TFY Ch. 8 Mind Map

TFY Ch. 8 Summary - Viewpoints

This chapter is about differing viewpoints and importance of being able to see from someone else’s viewpoint. Viewpoint is defined as one’s perspective, or attitude and the circumstances that create such an attitude. There are many different type of viewpoints. Some of them are political, national, ethnic, religious, occupational, and socioeconomic just to name a few. Some viewpoints may be unconscious. Some examples of this are egocentrism, ethnocentrism and religiocentrism. In the world we live in today, it is important to recognize viewpoints, especially political viewpoints. There is a left to right political spectrum that one should be aware of. Left means liberal and right means conservative. Viewpoints can be hidden in newspapers by how the editor frames the information. This is appropriately called News Framing. It is how the editor uses layout, placement, and headlines to sensationalize, exaggerate, downplay or convey importance. This, as the chapter states, can have a hidden influence on the reader. The chapter also touches on the importance of getting ones news from a variety of sources and not just from corporate U.S media. I personally would like to stress this point. I watch a lot of news and read a lot and I find that there truly is not a wide range of opinions and viewpoints that are reflected, especially when it comes to global issues and many domestic issues as well. My personal opinion is that the corporate news media’s actual goal is to keep you as uninformed as possible without making you realize that. I find the internet a good way to get around this and foreign media as well. People should not be blind to the fact that other people’s viewpoints exist for a reason. You should be able to step out of your own viewpoint and step into another by understanding the circumstances that lead to that perspective. Not being able to do so allows people and nations to be oblivious to the rest of the world. That kind of narrow thinking is the seed that eventually leads to totalitarian states who’s masses believe they are always right and others are always wrong.

CRCB Ch. 4 Mind Map

CRCB Ch. 4 Summary - Managing your Reading Time

Chapter four is about managing how we read and how to become an efficient reader. Efficient reading is defined as being able to read and comprehend textbook material in an appropriate amount of time for you. Knowing reading averages is helpful when figuring if your own reading rate is up to par or not by comparing it to your actual reading average rate. To get your reading rates, you must track your reading, preferably for two weeks. You must track the number of pages read for each hour. By knowing these, you can become a more efficient reader. There are some different kinds of reading and these all can help you become an efficient reader. Speed reading is basically just that. Reading fast by visually grouping words and reading in chunks. The goal of speed reading isn’t for better comprehension but just to get the reading done as fast as possible. Critical reading is kind of the opposite of Speed reading. In Critical Reading, one must read slower to give yourself time to think about what you just read and fully understand it. Skimming is reading only some of the words on the page to get an idea of what in general is being discussed. Rereading is to reread a sentence to better understand it. Regressing is to reread an entire paragraph or page to better understand it. To become a better reader, one should develop a daily reading plan. This is a prioritized list of what you need to read on any day for your classes. You should do the harder subjects first and end with the easier ones. When I read, I find that regressing helps. If I do not understand what I read, I like to reread the entire page again and I find that that can be really helpful.

TFY Ch. 7 Mind Map

TFY Ch. 7 Summary - Evaluations

This chapter is about evaluations and how people come to them and what purpose they serve. The word evaluate comes from the Latin “ex”, from, and “valere”, to be strong, to be of value. So evaluate means to appraise the value of something. To determine it’s worth. People are evaluating all of the time, even when they don’t realize they are. A good example from the chapter was if a person grabs you and throws you down, your snap judgement would be that that person is trying to rob you. But a few seconds later you realize he just saved you from being hit by a car. Then of course you realize that person isn’t a hoodlum. This is an example of a premature evaluation and we do it all of the time. Something else to realize is that evaluations are not facts. They are another variety of an opinion. We must also realize that expectations and emotions affect our evaluations. Skilled evaluations are evaluations made by an expert in a field and they can be important and sought after. A doctor may give an evaluation on someone’s injury at a trial. A person may get an evaluation from an attorney regarding a legal matter. People must evaluate for themselves and not let someone else or something else do their thinking for them. That is what propaganda does. Propaganda is the manipulation of public opinion through use of images, slogans and symbols for the benefit of the propagator, which a lot of times is the individuals in power. To be an effective critical thinker, you must recognize propaganda when you see it and always think for yourself.

CRCB Ch. 9 Mind Map