Final Question #3

I personally liked learning about language. I liked this concept because I learned the different functions of language that I never knew existed before. I honestly thought all functions of language were just combined into a whole. I wanted to learn more about this concept because I think it's important for us to know what kind of language we use in our daily lives. There is informative, expressive, directive, and ceremonial. All of the functions are used on a daily basis by everyone except for ceremonial, because that's more formal, as in saying, "I do" in a marriage ceremony. I thought it was interesting how there are 6,800 known languages in the world, but they all use the same basic universal grammatical rules. This is the only concept that I wish we went  into more detail for because we just touched on it a little bit. Overall, this was a great class and  a great experience, and I would definitely recommend other students to take this course to fulfill their Area C3 for their pre-requisites.

Final Question #2

Taking this class was a great experience. When I signed up for the class, I was confused on how a "small group communications" class was going to be online. I was questioning on how students were going to meet up and do assignments together since we wouldn't know who the other was. Overall, I really liked how this course was with blogging. I would say that it was my favorite part about this course because it was anonymous, so we were able to express ourselves without any judgement88. Writing blogs about the chapters that we read about improved my reading and analyzing skills because it made me really think about what I just read and how it relates to me. As for my least favorite part about this class would probably have to be the fact that since it was an online class, it made it difficult at times to meet up with my group mates for the assignments because everyone had different schedules. I don't think this course needs any improvement because although some students don't do the blogs every week because they forget, it's nobody's fault but theirs because it's their own responsibility.

Final Question #1

Over this semester, I have learned so much about communication and language. I learned from what critical thinking is to errors in thinking to science. It is honestly hard to only name things that I have learned in this course, but one of them is rhetoric. I never even knew what that word meant until I took this course. Now, I know that rhetoric is the ability that is used to inform and promote a particular postion, like persuasion. I've heard the phrase 'rhetorical question', but by definition, that means a question that is used to make a point without the expectation of a response, which is different than rhetoric. I believe that everyone uses this ability in their daily lives. For example, if you're with a group of friends trying to decide where to go to eat and one friend suggests to go get pizza, but you don't want that, you would most likely try persuading your friends to go to another restaurant.

Week 14 ; Ch.12 #3

The section that I found most interesting in this chapter was "Assumptions Underlying Science". This section names six different assumptions because science is a system created by humans. The first assumption is empiricism, which is the belief that our physical senses are the primary source of knowledge. The second is objectivity, the belief that we can observe and study the physical world without any observer bias. Third, is materialism, which is the belief that everything in the world is made up of physical matter. According to scientists, there's no reason to have scientific descriptions and explanations for non-material concepts. The fourth assumption is predictability. Scientists have assumed that the world consists of interconnected casual relationships that can be discovered through observation and inductive reasoning. The final type of assumption  unity, which is the belief in that there is an underlying unity of the universe, or a unified dynamic structure that is present in all phenomena. I believe the most common assumption that is used today is empiricism because the text says that it's the only reliable method for obtaining knowledge.

Week 14 ; Ch.12 #2

This past September, it was my birthday and since it was a Monday, I wasn't really able to celebrate it. My best friend since the 3rd grade was the first person to wish me happy birthday, with a phone call at exactly midnight, a text, and a post on Facebook. Next, was my roommate. Throughout the day, I got birthday wishes from a lot of people, even from people that I didn't really talk to. What surprised me was that I didn't get a birthday wish from one of my close friends, and I shared this with my best friend. She was surprised as well that she didn't wish me a happy birthday because it wasn't like her to forget. Soon enough, the day was almost over and I still didn't receive a call, text, or anything from her. When I signed onto Twitter, I saw that she posted a happy birthday wish to a girl from high school that has the same birthday as me. I know that it wasn't that big of a deal, but as I was thinking about it, I got upset and angry. About a week later, I got a text from her apologizing about me thinking that she forgot about my birthday because my best friend talked to her about it. She said that texted me, but I never texted back saying thank you or anything, so she thought it was a misunderstanding and I never received the text from her. What I don't understand though, is how I got everyone else's text, but hers. I still personally think that she forgot it was my birthday and used that as an excuse because if I were in her position, I would have called if I didn't get a response back.

Week 14 ; Ch.12 #1

I'm a Virgo because I was born on September 17th. According to dailyhoroscopes.com, today, November 15, 2012, it says "You are very creative but may have found a clogged pathway where your ideas are concerned. Consider keeping a notepad with you. You will want to write down your thoughts about things to do later, things to look up, people to see and creative techniques for new ideas. One way to keep creativity alive for yourself, is to value and pay attention to the little ideas that you get wherever you are--including the workplace. One new idea can open up doors of opportunity. Your career direction gets some encouragement and you should find easy solutions. You have a heightened interest in health and diet and have an urge to get things organized into a rational system. There is mental busywork now. Seeing both sides of an issue takes on importance." I personally don't really believe in horoscopes because I think they're just things to get into your head, but since we were required to read ours, I agree that there is a bit of a clogged pathway where my ideas are concerned because of an event that just happened recently. My horoscope also got the "you have a heightened interest in health and diet" right because I want to become a pediatric nurse. Some events that could falsify the horoscope would be if I weren't creative at all, I didn't have a clogged pathway where all my ideas are concerned, and if I didn't have a heightened interest in health and diet. A few of my friends are also Virgos, but from what I know and have seen, they don't show any creativity. Most of them also don't want to major in anything relating to health or diet or even have an interest in it, so that would be a false statement in the Virgo horoscope. Even though it may be a true prediction for me, it might not be for others. 

Week 13 ; Ch.11 #3

The section that I found most interesting was "Social Networking". It states that the internet is affecting the daily lives of young people. I agree with this because today, many people are addicted to using social networks. There are many times where this happens to me when I'm doing homework or just laying in bed trying to fall asleep. When I'm doing homework on my laptop, there are many times where I would open up Facebook because it's so convenient. Also, since I have an iPhone, it's a lot easier to go on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram because there are apps for that. There are times where I find myself looking through each social network, then five minutes later, I would check them again thinking that there would be something new posted. Nowadays, there are many students that post pictures of themselves drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, or doing any other illegal activities. What these students don't see is that posting these pictures can affect them professional wise when they're trying to apply for a job. This section proposes that when you post a message on a social network, you need to consider who the potential recipients, both intended and unintended are. Many students assume that their profiles are private and people whom they're not friends with can't see what they post, but there are ways in which employers and administrators can find out if you do something illegal. So the next time you post a picture up of yourself doing something illegal, you should think twice about it.

Week 13 ; Ch.11 #2

Brook J. Salder is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Southern Florida that talks about how internet plagiarism is wrong and students shouldn't do it. She believes that it makes the students unable to be educated and the professor's comments can't influence the student to improve their work or to identify particular weaknesses. Salder write ten arguments about why internet plagiarism is the wrong thing to do. She also thinks that students whom plagiarize should face larger consequences than just failing the assignment. Russell Hunt on the other hand, a professor of English at St. Thomas University in Canada believes that internet plagiarism is a good thing. He believes that internet plagiarism encourages students on improving in their work. He says that plagiarism is okay because he believes that the way Universities have their curriculum today, in order for a student to maintain a good GPA, they are encouraged to cheat and plagiarize for help. In this situation, I believe Salder has the stronger argument because she explains how plagiarizing doesn't benefit you, how it's unfair to other students, and how it's not fair. She also talks about a solution to solving this problem, whereas Hunt doesn't talk about a solution. Hunt just states his opinions about plagiarism without any of it being solid reasoning.

Week 13 ; Ch.11 #1

Media experiences have reinforced my existing worldviews and values and challenged and expand my views in different ways. When I see something, for example, on Facebook, I usually don't believe it until I do my own research. An example of this was when one of my friends posted that Michael Duncan passed away, but I didn't believe it was true so I looked it up on Google, and it was unfortunately true. According to the text, this process helps overcome bias and narrow-mindedness because your range of media experiences is expanded. The text states that another way to interpret media messages is to carry out a critical analysis of your interpretation. This usually consists of asking questions like, "Why did it make me feel that way?" or "What is going to happen next?" after reading an article or watching a show/movie. I personally don't interpret this way as much as I do for the previous one, but I have a few times. One time I've done this was when I watched the movie Shutter Island. This movie was full of suspense, action, and mystery.Throughout the whole movie, I was confused on what was happening and the whole concept of the story, but once the movie was over, I was left speechless because it made me wonder how anyone could even think of a story line like that. I'm sure that everyone has used one of these interpretations at least once before about the media, people just don't realize it.

Week 12 ; Ch.10 #3

The section that I found most interesting in this chapter was "Common Fallacies in Advertisements". A fallacy is an error in reasoning due to misconception or presumption. This section talks about how ads usually depend on fallacies and psychological persuasion. A few example scare tactic of ads it talks about are ones that talk about losing weight, bad breath, body odor, or acne, etc. Advertisements like this make people realize the negative things about themselves that they may not have noticed before and will make them self-conscious. The ads promise a solution to the problems if you use the product. Another fallacy in ads is the fallacy of popular appeal, which states that "everyone" is using this product, including celebrities, so you should use it too. This type of advertising is usually the most effective with teenagers because they want to do what "everyone else" is doing to be "popular". Another type is snob appeal, which show people that are sexy, athletic, popular, or rich, using a certain product. A fourth type is the fallacy of appeal to inappropriate authority, which is when a celebrity promotes a product that's out of their field. For example, Britney Spears promoting Nike shoes. There are many different ways on how advertisements catch an audience's attention, so the best thing that you could do for yourself personally would be to not let it influence you into thinking negatively about yourself.

Week 12 ; Ch.10 #2

After reading Robert Liodice and Margo G. Wootan's articles, I enjoyed the fact that one person was for it, and the other was against it. Both articles talked about regulating food advertisements for children. Liodice was for the act of having advertisements because he believes that it's just the freedom of speech. On the other hand, Wootan was against having advertisements because she believes that this causes children to live unhealthy lives. She talks about how unhealthy food advertisements should be banned so that kids could live healthier lives. Wootan also goes into detail about what foods should be acceptable to be advertised and to eat. I personally think Wootan made the better argument because she gave examples of what should replace the acts now. I also think that advertisements do cause some obesity in this world because when people see a large billboard with a juicy burger on it, it usually makes them crave it afterwards. Without advertisements, businesses wouldn't be able to gain the business that they get today to be successful. Although advertisements don't make people become obese, it definitely influences them.

Week 12 ; Ch.10 #1

There are many different types of marketing strategies. Corporations use market strategies to attract customers and gain business. These types of market strategies include: consumer awareness, advertising in media, product placement, television advertising, and the SWOT model. SWOT stands for "strengths", "weaknesses", "opportunities", and "threats". I noticed SWOT was being used when I went to Pizza My Heart. The atmosphere is really comforting and unique because of the pictures and posters on the walls. Aside from the walls, there are also multiple flat screen tvs that are usually left on the sports channel. The price for their slices of pizza are pretty cheap compared to others, and they're large slices, so that makes people want to continue coming in. Also, Pizza My Heart is one of the few places that put your slice back into the oven to warm it up before serving it to you. Their soda machine is something that only a few places have, and it's different and cool because there are so many different  flavors and sodas to choose from. Something that they could work on would be if the staff were a bit friendlier.

Week 9 ; Ch. 4 #3

Something that interested me in this chapter was the probability errors. A probability error is when the probability or chance of an event is under or over estimated by a huge margin. An example given was the probability of two people in your class having the same birthday. People usually think the probably is pretty low, but in reality, in a normal class size of about 20 students the probability is around 50%. With a larger class, the probability will also increase. An insidious form of probability error is gambler's error. This is the belief that previous events affect the probability in a random event. An example of this would be if you were thinking about a certain song, and all of a sudden when you turn on the radio, that song comes on. When this event occurs, many people usually thinks it's a coincidence, but it's a freaky one. An event that happens to me a lot of the time that is similar to this is when I call my mom, and right when she answers her phone, she says it's creepy because she grabs her phone to text or call me, but I call her right before she gets the chance. I think these are both errors that occur daily in people's lives whether they realize it or not.

Week 9 ; Ch.4 #2

In the story of "Perspectives on Evaluating Evidence for the Existence of Unidentified Flying Objects",  there are three different opinions about UFOs. Edward Condon argues that the study of UFOs for the past 21 years has not come to any conclusion. He believes that since there has been no proof of UFOs, in schools, teachers shouldn't give credit to students that turn in work based on readings about them. J. Allen Hynek argues that the existence of UFOs need to be studied in a systematic scientific manner because the issue is dismissed too often. He goes on to coming up with ideas on how the existence can be proven by "comparing large groups of sightings of a particular category with a much larger population of the same category" and "Close Encounters of the Second Kind, in which the reported presence of physical evidence can yield quantitative physical data". Royston Paynter argues that there isn't solid 100% proof that aliens have set foot on Earth. He says that people can believe these alien visitations from cattle mutilations, crop circles, and alien abductions, but there isn't any proof of it. I personally believe that Paynter had the best argument because he didn't shoot the whole idea down about aliens existing like the previous two did. He said that people can believe whatever they want, but he just tells the truth about there being no evidence to support the fact that aliens do exist.

Week 9 ; Ch.4 #1

Wisdom is the use of knowledge. Knowledge is something that you know is true through evidence or proof. I honestly think I acquire both in college because some of the information that professors teach are things that I never knew before. Since professors are experts in their area of study, they're evidence of the truth being told. A way to use this information as wisdom would be if you were telling your friends about something new that you learned in class. You know it's true information because it's what your professor shared with the class. I don't think taking GE courses is a necessity because they're not subjects that you want your future to withhold. Taking those courses makes you more knowledgeable, but when would you use all that information in the real world? Events that happen in your life make you wiser because you learn from your past experiences to improve on situations, or what you need to avoid. I think the information age has made us both wiser and more knowledgeable because in college, you learn something new every day.

Week 7 ; Ch.3 #3

In the beginning of chapter 3, it talks about what language is and the different functions of language. Language is defined as, "a system of communication that involves a set of arbitrary symbols, whether spoken, written, or nonverbal (sign language)". There are 6,800 known languages in the word, but they all use the same basic universal grammatical rules. Four different functions are; informative, expressive, directive, or ceremonial. Informative language is language that is either true or false, directive is used to direct or influence actions, expressive communicates feelings and attitudes, and ceremonial is used in particular formal circumstances. An example of informative language is, "San Jose State is located in downtown San Jose". An example of directive would if someone told you to do something, like, "Close the door". Expressive language is usually written into poems or religious worships. An example of ceremonial language would be saying "I do" in a marriage ceremony.  I personally never knew or thought about the different functions of language, so I'm glad I learned about it in this chapter.

Week 7 ; Ch.3 #2

A rhetorical device is the action of using persuasion rather than reason to persuade people to side with a particular position. There are four different types of common rhetorical devices, which consist of euphemism, dysphemism, sarcasm, and hyperbole. A euphemism is when you replace a negative term with a more positive one, basically "sugercoating" the truth. A dysphemism is the opposite of a euphemism, it's a phrase used to have a negative effect. Sarcasm is the use of insults, taunting, and caustic irony. A hyperbole is the use of exaggeration to overstate the facts. Earlier this week, I used a euphemism because when I was at work, I had to train a new hire on how to open up the store. It was her third week of working, so I asked her if she could make someone's order of fresh-squeezed orange juice. I knew she was told multiple times before to wear gloves while working with the fresh fruits because my co-workers told me ahead of time, but even after those constant reminders, she still didn't wear them this time while making the juice. Instead of scolding her like my other co-workers did, I simply told her, "Hey, we're supposed to always wear gloves when we touch the fresh fruits because nobody would want a drink that someone makes without knowing where their hands have been." After I told her that, every fresh-squeezed juice she made later that day, she wore gloves. Last week, I also used sarcasm because my roommate left her keys at home, and since I was home, she called me and asked if I could let her in. Obviously I was going to let her in, but I told her, "No,  I don't know how to open the door, so you're going to have to wait outside all night long." She knew I was being sarcastic, so she told me to just come downstairs and open the door.

Week 7 ; Ch.3 #1

When I read the story of Sally Ride, I was impressed with all the accomplishments she managed to go though. Not only was she one out of 35 picked for the astronaut class of 1978 out of more than 8,000 applicants, but she was also the youngest and the first female African astronaut in space. She is a great example of a role model for someone to pursue their goals in life. Looking back to chapter one, Ride was a critical thinker because she had analytical skills. had effective communication, had open-minded skepticism, and had creative problem solving skills. According to her friends from college, she was "calm and totally focused, always able to see the heart of things, quickly thought, figured out, and crystallized things." She sounded like a person that really had things going the way she wanted them to, and followed a successful path to life. I would think that she was the type of person that would always take problems into her own hands, and not depend on other people for things because she knew that she would be able to handle the situations on her own. I believe she was showing women that they can all do anything that men can do.

Week 6 ; Ch.2 #3

In this chapter, there is a section called, "Emotional Intelligence and the Positive Effects of Emotion". Emotional intelligence is defined as, "the ability to perceive accurately, appraise and express emotion". A few examples of emotions are: empathy, outrage, love, happiness, and guilt. Sometimes, an inability to communicate our emotions can negatively affect a person's behavior and decisions. For example, if a person is upset, and the person that they're upset with is trying to talk to them to apologize, but they are too upset to even give that person a chance to explain themselves. This could cause friendships to end. Empathy is the ability to enter into and understand the emotions of others. An empathetic person is more open to other people's opinions and thoughts. With this trait, people are able to become better listeners and communicators. Emotions can also help us correct past mistakes. This is because when it's an "in the moment" event, your emotions get the best of you and you might do something that you regret. As time passes, you could realize what you did wrong, and try to correct your mistakes.

Week 6 ; Ch.2 #2

Dawkins claims that evolution and a belief in God are incompatible. Evolution is the process of how things in this world became the way it is now with little changes as generations pass. When someone believes in God, that means they believe that God is the one that created this earth and everyone in it. If someone believes in evolution, they can't possibly believe in God as well because both ideas contradict each other. Aquinas writes about how the existence of God can be proved in five ways. These five ways are: the argument from motion, nature of the efficient cause, possibility and necessity, gradation to be found in things, and governance of the world. Dawkins on the other hand says that Aquinas's first three points mean the same thing, but is written differently, so he brings out his own ideas on how the existence of God is incompatible with the belief in evolution. If Aquinas was alive today, I think he wouldn't agree with what Dawkins believes in, and would say that it's not proof at all, that it's only his own opinion and beliefs, not evidence.