Week 16: D3

I think that the topics of number could use more discussion because I found it quite interesting and none of us really talked about it. To me I always thought adding a number statistics to a statement or argument can make it stronger and valid, but apparently it does not work like that all the time. Often times it makes the claim misleading, even though it sounds so strong in the claim one is making. The concept of percentages was interesting because I see and hear it all the time. My high school claims that 100% of their graduates go to college. Even though it sounds like a very good number, we only have 50-60 people graduating every year. Compare that to a bigger high school, 50-60 people is nothing, because they can 1000 people graduating and 400 people going to college. Their stats will look better because 400 people are going instead of that 60. But no one will know the exact number unless they look into the school population. As numbers seem to be a nice factor in a claim because it sounds like there is a proof to back it up, most of the time it causes the claim to be weak.

Week 16: D2

I love how flexible this class is. I like how I am given a schedule of when things were due for the whole semester and I get to do it on my own time. It also helped me figure out my schedule and mange my time better. I also like how we have a week to take our quizzes and test. It gave people time to figure out when they will be ready to take the quiz or test.

I think the least favorite thing about this class was the group projects. Since it was an online class I found it hard to meet up with people to work on the projects. The idea of an online class is so that we can fit school in our busy lives and it was hard to adjust everyone’s life so that we can meet up for an hour or so for the project.

I cannot find anything that this class needs to improve on because it was a pretty good class. Wait, maybe one thing can be change...final exam online instead of a real meeting final at 8PM would have been nice. :)

Week 16: D1

I have learned what a good and strong argument should be like. I always thought a strong argument is an argument that makes a good point but really it is not. For example I learned what a criteria for a valid argument is. It means that an argument is valid if there is no possible way for its premises to be true and its conclusion false at the same time. Before this class I would make a lot of arguments that seems to be good, but really they were not. I would say things like “I should not do homework right now because I am hungry.” It was an excuse for me to not do my homework but really this is not a strong argument because my homework and hunger does not link together. This argument can be good if I added more premise to it, like when I am hungry I get easily distracted. I learn to add more specific details to my argument so it can be strong and valid, making it hard for someone else to break it down.