Chp. 14

3). Pick one concept or idea from any point in the semester, or in Chapter 14, that you found useful or interesting. 

Chapter 14 is about Generalizations.  This concept seemed similar to inductive reasoning where a person takes a sample or specific events and then uses these sample observations to draw a general conclusion.  We naturally do this.  Generalization may seem to become bias, which will conclude the generalization to be weak or unplausible to believe.  Epstein states that "a sample is representative if no one subgroup of the whole population is represented more than its proportion in the population.  A sample is biased if it is not represented" (Epstein p. 284).  In addition, there is haphazard sampling which is "choosing the sample with no intentional bias" (Epstein p. 284).  We cannot be sure whether there is bias or not so we use random sampling to get a representative sample.  With random sampling every possibility has an equal chance on being representative in the sample.  This way, we are able to eliminate bias and properly generalize observations we make in order to draw conclusions.

Comm41 Online Experience

2). What was your favorite thing about this class?  What was your least favorite thing about this class?  How can this class be improved?


Out of my entire college experience and school education experience, this is my first online class I have ever taken.  I was not too sure what to expect and curious how an online class may work and how it is structured.  After taking this course, Comm41 with Professor Perez, I have found this was a great experience.  My favorite thing about this class, in particular, was probably the whole idea that this class was online.  What I mean is is that I had the ability and the convenience to do the work and weekly assignments at my own time and convenience.  It made times flexible and yet it was still structured and had its limitations to make sure I would not slack off and continue doing the weekly assignments and work.  My least favorite thing about this class was having to try interpret the book ourselves.  For example, some things in the Epstein book would be worded very confusing and I would catch myself rereading it and saying to myself "what?" or "huh?" because the way it was worded.  To improve that, I think next time I can maybe post up questions under the professor's comments for the blog of that week for quick clarifications.  It probably didn't hit my right away because it was never really pointed out.  Or also, maybe the professor can post up some quick overviews of essential concepts.  I remember this occurring in some blog, but it did not continue.

Learned in this class

1). What have you learned in this class over the course of the semester?  Please be specific. 

I have learned many concepts in this class over the course of this fall semester.  I have learned many concepts that tie in with the role of claims and arguments.  There are many ways to analyze a claim or an argument whether it can be accepted as true or false, to whether it is strong, valid, or weak.  We can determine a claim to be true or false with our own experience, but we cannot assume claims to be false with lack of evidence or be bias based on who may have said it; however, we may be able to believe people or authority figures that we trust.  Using such claims, we create a collection of claims, or premises, to make an argument to persuade others.  To help persuade others, we can use appeals to emotion.  Commercials and ads tend to use different appeals to persuade or convince their audience to follow their message from signing to for the gym, to not drink and drive, to buying a new shampoo and conditioner.  In addition, we can use reasonings to help persuade our audiences as well.  We can use inductive and deductive reasoning that uses reasoning from specific to general and general to specific observations.  Overall, we should analyze people's arguments to see how weak or strong it is and whether we should be persuaded or convinced.