Week 16 Discussion 3

We learned many materials in this semester about critical thinking. I would like to discuss one of the concepts I think that is useful in depth. In chapter 10, it covers about marketing strategy & advertisement. The book introduces one of the marketing models: SWOT, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and threats. This set of model can help companies and individuals to position their business in the market. For instance, I am running an electronic store in a rural area.  I can make a list of SWOT to see how am I doing and what can I do to improve my business. I can expand the strengths and use the opportunities to develop new markets and customers. I will also be able to prevent profit losses and improve my company’s weaknesses by reviewing my weaknesses and threats. I think this is a very important model for businesses and this is the one vital business material I learned in a communication class.

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Week 16 Discussion 2

I enjoy this class so much. I like the routine and the workload we have. Since this is an online class, everything is on our own and we need to take care with our own business. Online forum motivates and “forces” me to read the book, because I cannot participate in the forum without reading the assigned chapters. That helps me to keep track of the readings. I also like this class because our professor is so approachable. I can send her an email whenever I need help and she will get back to me once she is available. I cannot really think of a negative part of this class, except I think we should not have forums for the weeks that we have quizzes or paper due. That can ensure we have sufficient time to work on the other assignment. Other than that, there is nothing else I can think of because this is an awesome class!

Thank you my online classmates and Professor Perez!

Week 16 Discussion 1

This is my second communication class I have taken in San Jose State University. I have learned varies way to become a critical thinker, and all the skills I learned in this class are essential life skills. Before taking this class, I never thought that it would cover materials like marketing, law, etc. I thought this is only a class that teaches us the theoretical of critical thinking. Over this course, we learn the idea first, and then we apply it into different real life fields.  I developed my thinking skills to another level and I am able to identify the type of argument that is. For example, when someone says “If Tom likes David Beckham, then he must like soccer very much.” I can tell immediately that conversation is a deductive argument. Also, the rhetorical devices I learned in this class help me to become a better neutral speaker and writer by using appropriate phrase to not offend others.

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Week 14 Chapter 12 Discussion 2

People often judge things based on their observations and later found out that they were wrong.  I am an intramural soccer official at the Recreation department. Last week, I was referring a fraternity game, and the game was intense. I started calling fouls and calm the players down. I thought both teams were mad at my partner and me because we called minor actions, even though we could let it go. I thought both teams disliked us because of our strict calls, so that I did not expect a handshake after match from neither team. However, one team did handshake with me and one player said he appreciated my effort during the match. I judged there would be no handshakes after match by observing players’ emotion, however, turned out my premise was wrong. We have to observe and experience it to see whether our premise is right or wrong, and that is scientific knowledge used in our daily life.

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Week 14 Chapter 12 Discussion 3

In this chapter, I would like to discuss the scientific method in depth. The scientific method helps us to analysis based on the observation. There are five steps to process the method, which are: identify the problem; make a premise; collect data and information; test the hypothesis; and evaluate the results. We can use the scientific method as often as we want in our daily life. For instance, if I do not know how to cook a steak, I will make a hypothesis of boiling the steak in hot water for 15 minutes. Then, I can find information and recipes online to alter my hypothesis. After altering the recipe and my hypothesis, I can try to cook a steak with different methods I found. Finally, I can evaluate which cooking method is the best by tasting the steaks. This is a simple example that would involve the scientific method in our life and there are plenty of them.

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Week 14 Chapter 12 Discussion 1

My birthday is in June, so my horoscope sign is Gemini. I read two online daily horoscope updates for Tuesday, November 13. Turns out it is pretty accurate, even though I have just started my day. I have work tomorrow in early morning and I have to process quite a fair amount of paperwork. Moreover, I have been worried since last week, because I have to present a project to my boss tomorrow. The two daily horoscope websites suggest me to take more breaks from working and be brave to say whatever I want. Along with some irrelevant information such as let my personality shine. People take those words in because they either need advices or think it is truthful.  I do not believe in daily horoscope, even though sometimes it is pretty accurate and could predict what would happen. Those horoscope updates make a very broad statement to describe your fortune, which has no supporting scientific evidence to back where did those words come from.

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Week 13 Chapter 11 Question 3

After reading chapter 11 about mass media, I have found out that the usage of Internet have a lot of pros and cons. To be honest, I spend at least 12 hours on my computer everyday. Internet can have positive impacts such as helping people with learning materials, looking for jobs, and getting live feeds of news. However, Internet can also have negative impacts as procrastination, gamble, and social networks. Some college students miss their assignment because they spend too much time on their social networks, which is not a good sign. I think computer and Internet can bring positive impacts to people, but we really have to choose what is our priority since the platform is so broad and it can distract you with some interesting topic while you are working. Moreover, the media can spread out information that you do not want people to know. For example, people lose their jobs because of posting comments about their companies or employers on social networks. Just like what the book said, we have to think about who is going to see this post before publishing on those sites.

Thank you for reading!

Adrian