Fallacies and Final Review

Fallacies and Final Review - Post #5

Austin Freeman
Period 4 - Honors English
Independent Reading Project - Quarter 2

As I continue to get farther into my non-fiction text, I am now in the final chapter and the Appendix. This blog post will talk about Fallacies

In Chapter 9 and the first Appendix of my book, it is discussing “fallacies” or errors that people make in Argumentation and communication. Fallacies are misleading types of arguments and are not well-constructed.  A fallacy uses wrong and incorrect reasoning in the creation of different arguments. Some fallacies and misleading methods that are very tempting to use and are so common among debaters and writers, that they even have some of their own names. Fallacies undermine an argument's logical validity or more generally an argument's logical soundness. Fallacies are either formal fallacies or informal fallacies. The first page in the Appendix talks about the ad hominem fallacy. This is where the reader is attacking the person of a source rather than authors qualifications, their techniques used in their Argumentation, or the actual argument that the author has made.(Weston 71). An example of this fallacy that was used was:

“àIt’s no surprise that Carl Sagan argues for life on Mars – after all, he was a well-known Atheist. I don’t believe that for a minute.

Although Sagan did take part in the public discussion about religion and science, there is no reason to think that his views about religion colored his scientific judgment about Martian Life. Look to the argument, not “the man.” (72)

This text from the book affects my activity (writing and argumentation) because it allows me to prepare myself to respond to types of counter-arguments and questions that people may have about the argument that I have constructed. By incorporating these rules and ideas in my writing, I can communicate effectively, know how to proper and successfully respond to any criticism of my arguments, and this helps me to improve my communication with other debaters and writers.

My Argument (In-Progress):

I appreciate the chance to talk to you today, I want to persuade you to think about how High School is more than friendships and social media. High School is an important part of your life, and you want to develop excellent learning opportunities to establish college and career readiness.

In High School, your study habits and actions really do matter and skills such as good time management, studying in new locations, and identifying how you learn all will enable you to be successful. You will use these skills all of the time in many different settings, such as college, your career, in social gatherings with other people, etc.

In High, School, you should develop skills such as planning and efficient time management. A lot of students develop planning skills and learn how to manage their time and activities, which allows them to be successful students. Specifically, if Cornell University, says that many students that come to college are unprepared because they do not develop proper study and management skills, then it is true that you should develop skills such as planning and effective time management to you can be successful,

Colleges such as the University of Washington, want to see continued intellectual growth and that you care about your education. Identifying how you learn, establish good study skills where you can concentrate on your academics and not being distracted, and learning to manage your time so that you can get all of your homework and academics done, are good skills to have and will help you with your intellectual growth. Therefore, establish good study skills, identifying how you learn, and completing your homework are things that will help you get into college and prepare you for life. 

High School is an important part of your life, and you want to develop good learning opportunities to establish college and career readiness, so make the most of your education.

Question:
What do you think are some common mistakes or fallacies that you make in your writing or communication skills? How can you correct these answers?

Sources used for My Argument:

"Freshman Students." Freshman Students Admissions| UW. University of Washington, n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.

Selco, Helene. "Programs." Strategies for College Success: Critical Thinking and Effective Learning / Cornell Summer College Programs for High School Students. Cornell University, n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.

MLA Citation:
Weston, Anthony. A Rulebook for Arguments. 4th ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2009. Print.

Being Concise and Improving your Argument - Post #4

Being Concise and Improving your Argument - Post #4

Austin Freeman
Period 4 - Honors English
Independent Reading Project - Quarter 2

As I continue to get farther into my non-fiction text, I am now in the chapter about argumentative essays and revision. I have established a basic argument, and now I want to make sure that it is well-defended. I want to get my point across, and I am polishing my argument in any way that I can. 

In chapter 9 and the first Appendix of this book by Anthony Weston, it discussed how in arguments, you want to be short and jump right in. Argumentation is different from other styles of writing. In learning about writing and argumentation from a "standpoint" of rules and how to make your arguments flow, one thing that I have learned is you do not want to be very detailed in your arguing. A specific piece of text from my book is "Launch straight into the real work. No windy windups or rhetorical padding. Get to your point." (Weston 59). This specifically is from arguments rule #34, which is "jump right in." By reading about using this rule in the case I am creating, I am able to use this text from my non-fiction book to make sure that I keep my argument short, so that I can be concise and use this argument as an oral argument or when I am possibly debating about this topic. In regular arguments and normal conversations, you want to jump right on in and not be exquisitely accurate or list out your reasons. I have read my argument and changed some of the structure so that I can be concrete and concise, be persuasive and that I am building on the substance that I already have. 

Another strategy is to address your audience and present the argument effectively. Sometimes you may end up genuinely arguing and discussing an issue with a friend, or you could be debating in front of a class. To adequately convey my argument, I want to reach out to the audience. When I am having an energetic discussion or making an oral argument, I am asking to be heard and to be listened by. I want to reach out through my passion about this topic and bring my own interests and knowledge to this topic that I am arguing about. (67). This text from the book affects my activity (writing and argumentation) because it allows me to actually introduce myself and reach out to the audience to help establish and convey my argument persuasively. By incorporating these rules and ideas in my writing, I am able to learn how to communicate more persuasively by reaching out to my audience, to establish my presence as the speaker and to present my premise concisely. 

My Argument (In-Progress):

I appreciate the chance to talk to you today, I want to persuade you to think about how high school is more than friendships and social media. High school is an important part of your life, and you want to develop good learning opportunities to establish college and career readiness.

In high school, your study habits and actions really do matter and skills such as good time management, studying in new locations, and identifying how you learn all will enable you to be successful. You will use these skills all of the time in many different settings, such as college, your career, in social gatherings with other people, etc.

In High, School, you should develop skills such as planning and effective time management. A lot of students improve planning and learn how to manage their time and activities, which allows them to be successful students. Specifically, if Cornell University, says that many students that come to college are unprepared because they do not develop proper study and management skills, then it is true that you should develop skills such as planning and effective time management to you can be successful,

Colleges such as the University of Washington, want to see continued intellectual growth and that you care about your education. Identifying how you learn, establish good study skills where you can concentrate on your academics and not being distracted, and learning to manage your time so that you can get all of your homework and academics done, are good skills to have and will help you with your intellectual growth. Therefore, establish good study skills, identifying how you learn, and completing your homework are things that will help you get into college and prepare you for life.

High school is an important part of your life, and you want to develop excellent learning opportunities to establish college and career readiness, so make the most of your education.

Question:
How can you jump right in and get straight to your point in an essay or argument? It is good to include some background information before you make your thesis/claim in an essay, but how can you include background information and also get straight yo your point or claim that you want to make??

Correlations and Sources - Post #3 (Argumentation)

Correlations and Sources - Post #3

Austin Freeman
Period 4 - Honors English
Independent Reading Project - Quarter 2
For my Quarter 2 IRP, I will be reading "A Rulebook for Arguments," by Anthony Weston, and developing a short (no longer than 3 paragraphs), argument on my personal passion for  Education habits and ideas on how to be successful. As I read my book, I will tie in the rules of argumentation and the content of my book into my argument, which will be developed over my 5+ blog posts.

Through Reading, I have discovered additional strategies and details to incorporate into my posts and my case. In the text of the book, it says that we have no come to the part of the book specializing on arguments about causes and their effects and about what causes a reaction, which is called correlations.  (Weston, 31-32).  This text from the book affects my activity (writing and argumentation) because it gives me a chance to further organize my thoughts and provides a new strategy that I can use in my argument about school habits and education. Understanding different rules about arguments,  using correlations and revising my content are strategies that have helped to effectively create my argument and organize my statements. By using correlations, I am able to give reasons and causes to make the reader read more carefully, especially as these associations and improved content allow the reader to make deductions. 


The use of sources is discussed and how to properly utilize them in an argument. On page 23 it states "Instead, we must rely on others (sources) - better-situated people, organizations, surveys, or reference works - to tell us much of what we need to know about the world. We argue like this: 
X (a source that we ought to know says that Y.
Therefore, Y is right. " (23). 

This text from the book affects my activity (writing and argumentation) because it allows me to incorporate my sources into my blog and allows me to verify them and use them as an argument. I incorporated my ideas and the ideas of correlation and sources into my Argument, that can be seen below. On this particular post, you can see that I added content to paragraph 2 (referencing my sources).

My Argument (In-Progress):
In High School, your study habits and actions really do matter and skills such as good time management, studying in new locations, and identifying how you learn all will enable you to be successful. You will use these skills all of the time in many different settings, such as college, your career, in social gatherings with other people, etc.

In high school, you should develop skills such as planning and effective time management. A lot of students develop planning and learn how to manage their time and activities, which allows them to be successful students. Specifically, if Cornell University, says that many students that come to college are unprepared because they do not develop proper study and management skills, then it is true that you should develop skills such as planning and effective time management to you can be successful,

Colleges such as the University of Washington, want to see continued intellectual growth and that you care about your education. Identifying how you learn, establish good study skills where you can concentrate on your academics and not being distracted, and learning to manage your time so that you can get all of your homework and academics done, are good skills to have and will help you with your intellectual growth. Therefore, establish good study skills, identifying how you learn, and completing your homework are things that will help you get into college and prepare you for life. 

Question:
How can you use your sources more effectively? In English Class, we have already incorporated our Sources in numerous ways, including both paraphrasing and direct text citation. How can the placement and accuracy of your sources help your arguments (persuasion)?

Argumentation and Persuasion - Using Analogies - Post #2

Developing my Argument & Using Analogies - Post #2

Austin Freeman

Period 4 - Honors English

Independent Reading Project - Quarter 2

For my Quarter 2 IRP, I will be reading "A Rulebook for Arguments," and developing a short (no longer than three paragraphs), an argument on my personal passion for some ideas on Education habits and ideas on how to be successful. As I read my book, I will tie in the rules of Argumentation and the content of my book into my Argument, which will be developed over my 5+ blog posts.

As I continue to read my book, work on my argument, using analogies, and expanding on those analogies and my techniques, it helps me to organize my statements effectively and create a argument. by using arguments based on analogies, rather than many different examples, I am reasoning that since these two things have one major connection, they are similar. One example and explanation from the text that I want to reflect off, and find to be a powerful method to use in my argument comes from page 22. This page divides the small argument up into several different sections and uses an analogy. In a "Rulebook for Arguments," it says in the text:

"Beautiful and well-built houses must have "makers": designers and builders.

The world is like a beautiful and well-built house.

Therefore, the world must also have a "maker": a Designer and Builder!

Again, more examples are not necessarily needed here. In this example, the argument turns on the similarity of the world to one well-understood example, a house." (Weston, 22)

I then used this format in my argument (see the third paragraph).

My Argument (In-Progress):

In High School, your study habits and actions do matter and skills such as good time management, studying in new locations, and identifying how you learn all will enable you to be successful. You will use these skills all of the time in many different settings, such as college, your career, in social gatherings with other people, etc.

In High, School, you should develop skills such as planning and efficient time management. 

Colleges such as the University of Washington, want to see continued intellectual growth and that you care about your education. Identifying how you learn, establish good study skills where you can concentrate on your academics and not being distracted, and learning to manage your time so that you can get all of your homework and academics done, are good skills to have and will help you with your intellectual growth. Therefore, establish good study skills, identifying how you learn, and completing your homework are things that will help you get into college and prepare you for life. 

Question:

How can you use analogies and other background information when you are arguing or trying to persuade someone? How could using analogies and dividing your argument up into different paragraphs or statements help you make your point? For example, the example in the book and also in my argument has been divided up into different sentences that all tie into making an analogy and making a point (Therefore, the world must also have a "maker")

MLA Citation:

Weston, Anthony. A Rulebook for Arguments. 4th ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2009. Print.

My next post will focus on the use of sources and revise my current argument to focus on getting my point across using correlation and repetitive terms.

The Beginnings of my Argument(ation) - Post #1

The Beginnings of my Argument - Post #1

Austin Freeman

Period 4 - Honors English

Independent Reading Project - Quarter 2

For my Quarter 2 IRP, I will be reading "A Rulebook for Arguments," and developing a short (no longer than three paragraphs), argument on my personal passion for some ideas on Education habits and ideas on how to be successful. As I read my book, I will tie in the rules of argumentation and the content of my book into my Argument, which will be developed over my 5+ blog posts.

A lot of people do not understand arguing and how it can be helpful. Arguing (argumentation), is a way of finding out which views are better than others, is a form of inquiry, and helps people develop different conclusions and to use different pathways and forms to develop a claim. Plus, arguing helps people develop good speaking skills and expand their critical thinking.

As I develop my short argument, one of my first things to do is to develop a claim/premise. A piece of text evidence from the IRP Book is:

"Identify Premises and conclusion

The very first step in making an argument is to ask yourself what are you trying to prove. What is your conclusion? Remember that the conclusion is the statement for which you are giving and why you are giving reasons. The statements that give your reasons are your premises." (Weston, 1).

As I read the book, I realized the differences between a premise and a conclusion in the subject of argumentation and had developed my premise: In High School, your study habits and actions really do matter and skills such as good time management, studying in new locations, and identifying how you learn all will enable you to be successful. 

Also, in my premise, and my argument, I used different reasons and examples. In "A Rulebook for Arguments," it says that you should use consistent terms. Short arguments, such as the one that I am doing use a single consistent idea, repeated words, and it flows throughout the argument  (Weston 6 -7). In my argument, my idea of being "successful," and that these study habits will help you as an individual, are consistent terms throughout my argument. 

Question:

Has there been a moment in the past year where you could have done some better arguing? What were you arguing/debating about? 

MLA Citation:

Weston, Anthony. A Rulebook for Arguments. 4th ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2009. Print.