12 A Question of Evidence

Greetings fellow malefactors,

On the argument of what constitutes good or bad evidence when reasearching topics for essays, I find a few things are helpful when determining what is good or bad. 

First off, I try to determine whether the articles I read are truly informative or given to sensationalism of the times and issues.  That's always a deal breaker for me when research for a topic turns into a wide array of high-strung emotions printed in article form.

Secondly, I look to whether the article supports or contradicts my general thesis for the paper.  So that excludes papers rife with fallacies.  In my reasearch, I've found an article stating a thesis contrary to my own ideas, but despite that, the article stated several things which support its opposite in the debate.  Obviously, there were some issues there.

Thirdly, I try to shy away from seeking personal experience as evidence due to its highly ambiguous validity.  Wrapped in emotionalism and not easily persuasive to certain groups of people, personal experience can easily be fabricated in order to support an argument or else be over generalized in order to sway an audience.  As such, I usually do not find it too helpful in my own research.

Thank you for reading, fellow readers advocating reading!

Blessed be!

11 Possible Topic for Doc2 Assignment

Okay.  Let's just skip the fancy rhetoric and get to the nitty gritty.  Long story short:  Hamon assigned us Doc2 and he wanted us to find a controversy on my chosen field.  Blah, blah, blah.  Couldn't think of such a debate, did research and now I have something.  You get the gist of these introductions.

(Sheesh.  Glad that's out of the way.)

While this topic is not set in stone, I was thinking of writing of the "Sensory Processing" Debate found in the world of Occupational Therapy (and its assistants).  Basically, the controversy revolves around the treatment of children with a variety of attention, learning, motor skill, social and emotional disorders grouped under a heading called "Sensory Processing Disorder"; which seems to be related to such childhood disorders as ADHD and Autism amongst others.  Occupational Therapists (and OT Assistants, by proxy) respond to patients with SPD by prescribing various activities for afflicted children within a "Stress Gym" aimed to provide the physical and cognitive support that alleviates symptoms and results are fairly positive with said treatment.

The problem is that health professionals outside of OT have several problems with the SPD idea.  The first being that SPD is not a listed disorder within medical archives; which has prompted many doctors to reject OT ideas on the issue.  Other problems arise within the medical community dismissing "Stress Gym" treatment as unscientific as compared to treatment via medication, as well as the effectiveness, leading researchers seeing the Stress Gym (filled with fabric swings and other equipment seen as fun for youngsters) as an ineffective treatment; that the Stress Gym is but a reward to unruly, childlike behavior.

My own stance on the SPD Debate is that is does not matter whether SPD is a literal disorder or a collection of disorders or exists at all.  The point is that learning, motor and emotional disorders are a very real thing in the lives of many children, and, while the Stress Gym is not a perfect intervention, I find the idea and possible future methods of treatment that are outside the domain of medicating children into submission to be wholly worthwhile of pursuit.  That cooperation between OT and other divisions of health care would benefit from working together to resolve these children's traumas instead of bickering over terminology that doesn't matter.

But that is only a potentiality and not a set topic yet.

Blessed Be.

10 An Illogical Look at Minorities

In this day and age of myriad cultures, subcultures and groups of people, in general, it can be rather easy to make assumptions about certain groups that simply do not make any sense.  I know this happens as a Gay man with outsiders asking me if my partner and I abide by male and female gender roles.  Naturally, if both partners are men, the heterosexual gender roles do not apply; but that kind of logic does not resonate with every person.  Hence an example of logical fallacies in dealing with a differing group of people.

But even I am not immune to such discrepancies.  Having never been personally acquainted with Little People, I personally have made some of my own illogical assumptions about that subculture.  The primary one concerning their love lives.  Even though I had seen several stories on television of Little People having romantic relationships and subsequent children, I had always assumed that people suffering from achondroplasia simply did not have sex lives.  I had thought that, as far as the anatomy went, such people were too small to make use of their biology in a practical manner for their own pleasure and beyond.  I had seen proof that such a group is not at all lacking in that department, but my mind could not get past such trivial ideas.  Hence my own illogical look at another group of people.

Granted, I think of mine as a more innocent idea, but such misunderstandings happen with all groups of people.  The best way to overcome this is education and exposure.  Nothing else will suffice.

Blessed be!

09 Logical Fallacies In Popular Media

A fallacy is a flawed argument in the use of logic or rhetoric that results in a lack of validity.  That much is certainly clear.  In this English Class we are constantly instructed to overcome fallacies; and this post is all about said fallacies in popular media.  So let's begin.

The three fallacies I wish to discuss are:  Confirmation Bias, False Authority, and Nirvana.

Confirmation Bias is a form of rhetoric in which the writer only uses evidence supporting his theory and rejects all evidence to the contrary.  This is commonly used in the criminal justice system (and, consequently, the true crime television shows I watch) where lawyers, in presenting their cases for the conviction or acquittal of a defendant, will ignore materials contradicting their cases on the guilt or innocence of the man on trial.

False Authority follows a similar form wherein information is practically taken out of context in order to sell a product.  In the case of trailers on television for poorly rated movies, the one review written by a critic who enjoyed the picture will be used in the advertisement over the many more negative reviews to be glossed over.

The Nirvana Fallacy rejects every solution to a problem that isn't perfect.  As an example:  In the Gun Rights debate, opponents of bills that support Gun Control, despite being given proven statistics that these potential laws would be beneficial, will argue that said bill will not stop gun violence by 100% and, as such, the proposed bill is useless.  This particular fallacy bothers me so.

And there you have it.

Blessed be!

08 My Peer Evaluation Process

I have to say, right away, that writing is more than just a class requirement to me.  For me, writing is art and it is something I cherish deeply.  For those classmates of mine that read my introductory post, you will recall that I mentioned my dream to one day become a published novelist.  It is true.  I completed an epic, unpublished novel last year and I am currently working on a new one.  And no.  This is not an attempt on my part to advertise my work.  It is to make a point.  To me, writing is more than typing a few paragraphs on the computer to get a grade.  It is the process of transmitting a series of words into fully realized worlds existing within the realms unseen.  It is Magic in the purest sense.  Through writing, I create something out of nothing; a skill held by all famous sorcerers:  From Circe and Medea of Classical Mythology to The Wicked Witch of the West and Fiona Goode (of American Horror Story fame) in Modern Times.  This might seem to be a bizarre idea, but it is simply another one of the philosophies I live by.

As such, a simple Composition class--for others a mere prerequisite for their degrees--transmogrifies my usually tranquil and exuberant demeanor into that of an axe crazy control freak.  In my life, I see many people who go most of their lives without reading a book for pleasure or similar transgressions (an all too common sight), and South University, unfortunately, is no exception.

So when I have to review another's work, my mind--while doing it's best to remain kind and considerate--unfortunately jumps to a hypercritical state of only seeing flaws in another's work.  I'm not looking for the bare necessities required in the paper.  I am looking for the soul of its author splashed on the pages.  I want to see the author's ideals; his/her hopes and dreams and fears play through the assignment in dazzling display.  And yes.  I realize such assertions certainly seem far too lofty for a college assignment, but I'm not expecting a veritable F. Scott Fitzgerald or John Updike to be writing the paper I evaluate.  So give me some credit.  I'm mainly looking for a writer who takes the writing process seriously, that isn't an english professor.

The point is that in my own slightly exacerbated sense of self-importance and writing talent, I get far too antsy for my own good.  So to the one whose paper I must evaluate next...  God speed.  I apologize in advance.

Blessed Be

07 Deductive Reasoning in Doc1

Deductive Reasoning, being the top-down logic in which an argument can be proven from a premesis proven to be true, certainly played a part in my part in writing Doc1.  Though I did not view it in that way.

Basically, I gave multiple examples of police brutality, with the long known assumption that police officers targeted the african american community, backed by statistical evidence, and then included examples of victims of police violence that did not meet the usual standards for the crime.  My argument was that everyone could, potentially, become the victim of police brutality.  As such, not only giving the statistics of crimes over all but then following that up with examples of crimes against two unsuspecting individuals (a young man with down syndrome & a nonagenarian in a nursing home), I made the point that even seeemingly innocuous people could be killed by law enforcement.

I hope I did a good job with that.

06 Unveiling the Thesis

Solicitations, fellow malefactors!  In this class of English Composition, we are constantly being given new topics to discuss.  Turns out that on this particular week, the topics have me slightly befuddled.  So, for the sake of ease, I have elected to choose the most straightforward topic as my first for the week.  And which one is that?  Why!  It's the topic about discerning the main points behind the "documents" I read.  So let's get down to business?

 

So first off:  Quid Pro Quo!  Do you know what I love more than anything?  Certainly, there are a number of valid responses to that question.  Good food and music.  Driving at high speeds down the interstate.  Singing in the shower.  Enjoying the company of attractive individuals in private.  They could all theorettically work!  But they aren't the correct answers in this context.  What I really love are books.  Truly, I spend hours in book stores and libraries having the time of my life as I peruse the shelves.  And many more times, I actually read said books.

 

And being the avid reader I am, I usually have no trouble with determining the Thesis of the novel, article, or "document" in question.  It's simple really.  The thesis is the overall message of a written work that is not only mentioned most often, but is given the most emphasis in the writing. 

 

Case in point.  My most favorite novel of all time--bar none--would have to be The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike.  The story follows the everyday lives of three divorced women, gifted with a certain brand of magic, and their evolving relationships with a brash, repulsive man named Darryl Van Horne who has just moved to their small fictional town of Eastwick, Rhode Island.  Along the way, the three witches are each seduced in turn by Van Horne, suffer various tragedies at their jobs and love lives, and use black magic to screw with the lives of their neighbors.  By the end of the book, Van Horne has left town and the witches must give up their powers--in a roundabout sort of way--in order to regain stability in their ruined lives.

 

Now what exactly is the thesis of such a story?  Given that I've had to skip over a bunch of details in the story, it might be difficult to grasp, but I'll make it easy on my reader.

 

Ultimatrely, Eastwick is nothing more than a satire about feminism.  The witches themselves, having left their husbands in dissatisfaction, are overtly suspicious of men, considering most of them to be a threat.  Even more so, the witchcraft is firstly described as a potential found within all women, awakening when the woman in question is unsatisfied with the assumed gender roles and revolts (in the case of the book:  leaving one's husband triggers it); and the magic itself is but a literary device to allow the women to channel their rage and frustration at the world around them.  To make the point even clearer, the archetype of the witch is normally indicative of a woman finding strength outside of societal customs; an attribute Updike most likely counted on.  But then to completely subvert the image of a benevolent earth mother, the witches themselves not only use their magic for myriad malfeasance, but also engage in promiscuous behaviors with the married men of the town, neglect their children, abuse drugs and alcohol with Van Horne and fight amongst each other over the same man.  As far as Updike is concerned, he is spoofing the idea of empowered women by transforming them into wicked sorceresses.

 

But that was only an example.  My point is that with enough attention to the written work, the thesis is quite easy to spot.

 

Blessed be!