Group B 9/30

In this weeks blog post, I would like to write about Writing Analytically 5 because I found this chapter to be particularly interesting.  First, I want to address the "Fortune Cookie School of Interpretation," which I found helpful.  The fortune cookie approach aims to extract a "hidden message" in the text.  However, this can hinder your work because it may interfere with your ability to be open minded.  I find this helpful because I do this very often, and in many cases, it does not allow me to think freely because I am mainly just looking for evidence that supports this message.  After reading this, I will make sure to be conscious of making assumptions so that I can interpret the passage. 

Another interesting piece from the chapter were the common logistical fallacies at the end of the chapter.  These few pages will be useful throughout the entirety of this course and for my writing in general.  From learning about these mistakes such as ad hominem, ad populum, false analogy, non sequitur, and many more, I can improve my writing since I am now aware of this.  I was particularly curious about the term "non sequitur" because I have heard it a lot but never knew what it was.  I looked it up online to get a better understanding and found this example to be both funny and helpful: "You've probably heard an example of a non sequitur before, therefore bunny rabbits are way cuter than chipmunks."  I now have a good understanding of these common fallacies and will attempt to improve and avoid these in the future.

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 30, 2018 at 6:47 PM

    I, too, enjoyed reading Writing Analytically chapter 5. Interpreting the hidden meaning within a piece of text allows the reader to not only extract the neccessary information, but to delve deeper into other meanings that it may have. Interpreting hidden meanings is especially important because what you discover may be a unique viewpoint that others do not see; strengthening your argument. The fallacies section was eye opening as well. Now I know not to use these terms going forward.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 30, 2018 at 7:24 PM

    I myself found that Writing Analytically 5 gave me a lot of helpful tips. What I found most interesting was the "Making an Interpretation: The Example of a New York Cover section. The illustration in this section of the reading allowed me to gain some strategies when interpreting a piece of writing or a picture. One strategy that I took away was, "looking for patterns of repetition and contrast" (Writing Analytically 5, page 133). This section of our reading no doubt stuck with me.

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