COMM 274: Rhetoric at TLU

Monday, February 20, 2023

P-OT: Ghosthunting Texas - Lonesome Dove Inn

P-OT

Premises: Loci (maybe?): Order	What comes first is better or worse than what comes last/next.	The Lonesome Dove Inn was 1st a hospital, next a private residence, and finally, an inn that is “Immediately Recognizable”
Premises: Values: Concrete	“Texas” “the Comm. major”	“Proudly bearing a Texas lone star symbol.”
Quasi-logical: Inclusion or Comparison: Superlative (not sure which one)	Inclusion: Treating something as a part of a larger whole. Comparison--superlative: Something is beyond comparison.	Orbs are a sign that there are spirits or that the orbs ARE the spirits.
Based on the Structure of Reality: Symbolic Liason: Coexistence	They interlink in coexistence. Ex: Don’t act like a pig.	“They don’t bother me at all. As long as they behave....welcome to stay.”

Fallacies: Ghosthunting Texas - Lonesome Dove Inn

Fallacies

Fallacy	Example in Chapter	Argument
Begging the Question	“I felt as though there was a young male spirit trying to communicate with me.....I had never had anything happen to me like that before.”	This has never happened to her before yet she’s part of a paranormal club/group?
Wishful Thinking	“Suni Hoffman explained that she believed she too was communicating with the spirit of a little boy....it might have been the same one I had encountered earlier.”	There could be several spirits in the house and how does Suni know it’s a boy? There’s little context here to know this information.
Hasty Generalization	Mary: “I am familiar with the creaks and noises this house makes, but those footsteps weren’t something I could mistake for an old house.” Narrator: “I wonder who the spirits are.....”	Creaks, noises, and footsteps....OOOOO, that could only mean one thing: GHOSTS!!

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Argument P-OT for Ghost Story

A Watchful Spirit at the Witte from Best Tales of Texas Ghosts

Argument Fallacies for Ghost Story

A Watchful Spirit at the Witte from Best Tales of Texas Ghosts

Ghost story P-OT Analysis

The O. Henry House

https://books.google.com/books?id=hzKODwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3xYLv1Zv9AhUKlYkEHWgqCOQQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q&f=true

Premise: Presumptions (The Normal)	Based on a reference group or experience.	” In 1934, the O. Henry House was turned into a museum. Docents say that it is still occupied by the ghosts of a mother and son who lived there in the early 1900s after Porter and his family moved out.”
Premise Modifiers: Space	Making it feel close	“Staff members have made up the bed before leaving for the day, only to find the impression of an adult's body on the mattress when they return the next morning.”
Based on the structure of reality: Precedent	B won’t slippery slope, but it opens the door.	”For several days, his mother sat by the child's bedside in the front room, holding his hand. When her son finally died, she refused to release his dead hand for two days, until family members finally wrenched the boy's Austin • 31 corpse away from her. For weeks afterward the grieving woman continued lying on the bed where her son passed away.”
Establishing the structure of reality: Example (Single)	One event is an example	“Staff members have made up the bed before leaving for the day, only to find the impression of an adult's body on the mattress when they return the next morning.”

Ghost Story Fallacies

The O. Henry House

Hasty Generalization	A conclusion is drawn from too small a sample of evidence.	“Love, it seems, has the power to transcend even the bonds of death itself.”
Anecdotal Fallacy	A Hasty Generalization that relies on the availability heuristic (we generalize from vivid stories more readily).	“Staff members have made up the bed before leaving for the day, only to find the impression of an adult's body on the mattress when they return the next morning.”
Appeal to misleading authority	Using an authority to affirm a conclusion when the authority is not expert enough, in the context, to assure the conclusion.	” In 1934, the O. Henry House was turned into a museum. Docents say that it is still occupied by the ghosts of a mother and son who lived there in the early 1900s after Porter and his family moved out.”

Friday, February 17, 2023

Ghost Stories for Argument Project

This one will be different. You don't have to call a story in the comments. There are so many ghost stories in here that I'm not worried about the rick of repetition.

You can pick stories from one book or from multiple books. You can do only one (some are super long) or a few or a lot of them. Your job is to gather and analyze enough stories to figure out some kind of pattern and what that pattern means. So there's a lot of choices to be made.

1. Ghosts of North Texas https://books.google.com/books?id=0nCulT_kGVsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Mitchel+Whitington%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiLjZ_z1Zv9AhUfjIkEHT3ZBc8Q6AF6BAgHEAM

2. Big Book of Texas Ghost Stories https://books.google.com/books?id=hzKODwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3xYLv1Zv9AhUKlYkEHWgqCOQQ6AF6BAgIEAM

3. Ghosts of Bell County, Texas https://books.google.com/books?id=RoNoDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3xYLv1Zv9AhUKlYkEHWgqCOQQ6AF6BAgLEAM

4. Haunted Austin https://books.google.com/books?id=2vZ-CQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3xYLv1Zv9AhUKlYkEHWgqCOQQ6AF6BAgDEAM

5. Best Tales of Texas Ghosts. https://books.google.com/books?id=M9Y9hxn3Xk8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiD4bHo15v9AhUkkIkEHWl0AoQ4ChDoAXoECAYQAw

6. Ghosts along the Texas Coast. https://books.google.com/books?id=sheOz2Ww7oYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiD4bHo15v9AhUkkIkEHWl0AoQ4ChDoAXoECAUQAw

7. Haunted Plano. https://books.google.com/books?id=T4FoDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBn_6d2Jv9AhXBm2oFHa6TDzM4FBDoAXoECAIQAw

8. Haunted Restaurants. https://books.google.com/books?id=5gYUeBfb2msC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4g_vR2Jv9AhXCk2oFHUBFCUY4HhDoAXoECAkQAw

9. Ghosthunting Texas. https://books.google.com/books?id=Rtl1-dx5e6wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4g_vR2Jv9AhXCk2oFHUBFCUY4HhDoAXoECAIQAw

10. Texas Haunted Forts. https://books.google.com/books?id=BDA5XC2TZA8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO74K-2Zv9AhW9k2oFHVYtBcE4KBDoAXoECAQQAw

11. Haunted Old Town Spring. https://books.google.com/books?id=0s8wDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiCmOXt2Zv9AhUglGoFHQOwCsk4PBDoAXoECAgQAw

12. Ghost Hunting San Antonio. https://books.google.com/books?id=6OcsDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ghosts+texas&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4rYjH2pv9AhWllWoFHUQNDNc4ZBDoAXoECAkQAw