Monday, August 9, 2010
Apples and oranges and zero and two... still zero.
Favorites.
What I learned.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
March of dimes.
I had my four friends discuss our second major assignment, which my group chose to analyze the organization March of Dimes. Just for a brief overview, the March of Dimes foundation is an organization focused on the health of babies. It focuses on the research of the causes of prematurity and educating new parents and pregnant mothers on how to treat their baby. It supports the mothers, their newborn, and promotes their health.
How do you disagree with a mission like that? As my group looked over the website to follow the prompt, I admit it was kind of difficult to find problems and fallacies. My friends thought the same thing. With a concept of helping babies and researching prematurity, it’s kind of hard to go wrong. There aren’t many claims to represent a fallacy.
However, my friends did find the same one as my group paper without reading our assignment. The March of Dimes claimed to be the most hardworking organization to help babies and find the cause of prematurity--a hyperbole that could easily be countered.
Vagueness and ambiguity...?
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Cause and Effect.
The Cause and Effect reading was very short, precise, and thorough. I feel it put more depth into what was explained in Epstein's reading, and the exercises was a really good addition (even though the cause and effect exercises were pretty short!)
The exercises helped exhibit the way you must critically think when reading causal arguments. You really have to pay attention and search for the conclusion at times, because often times there will be unstated conclusions or premises. The reading and exercises separated the differences between “commonalities” and “differences” and how important it is to realize these two things when reading an argument. It sets aside different ground points to the cause and effect.
Also in the reading and exercises, there was a question about “likelihood.” This stresses the evidence. Without explaining the likelihood of the causal argument, there is no support for the bridge between the cause and effect. It makes that bridge sturdy, and is a necessary piece of evidence for causal arguments.
Friday, July 30, 2010
From no business to slow business.
I really enjoyed all of Chapter 13 of Epstein because it can be directly related to certain concepts of my major. I am an advertising major, and we are all about pitching a product or service, and selling it by putting all the best feet forward. It’s a bit manipulative toward customers, and that’s what Chapter 13 illustrates in terms of numbers.
I especially noticed the “two times zero is still zero” concept that is really very applicable to advertising. It’s kind of like when a new restaurant is promoting their menu, and say “We served three times as many tables as yesterday.”
Okay... But what if yesterday, there was only one table to be served? Then that means today, they still only served three tables and while the words “three times as many” appeals to us because it sounds like a great gain, but it’s such a misleading claim that we may just contrarily be eating at a very... slow... restaurant.