Futher discussion

I felt that the fallacies could use more discussion because of how often they are used and people don't even realize it. I didn't even have one fallacy in particular because they are all used quite often. Most people don't know about fallacies if they haven't taken a course like this one. Often times we are drawn into buying things or voting for polititions because there are fallacies used in their arguments. Often times when someone runs for an office position they will appeal to your emotions because they know that if they can get you to feel good about yourself or them or bad about something their opponent did that you will vote for them. We just need to realize what their goal is and step back and really look at the situation at hand. I thought the fallacies were one of the more interesting parts of this class because i didn't know how many fallacies there were. If disscused and understood better it could really help in classes you take down the line.
Big Cat

Favorite thing about the class

My favorite thing about this class was being able to work it around my schedule. It was nice to be able to log on whenever and post my blog or my comments. It really helped because I had football and another class to worry about. Also when i got time to go home to San Diego I didn't have to worry about this class because i could get my posts done before i left and be set until the next week. That was great! The part I didn't like was the 12 hour spaces between the posts. I understood why we had to wait to post but I like to be able to get things done in one shot like these three posts. It wasn't that big of a deal to me but it was a hassle sometimes. For the most part i didn't really dislike much about this class it was a good experiance and would recommend this class to anyone i know because of the leniacy in the schedualing of time slots. 12 hours isn't a bad wait time it can just be a bummer sometimes.
Big Cat

What I have Learned...

What I have learned in this course mainly was how to be responsible. The difference from this responsibility and one from a normal class was that not once did we meet in a class room and not once did we talk in person with the teacher. Every week I had to check the website and make sure I was staying on top of my work because we didn't see a teacher anytime throughout the entire week to remind us we had homework. Also we had to be responsible with our groups because we relied on one another to do our part and turn it in on time. When looking at the class though i learned a lot about fallacies. I had never really heard of fallacies before so that was interesting to learn how to argue properly and not have fallacies in my argument. The appeal to emotion fallacy was my favorite because I feel that is used quite often in arguments because people know that the fastest way to beat someone in an argument is to get into their or the audiences emotions. I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot!
Big Cat

Group Discussion

For my group discussion i got together my 2 roommates, one of their girlfriends and a friend that lives close by us. I showed them my first paper i wrote which was about 5 dieting myths. I wrote that i agreed that not all ways of dieting are perfect. 3 of the four people i discussed with. One of my roommates disagreed with me and said that the myths are true, even though i had facts to show him that isn't nessicarily true. He didn't care though, he was set in his way. The discussion was more of an argument that was 3 on one so that was kind of funny. He didn't have any solid facts to back up his claims while i had evidence from the website we wrote our paper on. It was a nice way to see what other people thought and see it from a perspective of people who have not taken this class.

Mission Critical Website

The mission critical website was a very helpful website as well. The many definitions and variety of exersizes was really helpful in the learning process. I really enjoyed the definitions about common fallacies and non-rational argument techniques. A great part about the definitions was the quizzes at the end of them. It would first explain the definition and the provide an example quiz. It was a bummer to see that the site is still under construction because the visual maps of the venn diagrams would have really helped me in understanding conditionals and syllogisms. When reading the about mission critical it seems like a really good idea to help San Jose State University students. Hopefully the site will be fully functional soon because it could be very benificial to SJSU students and students all over!

Cause and Effect Website

I enjoyed the cause and effect website because the examples and definitions really helped me to further understand the material. The example showing what a lawyer would do in court really made sence to me because it really shows you how to form a good argument. I liked when it talked about post hoc reasoning which means that just because A came before B doesn't mean that A caused B. A lot of time people conclude that because one thing happened before another it means that the first event caused the second. This was an exelent website because it really helped me to draw a picture in my head with the bicycle example and how in depth it got with it. Sometimes i wish the Epstien text book would put chapters into something this simple and understandable.