Further discussion...

Before learning about the “inferring & implying” concepts, I had already thought and implanted in my mind that “infer” & “imply” were synonyms. So, reading this section made me a bit confused and a bit irritated. Having a different understanding of what the words meant beforehand just made things harder instead of easier (which I had thought when I first skimmed the chapter of Repairing Arguments). When I first read what “infer” meant I was confused on what “unstated claim” meant. I understand the word “imply,” but “infer” just keeps confusing meThe example confused me even more saying, “ we infer this from the person’s remarks; he has implied it.” Infer and imply in the sentence made me believe that they meant the same thing. Also, the section was short, which made it seem like the concept should be simple and easy to understand, but instead, it was short and had a lot to say which I think made it overwhelming. At the end, just when I think I understand and believe I can differentiate the two words, I read more and I get confused again. The “inferring & implying” concepts definitely need further discussion in my point of view.

Favorite...least favorite...improvement...

My favorite thing about the class was how we blogged about the different concepts that we learned throughout the semester. I thought it was pretty cool that in order to participate in class, the students had to blog, which when you hear “blog” you think of social networking sites that are not beneficial to one’s life. I also liked the feedback I received from the other students in the blogs because it felt as if we were all engaging about learning the subject, even though were not physically there.

My least favorite thing about the class is having to learn the concepts on my own (I know it is an online course). I know that if we were to meet up in person or maybe even have the professor show videos of her teaching, I would understand the course a bit easier. Also, I really didn’t like how the tests and especially the quizzes were limited. It felt as if there was so much to do in so little time…I think it would be better if the test time limit were as long as regular class meetings such as an hour and 15 minutes or at least 45 minutes to an hour.

This class can be improved by providing the right answers to the tests and quizzes. Everybody learns from his or her mistakes. I feel that if I were to be able to know what the correct answers were I would understand the different concepts a bit more clearer rather than being clueless in what question I got wrong and right. After taking the tests and quizzes, I would not feel confident in any of my answers just because I wasn’t able to receive feedback from them; instead, I was just in doubt. 

I learned...

Over the course of the semester I’ve learned that in everyday life, people argue, debate, and reason using different concepts, but they just don’t know exactly what kind of argument they are making. The two concepts that really popped out to me taking this course were the vague versus ambiguous sentences and the appeal to emotion concepts. In reasoning, we can tolerate some vagueness, but we certainly cannot tolerate any ambiguity. With vagueness, one person can say, “Add a pinch of salt to the dish.” Then we can question them and be “smart” by asking, “What’s a pinch of salt…50 grains or 100…but isn’t everybody’s finger different in size…?” With ambiguity, one can say, “Everybody has to dance in front of the mirror.” With that, we can question if the person is saying everyone has to dance as groups or individuals. As with the appeal to emotion concepts, there were two that caught my eye. I would constantly see heartbreaking advertisements about young children fighting diseases and also ones that frighten me. Know I can watch these advertisements knowing that they are trying to persuade me to do something about the situation because of the appeal to pity or the appeal to fear.