My Favorite and least favorite thing

My favorite thing about this class was that it was online. I loved the fact that I did not have to get up and go to the class and sit and listen to a lecture twice a week. This was my first online class that I have ever taken. I thought I wasn't going to like it at first but I actually did. I also liked that I was able to do my work when I wanted to. I didn't have to do it at a specific time like I would have it we had to go to the class. I also liked that the test were online and we didn't have to come to a class and take them, so that meant that we could use our books.
What I didn't like about the class was having to do the last group project in person at the end. It was so hard for everybody to be available at the same time. The first two I really didn't mind because we didn't have to meet in person and we could communicate online or whatever way we chose. At first I also didn't like that we had to make a blog and post on it every week because it was very easy to forget about. I didn't like how our post had to be 150 words because sometimes the topics were kind of short so it was hard to write about that much. I did not like how we had to wait 12 hours apart to do each post. We should have been able to do them whenever we wanted. Because if you forgot about them all week and remember on friday night or saturday you were screwed because of the 12 hours. 
Suggestion: No more time limit on the post. Other than that great class

Something I found Interesting and Useful

Something in chapter 14 that I found useful and interesting is Generalizing. We as people generalize things everyday. Epstein says that generalizing is how we make sense of our world. He also states how poll takers and scientists generalize also not just us. Generalizing: We are generalizing if we conclude a claim about a group, the population, from a claim about some part of it, the sample. To generalize is to make an argument.
Sometimes the general claim that is the conclusion is called the generalization; sometimes we use that word for the whole argument. Plausible premises about the sample are called the inductive evidence for the generalization. It also says that to evaluate whether a generalization is good, we need to see it as an argument. Something that was also useful was statistical generalization. That means that sometimes the generalization we want and we're entitled to isn't "all" but "most" or 72%: The same portion of the whole as in the sample will have the property.

What I learned

I have learned a lot from this class. I have learned many different concepts. Some that were hard and some that were not so hard. This class was way more easier than my other critical thinking class. One thing I will remember from this class was the appeals to emotion section. Appeal to emotion in an argument is just a premise that says roughly you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way. When I watch TV now I point out when a commercial is trying to make you feel a certain way. I have realized that a lot of commercials and advertisements make you appeal to pity. They always want you to feel bad about something. Another appeal to emotion that will stick with me is appeal to fear. People are always trying to make you scared so you could do something. Politicians and advertisers always appeal to fear because they want to manipulate you. They will sometimes use arguments that don't even link the fear to the conclusion. So in general they are bad arguments. I have also learned about many different fallacies. Some of them are still a little hard to understand and recognize.