Chapter 10, Question 3 10/30/12

I want to talk in detail about Rhetorical Devices and Misleading Language. This to me stuck out because this is pretty much what we encounter everyday. Whether we are in our cars or at home we are being struck by media on television and radio with their use of this language and devices. The book brings up a few instances of when we might see or notice these devices at work. One of the first devices is Euphemisms, which is defined as the replacement of a term that has a negative association by a neutral or positive term. In advertisement they never use the words like "small", "old", or "adequate"to describe their product. They know there terms are off putting so they replace them with words that don't seem as bad like "compact", " Charming", or "excellent". Another devices advertisement uses is Hyperbole, which is pretty much an exaggeration. There is no need to explain this because it is easy to see how this is used (Viagra Commercials.) This is just the tip of the ice burg but these two me are the most used of all. There are also feel- good slogans, vague language, and emotive words. All of these thing are used to trying to get us to purchase an item and it words as we can see from our last trip to the mall.


Heisenberg.  

Chapter 10 Question 1

I want to start off by saying this was probably one of the best chapters in the book. This is due to the realization that we must be critical thinkers at all time because marketers are trying to trick us. Not in a bad way, but marketers are trying to convince us to buy their product over a competitors by using special techniques. These techniques for the most part go unnoticed by people but if we stop and think about the situation we are in we can notice these techniques. These "techniques" are brand recognition, impulse buying, and guilt response. This past week I was watching Sunday night football and a Nike commercial came on and I immediately thought to myself, "I think I might need some new running shoes".  This all happened from seeing the Nike swoosh and in this way marketing affects it buying by implanting, metaphorically speaking, their name into the heads of customers. Therefore, this causes Nike to resonate in our brains which will make it more likely to buy their product. I think that brand recognition is the strongest tool a marketing company can use. The two other techniques just play along side brand recognition I believe.



Heisenberg.

Chapter 4, Question 3 10/21/12

In “Evaluating Evidence for the Existence of Unidentified Flying Objects”, there are three authors that all have different views for the belief that UFO's exist. I seemed that all their arguments where based of bias opinion from themselves. In this way I think they compared but they are in complete contrast when it come to the final verdict of whether UFO's exist. The first bias opinion was written by Edward Condon, who believed that because there was a high count of reports and sightings that UFO's must exist. This then leads him to argue that these finding or reports should be published in academic and scientific journals. However, the second opinion was more neutral then bias, which was presented by J. Allen Hynek, that stated that we must look further in detail into these reports in order to accurately analyze them. He proposed that we must physiologically study the witnesses in order to find the honest truth whether it be a lie or the truth. Lastly, Royston Paynter argued that there was to little of evidence to even look into such  subject. Honestly all these arguments can be believed by some and ignored by others. In this way it hard to say which argument was better because they all are very different from each other. Hoevewr, I think Hynek had a point in saying that we must look closer at the evidence. 


Heisenberg

Chapter 4, Question 1 10/19/12

Knowledge and wisdom I believe have a love hate relationship. Meaning that they have differences within their relationship. I think that knowledge comes first and wisdom comes after. We must learn formulas, equations, fallacies, math, science, and other things, which are considered knowledge, in order to apply them to real life situations, which results in a gain of wisdom. As you can see we learn knowledge in order to apply it, therefore learning from our experiences. This experience can either be a positive or negative nevertheless wisdom is learned, which knowledge cannot do. In this way knowledge and wisdom both have differences and a relationship. As far as what we are learning in college, I believe it is both wisdom and knowledge. Looking at how I described these two subjects above we do both while at college because we attend class and socialize. In class we learn the formulas and equations, but in socializing we learn how to use those formulas and equations. In the end we are always learning, whether it is knowledge or wisdom. Lastly, the information age has brought about an easier way to acquire knowledge not necessarily wisdom.



Heisenberg

Chapter 4, Question 3 10/18/12

After reading this weeks chapter I found that the last topic discussed was the most interesting to me. This topic is Diffusion of Responsibility, which is defined as "the tendency, when in a large group, to regard a problem as belonging to someone else" (Boss. J, 122). At first that did not make sense to me but after I reread the section it was a lot clearer. To me this meant that as humans we tend to stray from situation that do not involve us when we are in the public spaces because it is not our business. I read the sections a second time and thought of a prefect example, which was that last weekend I saw a guy skating by me that fell straight onto his face and hands. This happened 10-15 feet away from me, yet as rude as it may seem I did know that guy nor was it my problem so I kept walking assuming he would get up or receive aid. This was on campus with many other that saw the incident so I felt like some one closer might help him. After reading this like many of you, I think, I see that this Diffusion happens in our lives too often. I feel like learning how better monitor this will really help us develop of critical thinking to new heights.



Heisenberg 

Chapter 3, Question 2 9/7/12

This week has been a long one because I had a fever from Tuesday night to Thursday night. I hate being sick so I was in a very sarcastic mood. As we have read in Chapter 3 Rhetorical Devices use psychological persuasion, rather then reason, to convince others to a accept a certain position. In order to persuade other there are tools used to do so and I used some of them this week. I am normally a sarcastic person but when I dont feel good I can take it over board. Sarcasm is defined as the use of ridicule, insults, taunting, and/ or caustic irony.
While I was in bed my roommate came into my room and asked me "lets go work out."  I was like "OH okay let me just JUMP out of bed and get ready quickly." His response was like "Okay see you in  a sec." I thought to myself he got the sarcasm since I was wrapped in my blankets with medicine on my bed stand. Obviously he did not because he came in 5 minutes later and was like "okay I am ready." I did not want to deal with him so I used another Rhetorical Device, which is called hyperbole.
Hyperbole is defined a rhetorical device that uses an exaggeration. I told him "I have MONO bro." He ran away and left me alone. These where situations this week where I used rhetorical devices.



Heisenberg

Chapter 3, Question 1 9/4/12

Sally Ride since a child presented great critical thinking skills, which is very rare. The things that we have now attributed to a critical thinker are Analytical Skills, Effective Communication, Research and Inquiry Skills, Flexibility and Tolerance for Ambiguity, Open-Minded Skepticism, Creative Problem Solving, Attention-Mindfulness and Curiosity, and finally Collaborative Learning. To say that she had mastered all these areas of critical thinking from this small exert would be false and therefore I would not be using my critical thinking skills. However, she does show attention, mindfulness and curiosity this is because she did notice how important critical think was and is so she double majored. She also was alert when NASA was looking for new astronauts, which is very important later in her life. In this she also I think showed Open-Minded Skepticism because she knew that there were very few women pursuing a career in NASA. This is what I saw her present in the small article about, but I know if I was given more about her life more of the critical thinking criteria would have been met.


Heisenberg

Chapter 3, Question 3 10/2/12

I want to get in to a discussion about language. Language is the main topic in this chapter and I believe it is something we all need to understand and master. In the beginning of this chapter there were 4 ways in which language was described, which are informative, directive, expressive, and ceremonial. Each of these atributes seems to be part of every language in the world with some exceptions. I found this every interesting because I have never though of language being so universal yet unique to its given speakers. Although every language fallows these rules the way in which it is used and spoken is different. This is why we have to master the 4 pieces in order to fallow any language we learn in the future. Being able to break down a sentence and its meaning is very helpful understanding what a person is asking you. It can either be information, a direction, an expression, or a ceremonial procedure. This is why being able to tell what the person is trying to say to us is important in understanding and using language.


Heisenberg.