After reading chapter 5 of Kirszner's Practical Argument (2011), here is my list of fallacies:
1. How can you like Rhianna's music? She's weird and ugly. (Ad hominem)
2. You can't do that because I told you not to. (Circular Reasoning)
3. Right after he smiled, he got hit by a bus, so I'm not going to smile because I don't want to get hit by a bus. (Post hoc, ergo propter hoc)
4. What do you mean you don't know if you want to marry me or not? Either you love me, or you don't. (False dilemma)
5. Once 2 people in a dating relationship start kissing, they will do more and more, and eventually, have premarital sex. (Slippery Slope)
6. Don't tell me I shouldn't yell in front of our son! You did it last week! (Tu Quoque)
7. Beyonce should have won the grammy. Even Kanye West says so. (Appeal to Doubtful Authority)
8. Everyone in today's society says having sex after one month of dating is acceptable, so it is. (Bandwagon Appeal)
9. Once, this Christian girl yelled at me. Christians are terrible people. (Non Sequitur/Sweeping Generalization)
10. Miley Cirus' voice is obnoxious, and she should not be producing mainstream music... Well, you at least have to admit her teeth are horrible. (Red Herring/Ad Hominem)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Reflective Entry #2: Responding to a Great Text on Texting
What struck me the most from chapter 13 was the student essay the book used as an example for structuring a causal argument, “Texting: A Boon, Not a Threat, to Language” (Kirszner, 2011, 363). It caught my attention because it deals with a very current and pertinent issue of debate that interests and applies to me personally. In a relatively short essay, the author makes several strong, applicable points to support her argument, and uses clear, concise writing to do so.
In today’s fast-paced world of technological advancement, texting is an excellent topic for an argumentative essay. Skimming through the chapter, this essay caught my eye and made me really curious to see what the author had to say. This was especially so because most literature I have read about texting takes the opposite stance, warning of the dangers of this “downgraded” form of communication. Reading Mialki’s argument for the values of texting and its preservation and expansion of language was exciting for me as someone who loves to text, and I agreed with many of her points.
The specific pieces of evidence Mialki uses are, I think, very convincing. Among the arguments she makes for her case are the time texters spend engaged with language, and the creativity with language demanded by the limitations of texting. She refutes the opposing argument that texting discourages the use of proper English with evidence from a study by Newsweek linking texting and expanded vocabularies. Another, more subtle refutation she gave that I loved was her sentence “Just as most young people know not to talk to their teachers the way they talk to their friends, they know not to write papers the way they write text messages.” That is a key point that I think holds pretty true, but that gets left out most times in debates about the texting issue by people who apparently think young people have little ability to transition appropriate registers for specific tasks.
Beyond just the content of her essay, I was also impressed by her use of writing techniques. In the second paragraph, Mialki employs what we learned about giving a definition in an argument, in this case, to explain what a “text message” is. This technique serves to clarify her message by putting readers, who may not be very familiar with texting, on the same page with her (similar to the effect it had when Dr. Carreiro put the definition of “education” on the board during our in-class discussion about schooling versus education). More importantly, Mialki used short, clear, simple sentences to develop substantial paragraphs throughout the essay. This concise writing had a very positive effect on my emotional response to the essay because it felt quick to read, kept my interest, and did not ‘lose me’ at all. I also think the essay’s being well organized added to how digestible it seemed; the thesis statement is very easy to identify and conveniently located at the very end of the introduction paragraph.
Works Cited
Mialki, Kristina in Kirszner. Practical Argument. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011. Print.
In today’s fast-paced world of technological advancement, texting is an excellent topic for an argumentative essay. Skimming through the chapter, this essay caught my eye and made me really curious to see what the author had to say. This was especially so because most literature I have read about texting takes the opposite stance, warning of the dangers of this “downgraded” form of communication. Reading Mialki’s argument for the values of texting and its preservation and expansion of language was exciting for me as someone who loves to text, and I agreed with many of her points.
The specific pieces of evidence Mialki uses are, I think, very convincing. Among the arguments she makes for her case are the time texters spend engaged with language, and the creativity with language demanded by the limitations of texting. She refutes the opposing argument that texting discourages the use of proper English with evidence from a study by Newsweek linking texting and expanded vocabularies. Another, more subtle refutation she gave that I loved was her sentence “Just as most young people know not to talk to their teachers the way they talk to their friends, they know not to write papers the way they write text messages.” That is a key point that I think holds pretty true, but that gets left out most times in debates about the texting issue by people who apparently think young people have little ability to transition appropriate registers for specific tasks.
Beyond just the content of her essay, I was also impressed by her use of writing techniques. In the second paragraph, Mialki employs what we learned about giving a definition in an argument, in this case, to explain what a “text message” is. This technique serves to clarify her message by putting readers, who may not be very familiar with texting, on the same page with her (similar to the effect it had when Dr. Carreiro put the definition of “education” on the board during our in-class discussion about schooling versus education). More importantly, Mialki used short, clear, simple sentences to develop substantial paragraphs throughout the essay. This concise writing had a very positive effect on my emotional response to the essay because it felt quick to read, kept my interest, and did not ‘lose me’ at all. I also think the essay’s being well organized added to how digestible it seemed; the thesis statement is very easy to identify and conveniently located at the very end of the introduction paragraph.
Works Cited
Mialki, Kristina in Kirszner. Practical Argument. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011. Print.
5 Greatest Challenges Confronting my Profession
There are many issues connected to education and it could be argued that they are all great challenges, but according to my personal, current view, here are...
The 5 Greatest Challenges Confronting the Teaching Profession:
1. Job availability at quality schools with quality pay.
2. Unmotivated students; negative in-class (e.g. distractions) and out-of-class (e.g. home life, peer pressure) influences.
3. The increasing amount of mental and emotional health issues/disorders among students.
4. Unbalanced, academics-only, "one size fits all" curricula that try to fit kids into a mold.
5. The outcome of only partially educated students who are unprepared and unmotivated to reach their full potential.
The topic I have chosen for my next paper is a combination of numbers 4 and 5.
Below are organizations and people I have emailed asking for their thoughts on the subject, but have not yet heard back from:
National Professional Associations:
-National Education Association
-Association of American Educators (not yet contacted)
BSU Education Faculty:
-Dr. David E. Coffman
Director of Teacher Education and Department Chair
Professor of Education
Office: Flory Hall, Room 312
540-828-5352
dcoffman@bridgewater.edu
-Dr. Mark A. Hogan
Coordinator of Secondary Program
Professor of Education
Office: Flory Hall, Room 315
540-828-5662
mhogan@bridgewater.edu
The 5 Greatest Challenges Confronting the Teaching Profession:
1. Job availability at quality schools with quality pay.
2. Unmotivated students; negative in-class (e.g. distractions) and out-of-class (e.g. home life, peer pressure) influences.
3. The increasing amount of mental and emotional health issues/disorders among students.
4. Unbalanced, academics-only, "one size fits all" curricula that try to fit kids into a mold.
5. The outcome of only partially educated students who are unprepared and unmotivated to reach their full potential.
The topic I have chosen for my next paper is a combination of numbers 4 and 5.
Below are organizations and people I have emailed asking for their thoughts on the subject, but have not yet heard back from:
National Professional Associations:
-National Education Association
-Association of American Educators (not yet contacted)
BSU Education Faculty:
-Dr. David E. Coffman
Director of Teacher Education and Department Chair
Professor of Education
Office: Flory Hall, Room 312
540-828-5352
dcoffman@bridgewater.edu
-Dr. Mark A. Hogan
Coordinator of Secondary Program
Professor of Education
Office: Flory Hall, Room 315
540-828-5662
mhogan@bridgewater.edu
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Causal Argument - Ch. 13 Bookwork & Essay Topic Ideas
Exercise 13.1 on 354
-Having weapons (guns) more easily accessible [will] raise crime/homicide rates.
-Not having weapons accessible [will] make emergencies more dangerous for victims.
-Smoking cigarettes effects smoker's health and the health of those around them.
-Cigarette smoking is contributing to poverty.
-Smoking cigarettes during pregnancy ensures a less healthy early life for your child.
-Warning people about the dangers of smoking will discourage them from the habit.
-If you are a friend, you will stop your friends from driving drunk.
-Lowering the drinking age will raise rates of drunk driving and related deaths.
Exercise 13.5 on 361
In the first paragraph, the cause Ephron identifies is eating chicken soup, and the result is getting a cold. More plausible causes of getting the cold are not getting enough sleep for your immune system to be strong enough to ward off the cold, and the cold already having advanced too far to be fought off.
The cause and effect from the second paragraph are breast-feeding and children developing allergies. Other causes could be a trend of slight DNA mutations in humans that make us more vulnerable to allergies, the increase in genetically modified foods, changes in diet that result in different bacteria/flora in our bodies, and a decrease in bacteria in the environments we inhabit resulting in weaker immune systems.
The third paragraph presents the use of computers as the cause of the decline in movie quality. More probable causes might be societal changes in values and entertainment preferences, the change from movies being primarily an art form to primarily money makers, the quicker current production rate of movies, and the lack of new ideas for movies since by now there have been so many already produced.
In the last paragraph, Ephron presents a twist by suggesting at the end that reading about hand-washing leads to memory loss, instead of hand-washing leading to decreased immunity in infants. Better reasons for Ephron's memory loss regarding the source of the information she read is the poor diet, poor sleeping habits, and high stress levels of Americans that work against memory, as well as the ever-increasing plethora of information we are exposed to in magazine articles, newspapers, television, ads, etc. and a low emphasis placed on remembering the exact source of information we learn.
CAUSAL ARGUMENT ESSAY IDEAS
1. Education curriculums are mostly to blame for the increasing incompetence of Americans in practical and ethical realms.
-time wasted on busy work/mastering simple skills many kids already have/will never use
-education not changing at rate appropriate to technological change
-lack of axiology and important life lessons being taught
2. Soft drinks are a major cause of obesity!
-Coke ad: "Open happiness"
3. The current thought of relative truth/"What's good for you" is breeding a generation of selfish and irresponsible people.
4. Shortcomings in the English language are largely responsible for societal confusion and irresponsibility (WC?).
-we only have 1 word for "love" -> girls' and boys' hearts get broken, children grow up with misconceptions
-Having weapons (guns) more easily accessible [will] raise crime/homicide rates.
-Not having weapons accessible [will] make emergencies more dangerous for victims.
-Smoking cigarettes effects smoker's health and the health of those around them.
-Cigarette smoking is contributing to poverty.
-Smoking cigarettes during pregnancy ensures a less healthy early life for your child.
-Warning people about the dangers of smoking will discourage them from the habit.
-If you are a friend, you will stop your friends from driving drunk.
-Lowering the drinking age will raise rates of drunk driving and related deaths.
Exercise 13.5 on 361
In the first paragraph, the cause Ephron identifies is eating chicken soup, and the result is getting a cold. More plausible causes of getting the cold are not getting enough sleep for your immune system to be strong enough to ward off the cold, and the cold already having advanced too far to be fought off.
The cause and effect from the second paragraph are breast-feeding and children developing allergies. Other causes could be a trend of slight DNA mutations in humans that make us more vulnerable to allergies, the increase in genetically modified foods, changes in diet that result in different bacteria/flora in our bodies, and a decrease in bacteria in the environments we inhabit resulting in weaker immune systems.
The third paragraph presents the use of computers as the cause of the decline in movie quality. More probable causes might be societal changes in values and entertainment preferences, the change from movies being primarily an art form to primarily money makers, the quicker current production rate of movies, and the lack of new ideas for movies since by now there have been so many already produced.
In the last paragraph, Ephron presents a twist by suggesting at the end that reading about hand-washing leads to memory loss, instead of hand-washing leading to decreased immunity in infants. Better reasons for Ephron's memory loss regarding the source of the information she read is the poor diet, poor sleeping habits, and high stress levels of Americans that work against memory, as well as the ever-increasing plethora of information we are exposed to in magazine articles, newspapers, television, ads, etc. and a low emphasis placed on remembering the exact source of information we learn.
CAUSAL ARGUMENT ESSAY IDEAS
1. Education curriculums are mostly to blame for the increasing incompetence of Americans in practical and ethical realms.
-time wasted on busy work/mastering simple skills many kids already have/will never use
-education not changing at rate appropriate to technological change
-lack of axiology and important life lessons being taught
2. Soft drinks are a major cause of obesity!
-Coke ad: "Open happiness"
3. The current thought of relative truth/"What's good for you" is breeding a generation of selfish and irresponsible people.
4. Shortcomings in the English language are largely responsible for societal confusion and irresponsibility (WC?).
-we only have 1 word for "love" -> girls' and boys' hearts get broken, children grow up with misconceptions
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