Online School

 Entry 28:

Reflection

Topic: Online School

    This week has been especially difficult for me to focus or even think about school. I normally try to stay on track or be a bit ahead but it feels harder to do that this week. Online school is a new concept to me, I used to do zoom/hybrid classes and now I do classes that are only online with no zoom or meet up times. I prefer it because I used to sit through 3 hours of zooms for nothing. I feel like I am learning and being more productive now!

    Anyways since this week has been hard for me, I decided to look up tips to acing online classes because maybe I can help someone else who has been struggling!

1. Figure out the best way for you to learn

2. Make a schedule

3. Balance your life: work, school, social. Enjoy the flexibility that being online allows you. 

4. Avoid getting distracted while trying to do work 

5. Find a friend that will help you stay motivated and keep you on track!

    I like to keep a schedule of all of my work, it is more of a to do list, organized by due date and I cross it off as I complete it. This week I feel like I am doing everything last minute because I have not had any motivation to leave my bed, much less do any school work. However, I have friends that want me to do it. Normally that gets me a bit more motivated, but this week has been hard and I dont know why. Anyways, I learn best when things are done at a fast pace. I can never sit in a place for too long, so I turn a lot of things on 2x speed and take notes or pause as needed. All online with lectures on hand that can be watched over and over is truly a blessing. 

Link: npr.org

Creating surveys

 Entry 27: 

Topic: Creating A Survey

    There are a lot of different places to go to make a survey like google forms, surveymonkey, and honestly several others. You can use surveys in order to get feedback. I personally think that google forms is easy to use but it is the only one I have ever used. 

Tips: 

1. Keep repeating questions

2. Make people responding feel comfortable 

3. Be straightforward.

4. Avoid asking yes/no questions (if possible). 

Primary Research

 Entry 26:

Reflection

Topic: Primary Research

    Why is primary research important? You can write papers by only doing secondary research but secondary research needs to be within specific time frames, a bit biased, and it is something that others have already talked about and addressed. Primary research, what you collect from people without using books or the internet (secondary research), helps to eliminate biases you hold towards the topic and also allows you to get more information on your topic. 

    Surveys are probably a bit easier to create as you can email them out to a mass group of people and people can keep their names off of it, I feel like a lot of people answer what they think the person wants to hear if they think that someone will know that they answered.

Logical Fallacies (Project 2-Things to Avoid)

 Entry 25:

Writing Help/Research

Topic: Logical fallacies 

    A logical fallacy is when there is an error in the reasoning that then renders the argument invalid. As we are working on project 2, I was reading over the handout and it said to avoid logical fallacies. 

I am taking critical thinking and in our textbook it talks a lot about logical fallacies. 

    The reason we do not want these in a paper that we are trying to create a debate/argument over is because it would take strength away from the argument and any points you are trying to make. Other reasons you don't want to use a logical fallacy is simply because they are wrong and dishonest. 

There are 5 common types of logical fallacies (the article that I used had 15 if you would like to check it out-link is at the bottom):

A summary of each from the link-

1. Ad Hominem , ad hominem replaces logical arguments with "attack-language" that does not relate to the truth on the issue. 

2. Straw Man, strawman argument just takes your opponents "weak" argument and uses it against them. By default theirs will sound a lot better. 

3. Appeal to Ignorance, whenever someone says something they know nothing about in support of their argument. 

4. Circular Argument, an argument that just continually repeats itself/basic assumption with no further reasoning-does not go anywhere. 

5. Casual Fallacy, any logical breakdown when identifying a cause.

These are examples of logical fallacies. 

Link: thebestschools

Guided Question (Week 6, Question 2)

 Entry 24: 

Research

Topic: How does a thesis work?

    As we work on project 2, we need to find our argument, create a thesis to build our paper around. In order to understand how a thesis works, we need to know what a thesis statement is. A thesis is a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved. 

A thesis works by clearly identifying the topic being discussed, the thesis statement belongs in the first paragraph (introductory paragraph). 

    It is important to note that a thesis statement does not state a facts, but rather an opinion for you to prove. It always takes a stand to be justified later. 

    A thesis works when you can present a topic and be able to debate it. If you cannot take a stand, you will struggle to answer questions and debate- therefore you have no thesis.