Friday, February 12, 2010

Extra Topic: Participative Leader

One concept I found interesting in the assigned reading was the characteristics of a participative leader (O’Hair 34):
- Ask “gatekeeping” questions to involve nonparticipating members
- Summarizes discussions for group clarity
- Gives his or her own input and ask members for more
- “harmonizes: discussions that may involve personal conflict
- Announces a problem and opens it for discussion rather than announces a solutions
- Encourages all-channel participation, wherein communication flows laterally, upward, and downward.

I found this concept interesting because when we think of being a leader a check list does not come to mind but all these characteristics are certainly a big part of being a participative leader. I never knew what a participative leader was or that there was even any different type of leadership before reading the assigned reading this week. All these characteristics are very important to being an active leader working with other group members with a goal in mind. Although this method produces slow decisions at times they are typically best quality decisions that would of not been made otherwise.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Testing for Arguments

There are three roles that must be met in order for an argument to be good:
1. The premises are plausible
2. The premises are more plausible than the conclusion
3. The argument is valid or strong.

Example: I think chocolate is the best kind of candy you can eat. My sister thinks chocolate is the best kind of candy you can eat. Everyone I know thinks chocolate is the best kind of candy you can eat.

Explanation: In this example the premise is true and plausible, I think that chocolate is the best kind of chocolate candy, and my sister also thinks chocolate is the best kind of candy. The premise is more plausible than the conclusion because I only know two people who think chocolate is the best kind of candy therefore I cant conclude just from two people that everyone thinks chocolate is the best. My argument is not valid because I do not have the proper evidence to know just from two people that everyone likes chocolate and thinks it’s the best candy.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Extra Topic: Descriptive and Prescriptive Claims

Another concept I found useful in the assigned readings for this week was the concept about prescriptive and descriptive claims. A claim is descriptive if it says what is and a claim is prescriptive if it says what should be (Epstein 24). An example of a descriptive claim would be Susie is hot. An example of a prescriptive claim would be Susie should put something cooler on. A perspective claim is often backed by a value judgment saying what should or shouldn’t be done. I think this is an important concept to learn because it fits hand in hand with subjective and objective claims. Before reading this chapter I didn’t know how important it was to be clear when speaking and how easy it is to be too vague when speaking. Also after reading this chapter I realize all the times that vague sentences are used everyday and it’s acceptable. From now on I want to be clearer when speaking and use more description in my sentences and statements.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Vague Sentence

An example from everyday life of a vague sentence is asking for the time and getting a response like “It’s half past three”, “It’s about half past three” or “It’s almost half past three”. All of these answers although acceptable in most situations are very vague once looked at closer. I heard this sentence just the other day when I asked someone what time it was. At first the answer, its almost half past three, seemed correct but only to find about five minuets later that the person’s opinion of what almost half past three meant was a lot different of a time then what I think of when someone tells me it’s half past three. These answers are considered to be vague sentences because there are many different ways to understand the sentence and we can’t settle on one of them without the speaker making it clearer. Without an exact time the statements are vague and could mean very different things to many different people.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Objective vs Subjective Claim

An objective claim is a statement about a factual matter that can be proved true or false. For factual matters there exist widely recognized criteria and methods to determine whether a claim is true or false. A subjective claim on the other hand is not a factual matter it is an expression of belief, opinion, or personal preference. A subjective claim cannot be proved right or wrong by any generally accepted criteria. Example: "That was a hard test". This is a subjective claim because it is based off personal criteria for how hard or easy a test is. Compared to what? Did the person study? Is it a difficult subject? Example: "If you had actually sat in that class this whole semester you would have saw just how hard that test was". This is an objective claim because it is based off a factual claim that is up to you to decide whether you're in agreement with the original statement making it non-personal.