Fallacies

One concept I feel that I could have a better understand of is the concept of fallacies. Through the text I was able to understand most of the example of fallacies that were listed. However, I do not know exactly what a fallacy is. To my understanding they are not good but I do not understand how they relate to group communication. However, even though I don’t exactly know how it connects, I feel I do have a great knowledge of the different types of fallacies there are. The book did a great job listing the different types and giving examples and explanations of each type which helped tremendously for me. I just wish I knew more how they relate to the course directly and what it does for an argument. Other then that I feel I learned most of the material and gained a greater understanding on the terms! (:

My favorite

My favorite thing about this course was the group papers. Even though the group papers were somewhat stressful, I found it to be a great way to learn how to communicate with people you hardly know and may never see. However, since everyone is hoping for the same successful outcome, everyone is very compatible and does their share of the work and makes the project easy and fun. Also, I learned useful tools in doing the project. For example, I learned how to judge an article to see if it should be trusted. This is something I will use for the rest of my life! My least favorite would probably e the quizzes and tests because who likes those. :P Overall this course was very very great. I feel I learned so much from an online course and I am very happy I took this through out my summer. 

I have learned

Taking comm 41, online, through out my summer has taught me a lot! Being a critical decision maker is not as easy as people may think; however after this summer I feel I have gained the knowledge and understanding on how to make critical decisions. Not only that, I learned the concepts of arguments and premises and how to develop a clear and useful argument to communicate with others.  I’ve learned what to do and what not to do when developing and expressing an argument. Also, I have learned how to work with other people and communicate well with them even when it may seem impossible because you can not actually meet them face to face.  Working in a group is a very important skill to have and through this course I feel I have accomplished in doing so and will prepare me for any future group projects I may encounter. 

Paper

For the first assignment, our group used an article explaining myths people have about dieting and revealing the truth behind it. I showed a group of my friends this article and they first briefly skimmed it. They just read the myths and not the information pertaining it. Their reaction to what they read was that they did not believe that they were just myths. Then after reading the entire article they realized that maybe what the author wrote was truth and they were merely myths. We discussed that the sources the author gave seemed reputable and the information did seem to be truth. I gave some other help to my friends to check if this article was something they could believe. I showed them the group paper and then they came to conclusion that the article was something they could believe. I showed them the requirements and they also said that the paper did meet the requirements. 

Mission Critical

After reading a peer’s blog, I was really interested in checking out the Mission Critical website. So I went onto the site and looked through it. The first thing I noticed is that this site has so many of the key terms we have learned in this class before. However, since this class is soon ending and we have learned so many terms, I noticed I forgot the meanings of some important concepts. That is why this website is extremely useful. I was able to look through the site and relearn the definitions of very important concepts in the class and even get a new definition of it. Also, this site had exercises to use the concepts with and apply them to examples. This site has so many useful tools and very useful information. I know I will be on this site a lot for the next few days to obtain all the information. 

cause and effect

The information and the exercises on the cause and effect concept were very helpful and informative! The reading was very interesting and informative. They explained the concept of casual arguments. They started off with a detailed scenario and used that as the same example in the rest of the reading. They used the situation of a bike and a truck in traffic. This was helpful because it was consistent through out the whole reading when they even introduced other terms. The consistency makes it clear and easy to follow. The exercises that followed however were ever better. I feel it is better to actually do exercises because you learn more by doing an activity. Also, in the exercises they used real life examples which make it easier to follow along and apply the thinking in to real life! They use a scene of a picnic and the effects of the picnic which to me was really useful!