Christmas

In the spirit of the holiday season (and Christmas only 10 days away), it is customary to mail out holiday cards to your closest family members, friends, and colleagues. Having done that last week, I am at a loss as to what I should say now. Usually I would take this time to summarize the past year in a snapshot of pictures or a short essay about what I have accomplished. But it is also around this time of year that I become extremely cynical. So let’s go with that for right now.

Doesn’t it seem like Christmas has been around longer than it used to be? I mean we are in the middle of December, but I feel that we have been surrounded by Christmas for the past two months. Seriously, I remember when Christmas decorations wouldn’t be displayed in stores until the day after Thanksgiving, which only increased anticipation of the upcoming season (which was great, by the way). But now, Christmas decorations were up even before Halloween! And that is absolutely ridiculous.

Not only is Christmas around longer than it used to be (maybe that’s why I can hardly ever get into the Christmas spirit anymore) but everyone seems to want to get in touch with old friends and extended family. Now I I don't want to be a Christmas hater or anything, but I hate (absolutely hate) the artificial Christmas notes and gatherings. Now if you know me at all, you would know that I love to go out and eat. I love food and I love planning my whole day around food. So if I consider you a friend (or someone I would want to see and catch up with), I would have seen (and/or spoken with) you sometime over the last few weeks or over the last few months…either going out to eat or talking about going out to eat.

So what am I suppose to do when I get a random Christmas card from someone I don’t even remember meeting or a random note in a card that reads “we should get together sometime?” The first thought that pops into my head, is "yeah sure…there is a reason why I haven’t seen you in awhile." And you know what? I’m ok with that. There are some people who you consider your friends, other people who you get along fine with on a regular basis, and some people who you wish you never have to see again. You all know what I am talking about and you can think of people that fall into both categories, so why is it so bad that when people actually exercise this “show of favoritism” do people get offended? Yeah, I don’t know why I am asking, because I really don’t care.

Well I would hate to end this blog on a sour note considering I have to be jolly and all...so I will leave you with my list of favorites for this time of year. Enjoy!

Favorite holiday drink? Sparkling Apple Cider
Favorite holiday movie? Love Actually
Favorite holiday song? Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You"
Favorite holiday tradition? Mistletoe...although I never put one up...so decorating the house with lights
This year's holiday wish? Peace, good health, and happiness for my family and friends

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Question

A type A machine can complete a job in 5 hours and a type B machine can complete the job in 7 hours. How many hours will it take 2 type A machines and 3 types B machines working together and independently to complete the job?

Analysis of Argument

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion, be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refure the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.

Prompt: "The following appeared in a memorandum from the sales department at the WXYZ Radio Corporation to the marketing department at Fun Times Restaurant.

The potenial of WXYZ to increase your sales can be seen from the experiences of Alphaville Motors last year. Regular advertising on WXYZ during prime listening hours greatly increased public awareness of Alphaville Motors. Before Alphaville Motors started advertising on WXYZ, an independent marketing research team found that only 10 percent of a randomly survey group of 2,000 local residents could identify Alphaville Motors when asked to name local car dealers. After three months of advertising on WXYZ, 30 percent of respondents from a second survey named Alphaville Motors when asked to name local car dealers."

Start Time: 9:15 am

Fun Times Restaurant should proceed with caution before advertising with WXYZ Radio Corporation. In the memorandum, there are a variety of misleading assumptions in the example citing Alphaville Motors. The weaknesses of this argument are whether Alphaville Motors advertised in any other media during this time and whether name recognition actually leads to increase sales. The argument could be strengthened with actual data of Alphaville Motors sales before advertising on WXYZ Radio and after.

Since it is unclear whether WXYZ Radio Corporation was Alphaville Motors only advertising agent and whether sales actually increased, it can't be determined that this would be the best decision for Fun Times Restaurant. Alphaville Motors may have had a major advertising campaign to increase name recognition with the hope of increasing their sales. But whether potential consumers actually buy Alphaville Motors has not been proven. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, American car manufactures are facing a similar problem. Advertising and name recognition have not led to an increase of sales.

Since concrete data of sales for Alphaville Motors has not been cited and it is unclear whether advertising on WXYZ Radio have impacted sales at all, WXYZ Radio Corporation has not provided a good enough argument for Fun Times Restaurant to advertise on its station.

End Time: 9:46 am

Analysis of Argument

Explain how logically persuasive you find this argument. In discussing your viewpoint, analyze the argument's line of reasoning and its use of evidence. Also explain what, if anything, would make the argument more valid and convincing or help you to better evaluate its conclusion.

Prompt: "The problem of poorly trained teachers that has plagued the state public school system is bound to become a good deal less serious in the future. The state has initiated comprehensive guidelines that oblige state teachers to complete a number of required credits in education and educational psychology at the graduate level before being certified."

Start Time: 12:45 pm

The writer concludes that the present problem of poorly trained teachers will become less severe in the future because of required coursework in education and educational psychology before certification.

The assumptions that are made in this prompt is that coursework in education and psychology will improve teachers' classroom performance, current teachers haven't already met this standard of classroom training, and bad teachers will either cease teaching or become trained to this new standard. This argument needs to address any evidence that the new required training will improve classroom performance of teachers, that present teachers are bad because they don't have this training, and that present teachers will not be teaching or will be trained will improve.

The assumptions in this prompt fails to describe how the new state intiated training will improve teaching and what future teachers need to do to become certified. Because there are teachers who enter the field with a variety of different education levels, backgrounds and understandings of educational psychology it is impossible to assume that state teachers will even be prepared for graduate level courses in education and educational psychology. In addition, graduate level courses in education and educational psychology would hardly prepare future teachers for the reality of teaching in a classroom.

In the past, there have been shortages of qualified state teachers especially in rural and poor communities. Because schools with a high number of at-risk youth and violence are not equiped to recruit good teachers, teachers who may not be qualified to teach have been implemented into the field without having to acquire certification.

End Time: 1:14 pm