Assignment 22  Read Hayakawa Chapter 14 --  “The Dime in the Juke Box”

Hayakawa says that the Intensional Orientation is  "guiding ourselves by words alone rather than the facts to which words should guide us."

He describes the person with the intensional orientation as someone who has the tendency towards:

·            an unawareness of contexts

·            automatic reactions

·            confusion of levels of abstraction (confusing what is in one's head with what's outside)

·            consciousness of similarities but not differences,

·            a habit of explaining words by means of definitions (more words).

This results in beliefs like:

·            people in theocracies must be unhappy because they live under totalitarian rule.

·            atheists must be immoral because without fear of god there's no reason to behave yourself.

·            politicians must be liars because all they do is play politics.

1.  Suggest another belief like one of the three above that intensionally oriented people might hold. Explain why one might hold this belief. What evidence (facts), inferences (supported and unsupported), and generalizations might contribute to this belief? 

2.  Intensional Jargon:  Try your hand at intensional writing (so you can avoid it in your real writing).  Write a 100 word essay complaining about any one of the roles below.  Try to use as many clichés as possible (again, so you can avoid them in your real writing).  Call it “The trouble with…”

·            Government bureaucrats

·            Military hawks

·            Educational administrators

·            Psychologists

·            Sports columnists

·            Liberals

·            Conservatives

3.  Write a brief outline or essay (250 words) on this topic: “Advertising is the Opposite of Education.”

Assignment 23  Online reading – Your choice.

1. Select an editorial, Op-Ed, or opinion column from any news source. Write a review of this column identifying a) facts and legitimate, supported inferences, judgments and arguments and/or b) unsupported inferences, possible questionable assumption underlying statements, fallacies, uses of “snarl” and “purr” words to try to elicit a reaction and any other criticisms you may find.

If you’re not familiar with news organizations, click here for some places to look.  Remember to look for opinion pieces, not straight news articles.

Assignment 24  Engel, chapters 13-17.

Continue the chart you’ve been creating for chapters 13-17.