1. How do you practice crap detection—learning to avoid “information tainted by ignorance, inept communication, or deliberate deception”—in your everyday life? Tell a specific story or articulate some general principles that help you avoid crap. 5-6 sentences.
I practice crap detection every Tuesday when I go to school in person in the city. On my way home from school I am usually very tired and hungry after not eating all day. On my way home I have to transfer train to bus and there is a mall by the bus stop with Chick Fil A. I always order the same thing so I have my order saved on the Chick Fil A app, and when I am a couple stops away from the mall, I order it. This saves so much time, effort, and patience because the mall is always packed and the line for food is 30 minutes long. I find myself just walking past everyone, picking up my food, and going home.
2. What a new tool Lunsford and Ruskiewicz offered you—something you hadn’t yet considered, that will stick with you as you do your research?
One tool that will stick with me as I do my research is Level of specialization. I feel with how specific my topic is, The beginning sources will help me but as I get to the end of my paper, I will have to find more specific texts and articles.
3. What is a past rule you’ve been taught about writing that you now see was unhelpful? What could take its place? 3 sentences.
This is not necessarily a rule of writing but it is a specific depending on the paper you are writing. I feel like an extensive word count is unhelpful in ones writing. If you have already written what you need to in the paper, and you have not met the word count, it leaves you with having to stretch out topics that have already been stretched.
4. Defend an unpopular opinion you have about something in pop culture or your daily life. Use Toulmin’s structure (articulated by Blankenship, 198): claim, grounds, qualifier, and rebuttal. 8-10 sentences.
The unpopular opinion that I side by is that money can buy happiness. I personally have a good amount of money for a 18 year old in our current society, but it does not satisfy me. I have money, and I am happy but I feel like I would be way happier with a lump sum of money. If I had a lot of money, I would be able to advance my style of clothing and buy almost anything I want. With a lot of money you can also do things for friends and family that will make them happy. For me, seeing others happy makes me happy.
Hi Nick, I’m glad that the perspective of considering a source’s level of specialization is helpful. I imagine there are lots of popular articles about the reselling market, some of them perhaps biased in one direction or another; I’m very curious to know what sort of peer-reviewed research exists on the economic impact of reselling.