EA 16

Chapter 16 talks about the use and importance of evidence in your arguments.  Coming from engineering stand point evidence is everything.  You cannot just go around saying anything and expect people to believe you, there must be some information proving that it is true. Evidence can come in any amount of forms, such as pathos, and ethos.  Or it could just be some sort of data.  For example during the earlier ages of man we thought that the sun revolved around the earth.  It was not until someone was able to point out the evidence that there are in fact several planets revolving the sun including earth.  When I think of evidence I think of proving something.  I can talk about a fact and how great I know it, but people will not necessarily listen unless I proved some information to prove it is a fact.  Or in a court case when somebody is shot and killed, the gun is evidence, and you prove that this was the gun he or she was shot with.  There are two types of evidence they covered first hand, and second hand evidence.  First hand evidence would be obviously first hand.  Some examples of first hand evidence are observations, experiments, and interviews or surveys.  Second hand evidence would being using sources such as peer review articles, or papers other people have already written and proved. 

            Although evidence is very important to an argument, it must be credible.  For example if a hobo tells you the sun is 120 degrees because it is 120 degrees outside it is not very credible.  Although there is some observation, there is not scientific reasoning making the earth’s temperature comparable to the suns temperature.  Although many teachers bag on Wikipedia it is a great source of true facts, because although anyone can post it goes through hundreds of reviews before it is kept permanently.  Many people use library to research information, which it is important to pick out research books and not just a story. 

Dancing with Professors

            I really like this article because it is finally points blame at someone other than the students.  Some students don’t learn the same way as others.  There is nothing wrong with that, and there is nothing wrong with other forms of teaching.  I feel like the way we are taught is kind of like the way they describe the buzzard mentality.  Are feet are tied down and we only learn what some higher person is telling us we can learn.  I believe there should be some guild lines, but I feel like its hindering the creativity of the kids.  I also believe that for some students that school sets them up for failure.  If a kid does not perform well in school, he is made to believe that he cannot succeed in life.  And I don’t know who decide to set this picture in motion but its complete crap.

            I really like the part when it talks about the reading we are made to do.  I have always thought this way too.  The reading is boring and not very creative, and then we are told to do the exact opposite.  I feel like this continues with the buzzard mentality.  What we try and see is what we are more likely to go towards.  So when we are told this is good literature, and made to read it we will most likely end up writing in a similar fashion.  Fortunately times are changing along with what is important.  Each generation comes up with a different style.  But I think that the older people running the schools are stuck thinking that the old style is the best.  But what comes from the past makes the future.  I see a pretty decent reacurring part of life and that is what comes next is generally better.  The first car is arguably not better than what we have now.  So I think that can be true with all things.

Hidden Layers

As a person that does not like to be told one thing that actually means something else, I thought hidden layers would be an interesting one for me to write about.  I have lived in a house hold of just girls, and not saying anything bad about girls, there is nothing worst when they say one thing and mean another.  I believe what is felt is what should be said.  But at an argumentative point hidden messages are important.  During World War 2 for example, Hitler would not have been as effective if he did not uses this.  Specifically his propaganda was about how good it would be in the world if he was leader.  But Hitler did not specifically say how he was going to achieve this.  If he would have told his people he was going to kill millions of Jewish people I do not believe it would have been as it is. 

            I believe that personal taste disguise is one of the best disguises used today.  A reason I like most of the music I do is because I can relate some point in my life to it.  Although this is really effective the problem is that it requires for that person to actually have experienced something.  If they have not experienced a similar feeling, they have no way to connect.  For example someone that has not been through a very traumatic event would not relate to a P.T.S.D commercial. 

            I also thought spin was very interesting.  I feel like this is not a very common thing that people notice in our age.  As kids our parents often shield us from obviously inappropriate things that we did not need to know at the time.  This was probably the best ideal I could think.  It is hard to notice it then but now that I look back I see that a lot of the time they told me something they used spin to get a better outlook.  Like when my dog died my mother did not point out the obvious negative, such as I would never see him, instead she told me he went to a better place.  Although this is reasonable I do feel this is a example of spin.

Ethos and Pathos

Generally in an argument there are three general stances that one takes to get the most effectiveness out of their argument.  Ethos takes the stance of the speaker’s character to make their argument effective.  Pathos work on the emotions of others to create a strong argument, and Logos uses logic and reasoning to make a solid argument.  These are important because they are very general terms and can be used to almost any extent.  The effectiveness of each of these approaches is really based on your audience.  They can also be used in uniform for even more effective power.  Pathos that works solely on the emotions of others to get a point across would be more effective with family, and friends.  A good pathos argument is going to be something from the human society.  They want you to sympathize with the dog being locked up and feel bad that it is living like that. Pathos generally are used in advertisements, they cause pulse reactions and make you buy things before you really have the time to think about it.  There are a lot of different ways to attack or use emotions for example army commercials attack yourself conscious, they want you to feel weak and therefore the only way to be strong is to join the military. The other approach would be more of a guilty or sympathetic approach like stated before.  Ethos is also very important, but ethos is more biased towards the speaker.  Obviously a clown talking politics is not very effective and going to get many votes.  But if you stick someone like president Obama you’re going to get more of an audience appeal.  These arguments are generally really effective when the right person is arguing it. These arguments are generally more opinionated.  Ethos would be used more in a situation talking about a bill and why this is the right path to take.  It takes a strong character, with a lot of passion to make it work best. 

Inventing an Argument

Arguments are everywhere, and are used for just about everything.  It is a very useful tool when one can create a good argument.  There was even a job created around the ideal of arguments, a lawyer uses arguments for everything.  There are ways to make arguments more effective than others though.  That is how lawyer's win the trial.  An argument can be just a statement but it would be a very weak argument.  It is as easy as adding supporting information.  Supporting information will then be the basis of the argument and give the argument credibility.  An example of this would be the argument, "My phone is the best."  Now with an supporting information, "My phone is the best because it organizes my daily life, and allows me to do homework without carrying a bulky laptop."  Now the argument is much stronger.
The tone of the argument can also help the effectiveness of the argument.  If the argument sounds hasty or mean then one may take it the wrong way and reject it.  Some easy ways to make sure someone will listen is to make sure the argument is calm, and straight forward.  Asking your boss for a raise with a snobby voice is going to get you fired, but if you ask calmly and explain why you deserve it there is a much higher chance of success.

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