll be late for class. 5.)So I might as well stop and get breakfast.

Is it an Argument? Yes, this is an argument but not a very strong one.

Conclusion: I believe number number 4 is the conclusion to the argument. "Therefore, I'll be late for class" tells us the outcome of what waking up late did to the student. The other statements just give us some description of what they will do next and some factors that made them late to class.

Additional Premises? Although these premises already given help the argument there could sill be more factors that we as the reader do not know about such as the alarm was set five minutes later, or the clocks in the house were set slow making the student leave on time but actually late on real time. It is always possible to add or find more details to the premises.

Identifying any Sub-Arguments: I would say that numbers 1, 2, 3, and 5 are the sub arguments and they all support claim #4.

Good Argument? In the long run I do not believe this is a very good argument, granted it is one just not a strong one.

This exercise helped me out a lot when it comes to analyzing arguments and digging deeper to understand all the factors that go into one. Before I did this exercise I would never have done something like this with any argument but now I am glad I know.

Dealing with Time Pressures in Groups

When it comes to working in groups, time is always one if the main factors that are against us. We all procrastinate and wait last minute when it comes to projects and class work but there is a way to avoid all of this last minute stress. When working in groups planning and coordinating the work load help with effective decision making. Proper planning is key when you have multiple people working together in a group. An example that the Small Group Communication book gives is a professional corporation is working on team building and they are given a task of moving their twelve members from wooden platform to another with only two other wooden planks. They were given five minutes the first time but with so many people working together at once with so little time they were unable to achieve their goal. The second time they were given no time limit and while all working together and organizing their ideas as well as coming up with ideas and a plan through trial and error the group was able to succeed in their task with only taking twelve minutes. When we are assigned group projects in this class working together and listening to each other can help get the work done without the pressures of time breathing down our backs. Just remember to listen to everyone in your group and come up with a solid plan of action before you jump in to anything.

Whose argument will reign supreme...Strong vs. Valid

Just like testing an argument we have to put our strong or valid statement through three tests. These are very similar to testing an argument, the tests consist of finding a good reason to believe the premises, it must be a valid or strong statement, and the premises has to be more plausible than its conclusion. There are a few key points that will not matter when deciding whether a an argument is strong or valid and they are whether the premises are true, if we know the premises are true, and if the person making the statement thinks it is valid or strong. There are some key words that you may use in your statement such as "maybe" and "really" that give the reader an idea of how the speaker feels about the argument.

An example of a Strong statement is "All San Jose City police cars that I have seen or anyone else I know has seen are white and blue. Therefore all San Jose City police cars are white and blue." This is an example of a strong argument because the premises is true and we know it is true as well as I believe it is a strong argument. Now an example of a valid argument would be "San Jose City cop cars are only blue and white. Therefore, all San Jose city police cars are blue and white." Even though both if these statements say pretty much the same thing one gives a stringer statement than the other.

Testing an Argument

There are three set rules that we use and need to use when it comes to analyzing an argument. The rules are making sure the premises are plausible, the premises are more plausible than the conclusion and that the argument is valid or strong. We are able to use these rules in everyday conversations. When we test a statement you really only need two out of the three tests to hold to analyze your argument. To start off you want to choose the question that can be answered easiest.

An example is "Steve Carell is funny. Steve Carell is on The Office. The Office is funny." Now I am going to use the three tests we learned previously to test this argument. Is the premise plausible? Yes, it is true that Steve Carell is funny and he is on The Office. The premise is more plausible than the conclusion. Just because Steve Carell is funny does not make the show The Office funny too. It all depends on the other actors. Steve Carell could be the only funny actor on the show compared to his other co-stars. However there could be a chance that Steve Carell's co-stars are just as funny as he is and The Office might be one of the funniest shows on TV. There are many factors that can contribute to whether Steve Carell is funny or the show The Office is funny. After analyzing this argument I have come to the conclusion that this is a weak argument because there are so many factors contributing to the conclusion. Your own opinion can come into play as well when deciding if Steve Carell is funny or not.

Types of Group Roles

In the Small Group discussion book there is a section on Types of Group Roles. After reading this it gave me a much better perception on how to delegate the work load properly so everyone contributes equally. A few examples of task roles are Information giver, Information seeker, Elaborator, Initiator, and Administrator. Each one of these roles is important in finishing the project efficiently and on time. There is also another type of roles that can be delegated and they are known as Personal roles which deal with the relationships of the group members. They are called socioemotional because they are not directly related to the work load but more there to make sure everyone is getting along and keeping the group working like a well oiled machine. The names of these jobs are the Harmonizer, Gatekeeper, and Sensor. Now these people are there to keep the peace when there is tension among group members as well as keeping the communication flowing and the ideas running around the heads of all members. This section I believe will come in handy when we all have to come together and work on these group projects. Keeping tension low and spirits high is a great environment to do a group project in.

Ambiguous and Vague Sentences

We hear vague and ambiguous sentences on our day to day lives all the time and they are quite frustrating. There hard to escape whether your watching TV and a commercial come on or waiting in line at the store reading the magazine headlines. One commercial has really stood out to me lately while I have been watching TV and I am sure we all have seen it being advertised, it would be the new "Drive Thru Diet" that Taco Bell is now displaying. There spokes woman claims to have lost 54 lbs. by eating only the Fresco items off them menu when she ate out. When I first say this advertisement I couldn't believe it, there was no way one woman lost that much weight eating Taco Bell food. What they fail to mention on the commercials but to say on there web site is that she lost this weight through a span of two years along with reducing her calorie intake by 500 while also exercising. These adds seem to give a very confusing message as how losing weight is that easy, just eat at Taco Bell and see the pounds melt away...I don't think so. This advertisement is extremely vague in stating how easily it is to lose weight. The commercial must do this on purpose as a ploy to get more people eating Taco Bell’s food just because of the false claims they are making about there new “Drive Thru Diet”.

Subjective or Objective...that is the question

Subjective and Objective claims are similar but different at the same time. A Subjective Claim is a phrase or claim that someone states with out it mattering whether it is true or false. Subjective has to do with your personal feelings and standards, all other people's opinions are put aside. Now an Objective Claim is a phrase or claim that is not subjective or impersonal. Meaning the claim has truth in it and all can agree to the claim.

An example of a Subjective claim that I have heard recently was in a conversation with my roommates. We were all sitting in our living room of our apartment and having a conversation about what food we like and what we don't like. My one roommate Jessica loves seafood and anything to do with it while my other roommate Annelyse and I both hate it. I made the statement "seafood is gross and it smells unpleasant when you cook it". My roommate Jessica disagreed with my statement because it is a personal subjective statement only applying to me.

An example of an Objective claim that I heard recently was in my Health class that I had on Tuesday. Our teacher was doing a lecture on What Health Is and she gave the definition of health saying it is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease". This is an objective claim because it is a true well known statement that many people are aware of and live by.