Unconvincing Argument

   We may encounter many arguments, however, not all of the arguments have the abilities to convince us successfully. I think that reasons that make an argument unconvincing could be lacking of evidences and appeals. When someone is trying to “sell me something,” I could feel that he or she is not talking truthfully and he or she just keep on talking to see whether he or she has chances to let me buy his or her products.

    I remembered an instance when I was shopping at downtown, a person came to me and asked me whether I want to buy his handmade bag, which cost $150. Moreover, he told me that the money was for fundraising his university’s club. At that point, I directly told myself that I refused to buy the bag not only because it was too expensive which made me feel I was cheated, but also the person was talking insincerely. When I looked through his eyes, he seemed unconfident, which made his attempt at persuasion not work on me. In addition, he just kept on rambling without having any pause. I think he was just trying to make consumers had no time to think, yet he failed.

    I also had experience of convincing someone but were unsuccessful, which was the time when I was doing on street toothbrush selling for Eden Charity. Even though my feel were sore and my back was totally wet, me and Caroline only sold forty something toothbrushes out of 100 ones. I realized that the art of talking is high class, and it was so difficult to make people move. Moreover, Caroline sold most of the toothbrushes, and I was impressed. The reason I think I was unsuccessful was I didn’t talk proudly about my subject and I should be more confident to show all kinds of benefits and the purpose for selling toothbrushes.

       

Evaluating an Argument

   I don’t believe in everything I read or hear because I think people should be skeptical. We should doubt things rather than putting in all our trust, or else we would only result in getting deceived easily. Throughout our lives, we have heard about lots of things, and everyone determines what and what not to believe by own standard. For me, when encountering statements that are too boastful, exaggerated, or beyond normal human capabilities, I choose not to believe until my eyes really see what happened.

    In evaluating the effectiveness of an attempt at persuasion, I generally go on a “gut” instinct about an argument. To me, feeling matters more than logic, so it’s the emotion that’s guiding me rather than the brain. When hearing upon arguments, I would first see whether an argument fits my taste. If I like an argument, then I would go into the process of breaking it down and thinking about its reason to make sure it has good and strong support that wouldn’t be defeated easily. After digesting all arguments that I like, I would go back to other arguments that I didn’t pick at first. Then, I would think about these arguments and check if their reasoning is firm enough. In the end, I would compare and contrast between arguments I prefer and don’t prefer, and this is the time when logic comes in. My brain would then help me to determine what’s believable or trustworthy and what’s not.

    Knowing how to evaluate an argument can help me to construct one of my own because by tearing down the argument piece by piece, I would then know what are the supportive points and reasons that defense well. In addition, I would know what to avoid in order not to get ruthless attacks over and over.

Opinion v Thought

   Recently, the two hottest international news are Japan’s devastating earthquake and the bloody rebel in Libya. Upon seeing the rebellion in Libya, this event reminds me of the current opinion exists that runs the world: most of the terrorists are from Middle East Asia. No matter in reality or in films, people from regions of Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, or Pakistan are always portrayed as terrorists. The United States of America, which is the strongest country among the world, is the hero that wants to stop the spreading of terrorism.

    Because of the great strength that the United States has, it has become the target of terrorist attacks. Speaking of terrorist attacks, the event of September 11 attacks has to be mentioned since it’s probably the most critical one that ever happened in the history of the States. The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda hijackers who intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. As for result, everyone on planes and many others working in the buildings were killed.

    Most of the terrorist attacks that aim at the United States are from organizations such as the Taliban or al-Qaeda, which are located in Middle East Asia. I think this is why people would have the opinion that there could almost be an equal sign drown between people from Middle East Asia and terrorists. Although this opinion angers people from Middle East Asia, I think it sounds since seeing from past records, there is a stronger potential for people in Middle East Asia becoming terrorists.

Getting What You Want

   I am a person who loves shopping, especially for shoes. Moreover, I’m probably the one who has the most pairs of shoes in our family. I have so many shoes that nurses at our house often asks me whether I have shoes for them. I remembered when I was in elementary school, one of my dreams was to collect all brands of shoes. Throughout 5 or 6 years of hard working, I finally possess almost every brand of shoes. However, there are many new brands coming out every year, so my effort of collecting has to last eternally. Other than having all brands of shoes, I want to have different kinds of colors of shoes so that I can distinguish from others.

    I remembered the time when I wanted a pair of gray shoes very badly that every day I could only think of it. Whenever my thought was struck by it, I could hardly concentrate and work. Despite already having about 18 pairs of shoes, I told my mom that I was crazy about the gray shoes. I convinced her to let me have what I wanted by saying that I dreamed for it every night and promised her that I would listen to her on every matter. I used the technique of emotion to move her because it’s easier than using logic. Humans are irrational animals, so we couldn’t always think in terms of reasons, and this is why sometimes our minds don’t follow our brains because we are affected by emotion. Nevertheless, I think that the best way of persuasion is using both logic and emotion. But for me, I think emotion works the best for me because I seldom come up with firm reasons to stand for my points.

Persuasion Examples

According to the definition from dictionary, coercion is use of force or intimidation to obtain compliance, and persuasion is the state or fact of being convinced. I think the difference between the two terms is that one is forcing you to do something, which you’re unwilling to do, and the other one is trying to change your mind via telling you to do other things. I draw the line between being forced to do something and being persuaded into doing it by determining whether the things we’re doing follow our heart, and whether our mind is willing to do these things.

        School bully is an example of coercion because the bullies force you to surrender all of your precious possessions, and they beat you up in the bathroom if you don’t listen to them. Moreover, they threaten you for becoming prostitutes if you don’t buy drugs from them. All of these evil forces make good students fall and become corrupted.

        When buying things, some people might constantly change their minds because of other people’s suggestions. I remembered the experience in which I went shopping with my parents for buying a new schoolbag. At first, I wasn’t going to buy the one I’m using now, but I changed my thought because my mom successfully persuaded me that the one I’m using now is more suitable for me since it has a bag for me to put water and it’s bigger. These two points attracted me, so I decided to buy the one that my mom thought was better.

Real Questions

        Throughout our lives, it’s unavoidable that we face lots of questions. Some questions just come into our mind without our notices, and some questions form after we thoroughly think over. Sometimes, we might think wrongly that our questions are solved when our minds stop being annoyed by them. However, these questions aren’t real ones. According to the quotation, the real questions are the ones that interest our minds and motivate us want to keep researching and discovering deeper.

        When learning about Earth Science in middle school, I remembered I always had lots of questions while the teacher was lecturing. Why was Earth the most suitable place for humans to live? How did the universe first form? Where did ancient animals and plants go? How did the first generation species develop their body systems or their skills? These questions make me wonder a lot about the mysterious world that we live in, thus I would want to give an specific answer to each of these interesting questions. Nonetheless, it’s impossible to give definite terms to them because these questions are too broad, thus there are too many elements contained.

        These questions wouldn’t bore me at all, rather, they excite me. At that time, my favorite class was Earth Science because it made me want to explore more about this world, and I could feel my heart beat was always beating hard on my chest since I was really focused and into the subject.

Logic v Emotion

Although this quotation is short, it’s sending a powerful message. It makes me feel that pollution is a serious and severe issue, and people have to find ways to deal with it. Moreover, as the environment gets harmed, it could never go back to the way it used to be in the past. I can find the negative connotative word “evil” in this quotation, which associates me to have the idea of that pollution is really bad, just like the fiendish demon is doing hurtful and harmful things. Humans shouldn’t think that they can get away from pollution because eventually the toxic elements build up in the food chain, thus humans are getting the most amount of toxic. A small action which we spray a kind of anti-virus thing on grass, the process of pollution starts. The cow would eat the grass, and in the end humans would eat the cow. When going one stage up further in the food chain, there will always be 10% loss. We not only absorb the energy, but also the harmful stuffs.

        I think Carson mainly uses emotional appeal since her words are so strong and so powerful. The first part of the quotation, which contains the word “evil,” is definitely an emotional appeal because it makes people arouse strong feelings such as feeling regret or sin. I think the second part of the quotation, where the word “irreversible” is also an emotional appeal because people finally understand how bad and how serious the situation is.

Effecting Change

     Although words are less powerful than visual images, they can create the same meaningful and profound effect as actions do. I think that writing can be used to bring about change by spotting out problems and help providing solutions. In the American Revolutionary War, the 13 colonies collaborated with each other and wrote the Declaration of Independence to oppose the Great Britain. The 13 colonies felt treated unfairly and without justice by the British Empire since they were being taxed on almost everything, including tea, letter, house, etc. Moreover, the 13 colonies didn’t have any representation in England’s Parliament, so they think that what the British had done to them was more unforgivable. Thus, the Declaration of Independence was founded and the Great Britain gave up its claims to America. The successful independence was not only a significant event for the United States, but also to the whole world because it inspired other countries to rise up and fight for their own rights.

     Another important event that happened in the American history is the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. were all prominent characters in the event. The “I Had a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. was a turning point for the Civil Rights Movement. When he delivered the speech, people’s emotions were stirred up, and they felt that they shouldn’t be oppressed and treated in a belittled way anymore. They realized that it was time for them to urge all the black people to strive for their rights, and they let the white people see their strong demands. Again, the Blacks finally got to be treated equally, without racial discrimination. From these two historical events, I can see that writing’s role ignored in bringing about social changes.

Decent Writing

   I think her quote means that nobody can write out good books without trusting how knowledgeable their readers are, and I agree that what she said is always true. Instead of underestimating audience’s intelligence or capacity to absorb information, writers can also overestimate. Sometimes when describing chemical processes or how natural events take place, writers don’t include too much scientific information because they assume that their readers already know about this. However, without the essential and necessary information, it’s like a puzzle or riddle set in readers’ mind and can never be solved unless being provided with writers’ keys.

    I have had many experiences of having too much or too complicated information dumped on my by a speaker, and this happened most often in the AP Calculus AB class. For most of the time, I could follow the teacher and digest what she just taught as long as we’re not in a rush. But, when the teacher is under the pressure of teaching certain chapters within a limited amount of time, she would try to squeeze as many information as possible while using up the whole class period.

   I’m not a math person, so my head would start to feel dizzy, I would become nervous and lose track, and I couldn’t absorb anymore information as the teacher begins to teach such a great amount of materials. Moreover, what’s even worse is that my thoughts would all be mixed up and I would forget what the teacher taught 30 minutes ago. At this time, I could only take down notes with no thinking, and then review about everything when my brain has gained fresh air. Toward the teacher, this action would make me feel that she’s too hurry. If only minority of the class gets what’s going on, then the teacher should teach again, but clearer and slower.