{"id":30946,"date":"2023-02-09T13:23:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T21:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30946"},"modified":"2023-02-09T13:24:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T21:24:00","slug":"i-have-two-questions-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/i-have-two-questions-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"I have Two Questions for You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting across the top of my desk are the first several books assigned to us for our program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

True Confessions: Since November, each time I read the title, \u201cHow to Read Numbers,\u201d my heart raced with excitement thinking it was a guide in reading the Old Testament book of Numbers! To be fair, the English title \u201cNumbers\u201d (Greek Arithmoi) is based on the presence of census returns in the first four chapters, so I was close! \u00a0It was only 10 days ago that I read the subtitle: A Guide to Stats in the News (And knowing when to trust them)<\/span>, that my excitement turned to dread, as many in our cohort have already lamented. From grade school until middle school, I loved math and even excelled on taking math tests. For some reason, once I entered high school, I literally could not do the math problems on my own after I took Geometry. \u00a0In graduate school, I was required to take statistics so I hired a tutor who did a wonderful job of explaining it to me; my brain froze when alone with the numbers. The unfortunate part of not succeeding in math for me was avoiding it at all costs. \u00a0In 2010, I experienced a turning point in my math journey. The middle school where all three of my daughters were attending offered me a teaching job, giving me a rare opportunity. \u00a0For three years, the four of us drove to school and back home together every day. \u00a0The only caveat? \u00a0I had to teach a math class.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 Something of a miracle transformed my confidence when I taught my students math. \u00a0Each lesson taught me how to explain the concepts of fractions, algebraic expressions, geometry, spatial sense, measurement, data analysis, and probability. Now I realize we weren\u2019t doing high level math, but reading and teaching, explaining and working out one math concept at a time provided me with a few moments of math success and understanding. For those of you who experienced \u201cmaths\u201d (as Chivers and Chivers call it), as difficult, disengaging, or intimidating, I felt a sense of camaraderie with you as I opened the book and started reading. \u00a0To my surprise, the authors did for us what teaching math to middle schoolers did for me: By the end of each chapter of How to Read Numbers<\/span><\/em>, I understood the problem and hopefully will know how to spot it in the future. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, I still have Questions as a Researcher and Writer When it Comes to Numbers:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Should I Avoid Persuasion?<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>The authors say directly up front, \u201cOur news increasingly comes in number form: police-reported crimes go up and down; a nation\u2019s economy shrinks and grows; the latest figures on deaths and cases from COVID-19 are released. \u00a0In order to understand the world around us, we may not need to be good at maths,\u00a0but we do need to understand how numbers are made, how they are used and how they can go wrong,<\/span>\u00a0because otherwise we\u2019ll make bad decisions, as individuals and as a society.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0No matter how good or not I am at understanding math, my goal as I communicate, research and study for a doctorate in global leadership is for me to embody and know the data so I can write and explain it. Is the challenge for me in using the supportive materials, data, and examples I find to create understanding by sharing objective, factual information to inform, not persuade? \u00a0I cannot tell you how difficult this is for me. \u00a0My natural proclivity is to persuade, to sell, to promote \u2013something or someone, otherwise, I don\u2019t find it all that interesting. \u00a0When reading the chapter on Statistical Significance, I laughed when I read if we measure enough things, and combine them in enough ways, or make small enough, reasonable-seeming adjustments to the data, then we could guarantee that we\u2019d find something just by coincidence (p.40).[2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 It reminds me of when my husband tries persuading me how the dairy in ice cream is actually nutritionally good for us as he starts quoting some random study that landed in his newsfeed! <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Can We Truly Avoid Fallacies in Our Reasoning?<\/span>.<\/strong> If I take anything from reading Chivers and Chivers along with Kathryn Schulz\u2019s book[3]<\/a><\/sup>, it is the challenge to be ultra aware of false logic or reasoning in my arguments. \u00a0As a public speaker and professor of communication, I have become overzealous in my awareness when speakers use their false reasoning skills when they are ill-prepared or uninformed. \u00a0Imagine all the turmoil that could have been avoided in our personal, political and professional aspects of our lives? Or imagine all the angst that would have been avoided had prosperity-Gospel or Patriarchal preachers had someone fact-checking every one of their sermons before delivering them? (I\u2019m so thankful for Kate Bowler\u2019s work in this area and I highly recommend her good research in her book, Blessed<\/span>).[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Just for my own review and our collective reminder, remember this list of the top ten fallacies or flaws in our logic?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Hasty Generalization: Inductive reasoning when too few examples are cited.<\/span><\/li>\n
      2. False Analogy: Inductive reasoning when situations compared are not similar.<\/span><\/li>\n
      3. False Cause: Causal reasoning when insufficient evidence\/one thing caused another.<\/span><\/li>\n
      4. False Authority: When a person making the argument doesn\u2019t have the knowledge but is perceived credible because they are respected.<\/span><\/li>\n
      5. Bandwagon: Arguing for a course of action because it is commonly done.<\/span><\/li>\n
      6. False Dilemma: When a speaker only offers two options.<\/span><\/li>\n
      7. Ad hominem: Attacking a person rather than an argument.<\/span><\/li>\n
      8. Slippery Slope: Arguing that one action will lead to a series of others.<\/span><\/li>\n
      9. Red herring: An argument that distracts from the argument at hand.<\/span><\/li>\n
      10. Appeal to Tradition: \u201cIt\u2019s the way things have been done before[5]<\/a><\/sup>.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Out of curiosity, which one of the above fallacies activates your inner critic the most? Or which fallacy do you tend to fall back on when crafting your argument?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        For me, it\u2019s False Cause or Causality from the book: I always want to know whether one thing causes another!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
        \n

        [1]<\/a>\u00a0Chivers, Tom, and David Chivers. <\/span>How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News<\/span>. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n<\/div>\n

        \n

        [2]<\/a>\u00a0Chivers, Tom, and David Chivers. <\/span>How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News<\/span>. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n<\/div>\n

        \n

        [3]<\/a>\u00a0Schulz, Kathryn. <\/span>Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error<\/span>. Illustrated edition. HarperCollins e-books, 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n<\/div>\n

        \n

        [4]<\/a>\u00a0Kate Bowler. \u201cBlessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel.\u201d Accessed February 9, 2023.<\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>https:\/\/katebowler.com\/books\/blessed-a-history-of-the-american-prosperity-gospel\/<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n<\/div>\n

        \n

        [5]<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Communication in the Real World v2.0 | Textbook | FlatWorld<\/span>, 2017.<\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Sitting across the top of my desk are the first several books assigned to us for our program. True Confessions: Since November, each time I read the title, \u201cHow to Read Numbers,\u201d my heart raced with excitement thinking it was a guide in reading the Old Testament book of Numbers! To be fair, the English […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2085],"class_list":["post-30946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-howtoreadnumbers","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30946"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30950,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30946\/revisions\/30950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}