A Little Bit More...

The semester in Comm 41 I have learned so many great lessons that it is quite difficult to pick just one thing that I would like to see further explanation on. Between generalizations and claims there is so much still to learn about the art of communication but one subject I think I could use some more time and explanation on would be about Fallacies. This was a pretty long chapter and lesson to learn, especially because there are so many different types of fallacies and learning when to spot one does taker lots of practice. I believe just being to point out a fallacy is a great accomplishment; knowing that it is a bad argument and then coming to the conclusion that it is an argument that is un-repairable is pretty amazing. Then there all the different types of fallacies that we have to know, were talking about 7+ different kinds of fallacies that we have to know the background of each one. It is a bit confusing in the beginning but once you break it down and get to spend a little more time on them I believe we all can have the art of finding fallacies down pat.

I can't believe this is my last blog of the semester!It really is just now hitting me and it definitely is a bitter sweet moment. This class was a great learning tool and I am really glad I took it. In the beginning I knew it was a challenge but as the semester went along it did get easier just like Professor Perez said! I wish everyone best of luck on their finals and I hope we all have a wonderful summer :)

What I learned...

Man this bog is going to be tough because there is so much that I learned in this course through out the semester I don't know where to begin! Coming into this class I had some previous experience with Communication because I took COMM 40 but with this class being on-line there were some big differences. I had never blogged before this class so that was a great learning experience. Learning about how to create a good argument and discovering when a person is delivering a weak argument is really going to help out later in life. A lot of what we leaned in this class we all can use later on and apply it to our every day lives. I have to commend out Professor Carol Perez for being an amazing teacher even when none of us have met in person. Teaching is already a challenge but when its an on-line course the challenge goes up even further and I believe our professor did an amazing job! We all know communication is key with all aspects of our lives and this class got everyone of us one step closer to preparing us to argue our way into this wonderful but challenging world we live in.

When is a Generalization Good?

In section C of Chapter 14 Epstein discusses when it is ok and when it is not ok to make a generalization. An example that the book gives when it is not ok to make a generalization is in a classroom setting. A teacher makes the statement that there are a few Chinese students in the class and they are all hard working and get great grades. Then the teacher says that they suppose that all Chinese are like that. The group size is way too small to make such a great generalization like this one. This is one way stereotypes are created. The larger the sample sizes the better chances you have of making a good generalization about something or someone. The book tells us that often you can rely on common sense when it comes to smaller numbers. The book also tells us that when evaluating statistical generalizations, you have to assume that the people doing the sampling have looked at enough examples which is pretty much a sure thing when you are dealing with a well know organization or company.