Argument By Analogy

Argument by Analogy is one of the types of reasoning that we studied that I had a difficult and challenging time learning. I think I was over thinking what it could mean so I was missing the simple meaning of argument by analogy.

If one were to argue by analogy one would claim that certain things share similar characteristics in common.

The following web site:
http://info-pollution.com/analogy.htm
gives a number of examples and key parts of a argument by analogy.

It gave a number of points that helped one determine if the argument was valid, strong, and relevant. The site was meant to counter argue against the statement:

“Pork, the other white meat.”

The web site points out what is weak within the argument and what is strong. It gives other analogies we can look at and think weather or not the number and quality of similarities is good.

Reasoning Examples

One. Argument by Analogy
Premise #1: My friends all dance.
Premise#2: My sisters all dance.
Conclusion: Everyone I know are dancers.

Two. Argument by Sign
Parent: You have to be home tomorrow to clean the house.
Child: I can’t tomorrow I have work all day.
Parent: All right, just make sure it’s clean by Saturday.
Child: Okay, I have time to clean Friday.

Three. Casual Reasoning
Premise #1: I woke up late for school.
Premise#2: I did not have time to eat breakfast this morning.
Conclusion: I was hungry all morning after arriving late to school.

Four. Reasoning by Criteria
Your mom would like something meaningful and thoughtful. Why not get her an engraved locket?

Five. Reasoning by Example
Kayla can play several pieces on the piano. If you want to be play as well as Kayla, you should practice more.

Six. Inductive
Premise #1: Every Thursday, my family eats dinner together.
Premise#2: Today is Friday.
Conclusion: We are not having family dinner tonight.

Seven. Deductive
Premise #1: There are many attractions at the San Diego Zoo.
Premise#2: There are pandas at the San Diego Zoo.
Conclusion: The pandas are one of many attractions at the San Diego Zoo.

Apple Polishing and Appeal to Vanity

In the exercise section of chapter 10, number two asks us to find an ad that uses apple polishing. I could not think of an example of apple polishing because I still do not understand what apple polishing is. I reread the couple sentences about it in the chapter and was hoping for more examples of it.

When I googled “apple polishing”, this website: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-apple-polishing-mean.htm
provided some very useful information and more examples. I did not realize apple polishing was equivalent to sucking up or brown nosing. It is an appeal to vanity, complementing viewers of ads to get them to feel a certain way if they buy this dress or those shoes.

The following ad is meant to appeal to a girl’s inner princess. http://talkingcosmetics.com/pics/vera/vsample2.jpg
By appealing a girl’s child dream of marrying a prince and becoming a princess. This could be one of the many examples of appealing to vanity by apple polishing.

Appeal to Fear Excercise

For exercise number three we were told to find an advertisement that appealed to a person’s emotion of fear. The following link is to an ad I found online that did invoke fear in me when I saw it.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2WDIvk3tDjabAJcSCU74FXaJcr8-BQ4qXBWzG1SMCTC0LkNTcJfYyRHiLRoPgfCJu-vY3P0RIaL3ErqDNciVPOoTXtswVm5bAFJYU60vVc_X4uk4rSr-36KemAVDdHXZtMLHE_lkRRfo/s1600/Fear+ad+a+real+one.jpg

The ad appeals to one’s fear of death. By doing so, it makes you want to read the fine print the ad places on the left side of the ad. Probably found in magazines regarding one’s health or fitness, these ads would get a lot of attention. The photo of the ad also emphasizes the fear of death. It becomes a good argument for those looking at the end because its effective in sending the message.

Many ads appeal to the emotions of shoppers because emotions drive decisions we make. For example if you saw a PETA ad of animals being abused, you might want to donate to PETA to protect some animals.

Appeal to Emotion

Emotions play a large role when reasoning. Whether we are arguing for or against something our emotions drive our arguments. By appealing to emotion it allows an argument to be good. It is possible to appeal to a person’s fear, consequences, flattery, pity, vanity, ridicule, spite, or ignorance. There are many emotions one can appeal to.

An example of appealing to consequences would be like the following:
If Laura practices the piano everyday, Laura will become a great pianist. Laura wants to be a great pianist, so she practices everyday.

This argument appeals to Laura’s consequence of practicing the piano every day. It could also be used in the opposite way like the following example:

If Laura drives to work everyday, her car wastes a lot of gas. Laura wants to save gas. Therefore, she uses the bus to work almost everyday.

These type of arguments are all pathos arguments because they appeal to the emotions. This is

A Look Back at Group Communication

For this blog, I decided to look back to the book that we read at the beginning of the semester: The Essential Guide to Group Communication. Specifically what we read on page 46 in chapter three: The Process of Decision Making in Groups and Teams.

There are EIGHT parts to making decisions in groups:
1 Identify the problem
2 Conduct research
3 Establish guidelines and criteria
4 Generate alternatives
5 Evaluate alternatives
6 Select the best alternative
7 Implement the solution
8 Evaluate the Results

By knowing how to effectively make group decisions, groups includes companies and organizations.

The following website gives the advantages and disadvantages to groups making decisions.
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Gr-Int/Group-Decision-Making.html
Knowing the best and most effective way to make decisions in a group will prove advantageous to everyone as a whole. It makes planing and work smoother at real companies or in small-scale organizations.

Decision Making individually or in a group is key to communicating what is happening to everyone.

Class Assignments

Our second writing assignment was interesting to research and write about for our class. By looking at social organizations we were able to address how groups communicate with non-supporters and supporters. By looking at how the organization communicates we can better understand how groups of all kinds get their message across to people. Reasoning, objective, and argument validate the groups efforts in every way. Without knowledge of how to do these things groups would be unable to move forward and successfully become well known or do some good for those they are trying to help out.

For our second assignment my group chose to discuss PETA. The PETA group was easy to analyze because of the amount of information readily available online. This helped us understand PETA better as well as be able to analyze how PETA works. Communication is key for all social organizations to rely their message to the unaware. PETA does so through controversial ads and using the faces of famous people to get awareness up.