What I learned....

Throughout the semester I learned a variety of things in our Comm 41 course.  The most important item used in our class was of course our textbook, Critical Thinking.  The textbook we used in class went over many different topics and thoroughly explained each one with examples.  Our smaller book which was based off group communication was extremely helpful.   I learned how to communicate more effectively with fellow group members after reading our group communication book.   It gave me more confidence to speak openly about our group and what we would do to create and efficient paper.  A lot of concepts in the course helped me actually be able to think critically and be able to recognize claims, arguments, and statements.  Our readings helped me determine the difference between a strong or valid argument.  It helped that our textbook provided a lot of examples for each new concept I learned about.   The examples were always different from each other that way we can grasp at the idea and be able to determine what the difference is between each concept.

My favorite thing in class

My favorite part of our Comm 41 class was the fact that it was online and we had to have a blog.  I liked how we had to post on our blogs about concepts we learned in class.  My least favorite thing in class was having a time limit on when we can post on our blogs.   I didn’t like the twelve hour limit between posts because I would tend to forget to do my posts.   Perhaps if the time limit were cut shorter to maybe six hours it would be easier to remember.  Also, the group work was pretty cool to do since it helped that we all did not have to do individual essays, but some people did not make any effort on helping with the group work.  I think if team assessment was mandatory when we turned in our papers it would help identify which members actually did the work and which ones did not.

Chapter 14: Interesting Concept

In chapter fourteen it was based on generalizing.  The one thing I found interesting in the chapter that was also helpful was the “three premises needed for a good generalization”.   In order for an argument to be a generalization it needs to have three premises.  The first one listed is “the sample is representative”.  The sample needs to be representative if “no one subgroup of the whole population is represented more than its proportion in the population.”  Secondly, “the sample is big enough”, you need to measure how much more likely your generalization is going to be “accurate as you increase the number in your sample”. Lastly, “the sample is studied well” we need to ask questions that are not bias, in order for it to be investigated well.  All three premises are needed in order for it to be considered a good generalization.  Without the three premises your generalization will be considered bias.