Organizational Relationships

In a workplace their are certain relationships that have to be set in order to provide good service or achieve their goals. These relationships are important to establish because it will make communicating even easier. I have learned this from experience; I started as a cashier at my job and  I am a manger now.

Relationship between Superiors and Subordinates
Communication needs to happen in order to get tasks completed and making sure everything is done properly. A boss also need to do annual reviews on an employee so the employee knows what they need to improve on.

Relationship between Team Leaders and Team Members
I believe this relationship is the most important because it creates the atmosphere of how the group is working. If a manger is being energetic then group members will enjoy working with that manager. My top manager always talks about how everyone working should treat each other as family. We must be supportive and help each other to get things done or nothing will ever get completed. Which is true, the better relationship a manager has with a team member the more progress is made.

Relationship between Organizational Departments
Organization and documentation is essential so that all services are accounted for.

Complex Arguments for Analysis

#3 on pg. 225
Las Vegas has too many people. (1) There’s not enough water in the desert to support more than a million people. (2) And the infrastructure of the city can’t handle more than a million: (3) the streets are overcrowded (4) and traffic is always congested; (5) the schools are overcrowded (6) and new ones can’t be built fast enough. (7) We should stop migration to the city by tough zoning laws in the city and country. (8)

Argument: Yes
Conclusion: 8
Additional premises needed? Infrastructure must be defined or else you must know what it means to understand this argument. Describing what tough zoning laws can be implemented in (8). Making statements 1, 2,3,4, and 5 if statements like: If there's not enough water for more people, then their are too many people.
Identify any subargument: 2 and 3 are subarguments of 1. 4, 5, 6, and 7 support 3. 1 supports 8.
Good Argument? It is a good argument but would be better if 8 was developed more.

The exercise was useful because it allowed me to break up the statement to make more sense of it. I was able to distinguish the difference between a conclusion and premises. It also made me think about what I can do to make arguments stronger and more believable.

Violating the Principle of Rational Discussion

A person is violating the principle of rational discussion when it seems as if they do not comprehend
what is reasonable, they are deliberately misleading, or it is not an argument at all. An example would be relevance. Relevance is the observation of the premise not being relevant to the conclusion in an argument. This causes the argument to be weak and unrepairable.

For example one of my coworkers was trying to explain to me what had happen while I was gone. She was talking so fast that her conclusion was unrelated to her testimony.

Maria: Someone got in a car accident on the driveway and my eye was bothering me, so I thought I could just leave early.
Me: What does the accident and your eye have to do with you leaving early?

Other instances of violation are:
Begging the Question- The premises being more plausible than the conclusion.
Strawman- "Putting words in the other person's mouth."
Shifting the burden of proof- Asking for someone to repudiate your statement rather than proving it yourself.

The Tests for an Argument to be True

According to Epstein in Critical Thinking, there are three requirements to test if an argument is true. They are: (1) The premises are plausible, (2) the premises are more plausible than the conclusion, and (3) the argument is valid or strong. In other words the foundation must be reasonable and more credible than the conclusion and also be strong or valid. A argument, for example, states:

It has been raining for the past three days and the sky is still cloudy. Dark cloudy skies usually indicate that there will be rain. So it will rain today.

It has true premises and the argument is strong. It is true because it is likely for it to rain for three days straight, even more because weather is unpredictable. The conclusion may be false but the premises is more reasonable than the conclusion. This is because the reasoning is good because clouds cause rain.

Strong versus Valid Arguments

"A strong argument with true premises is sometimes better than a valid one with the same conclusion," according to Epstein. An argument is said to be strong if it is there is a chance for the conclusion to be false but the premises true. If there are any possibilities that the conclusion is false the likelihood is small. An argument is thought to be valid if there is no way, at the same time, the conclusion is incorrect and the premises is true. For an argument to be strong or valid its premises must be more reasonable than its conclusion. If two arguments had the same conclusion but one was valid and the other one was strong, the strong argument with a true foundation would be better than a valid with correct evidence.

Leadership

I believe that in order for a group to accomplish a goal or what they have to do successfully, a good leader should be in charge. There are different types of leadership which have their own ups and downs. They are authoritarian, consultative, participative, and laissez-faire, which are listed in the Group Communication book. Authoritarian leaders makes decision without any input on what the members of the group have to say. Consultative leaders focus on the opinions of the other group members but make the decision on their own. Participative leaders work together with their group to make decisions and solve problems. Laissez-faire form of leadership on the other hand seems less effective because there is no form of communicating what needs to be done without anyone telling them what should be done. 
I have always been told to be a leader never a follower but not everyone can be a leader at the same time. It is a good idea to know how a leader should think so people can give their own input on how a group should be run and help out so not all the responsibilities become the leaders. This is all very important because I work and the main point of my job is to be a leader. I have to manage everything that is around me and all the employees. While giving everyone their breaks and setting a good example of what they should be doing. By the way, I work as a shift manager at McDonald's. It is not a dream job at all but at least I'm making money.  I have also noticed that once someone sets up their form of leadership it is very hard to change and I have noticed that with other managers I have worked with.

Attributions

Attributing something is to think of something as caused by a specific circumstance or reason. Attributions are made when you try to explain why someone did or is doing something. The more you observe someone, the more you get to know them and that is when you start to think more about their behaviors. Making attributions is different than assuming because when attributing understanding of the individual is essential. Attributing can make a person better at communicating because they do not just think about superficial things like someone being late. They understand that many things can go wrong which can cause someone to be late. In a group setting it can be very useful because you can help out people when help is needed and perceive what someone else might be thinking. I have a really close friend and it seems as if we can read each others minds. This is because we have many similar ideas but also because we both make many attributions about each other because we hang out a lot.

~Reina Trillo

Subjective and objective claims

A subjective claim is subjective based if a person or group is able to think or feel that the claim may be true or not. To keep it simple a claim is objective if it is not a personal because it is not based on anyones opinion of it being true or not. Weather is misty always subjective because someone might think it is pretty cold outside but someone else might think that it is only a bit chilly.
Someone recently asked me how short I was. I said I am five feet and an inch tall, which is considered to be objective. Then they responded by saying "You are very short." That claim is subjective because that is what they feel about my height. The statement of how tall I am is objective because it does not rely on anyone believing it is true or false. When they said I was short it was their own opinion because I do not consider myself to be very short. The word they used to describe my height is vague and can be thought about in many different ways.

~Reina Trillo

Vague Sentence

I recently met up with a friend at the Student Union. Before I had gotten there she had left me a voicemail saying that she was next to the purple wall. I was really confused especially because I had not notice that there was a purple wall in the Student Union. The voicemail was very vague and that is what made me confused. The sentence is vague because it was not clear and anyone could have understood those words differently. Once I got there, I saw two small purple walls and a long wall but it had three sides to it. My friend could have meant any of those walls. I then called her and asked what purple wall. She started laughing and said the one facing Jamba Juice. She then told me that her friend had her confused also with the purple wall. Vague sentences usually cause confusion or may be interpreted the wrong way.

~Reina Trillo