week 4- The need for precision language

Week 4

The need for precision language

Today’s lesson, we start with “good argument” concept. What makes a good argument? We should persuade to agree with the conclusion. In other side, not a good argument is we reject the conclusion. A good argument is where the conclusion and premises are clear enough that makes us understand the ideas that the arguer is trying to send us. The conclusion and premises are not vague.

When I heard the word “vague”, I blurred. Then I come to my track after the explanation by our lecturer. A sentence might be vague if it is unclear on what ideas the arguer tried to convey. In order to make a good argument, the sentences must not vague, the receiver of the message must clear enough on our ideas, tell others what “standards” are being used. I heard people say “Arsenal is the best football team in the world”. Now, I should know in what way it is best? How they are the best? Here, there is an uncertainty about what standards are being used as a basis of comparison.

Vagueness can also happen when a specific content in a statement is not presented. For example, abandonment is immoral. As a critical thinker, I should ask in what aspect it is immoral? This was happen when there is confusion over context. Vagueness can happen when speaker choose imprecise choice of words which he is not careful to ensure that the words he or she is using will be understood by the listener. Moreover, regional or cultural causes vagueness. As Malaysians, we usually use “ahh”. For example, what is your name ahh? In this case, foreigners might be confused what we try to tell. Here receivers of our message will confuse on what we try to convey. So, we have to compose a clear sentence to avoid undesirable outcomes.

The next thing we were going through is over-generality. In over-generality, the meaning of the words is very clear and understandable but the statement refers to an idea that is insufficiently specific which allows us to determine the important ideas.                      

Next, ambiguous sentence is a series of statement that is worded in such a way as to make reader lose track of “which one” you are talking about. Besides that, we get to know two new words today which are euphemisms and dysphemism. Euphemisms means we choose a word that makes some concept sounds “better” than it is. We usually use it to refer ourselves. While, dysphemism means we choose a word that makes it sound worst. People usually use it to refer other people.

 Furthermore, we tried to differentiating fact and opinion as it is the first step to evaluate whether we need to believe premises of an argument or not and the supporting statement are based on ‘fact’ or ‘opinion’. A fact is a specific detail that can be proven as true based on objective evidence. An opinion is a feeling, judgement, belief or conclusion that cannot be proven true by objective evidence.

In presenting an argument, logical order is very important which means an argument should lead to a clear direction. Inconsistencies make an argument hard to follow, leaving the audience uncertain about what the author is trying to persuade them to believe.

The lessons I gained through this week is very useful because before this I put 3 for question; I can spot inconsistencies in an argument easily. Now, I can score full for this question after this week’s lesson. Then, I score 3 for question; I understand why ambiguous language is often used in research paper. So, here I need to understand more about the why the language is used in research paper. Lastly, I score 3 for question; I am good at identifying patterns. Here, I plan to put more effort in identifying patterns more accurately. These are what I learnt this week.