Business English: Murray’s Lesson 1 Spring 2015 Teacher: Murray Sherk msherk@ustc.edu.cn.

Business English:Murray’s Lesson 1

Spring 2015Teacher: Murray Sherkmsherk@ustc.edu.cn

Lesson 1 Outline

• Picture Cards• Convincing stories• Argument strategies• Logical fallacies• St. Patrick’s Day!

Front• Chinese name• PinYin Name (with tone

marks)

• English Name

• Student#• Email address that you

check each day

• Your hometown (where you grew up)

• Fill in the blank with a few words about yourself: “A very interesting thing about me is _____________ ___________________________.”

Back

If you want, you can leave the English name blank and I will choose a name for you, but please indicate if you are (M)ale or (F)emale.

• What do you see in this picture?• Describe it

carefully.• What is a

likely story explaining what is going on in the photo.• Who? Why?

When?

• What more do you see now?• Does

your first story still make sense?

• Now?• Story still OK?

Class Discussion: Being Convincing• What are some good ways to convince people that

things are true?• How did you try to convince people that your story

was true?• How did you try to find holes in the other stories?

Formal Arguments

Argument = [Claim that something should be believed or done]

+ [Reasons supporting the claim]

Strategies for Arguments• “Argument” =

“claim” + “reasons and evidence”

• Is the claim clear?• Are these good reasons to accept the claim?• Is there enough evidence to accept the claim (in the

time you have)?

Strategies for Arguments• Logic & Reason• objective facts plus logical thinking

• Character & Credentials• “I’m honest – I’m telling the truth”• “I know what I’m talking about”• “They are honest and can speak with authority, and they

believe this”• Partly subjective, but “expert opinion”

• Emotion• fear, love, respect, loyalty, patriotism…

Claim: “You should practice some English “th” sounds every day.”• Emotion• “Do it or you will fail - your English will not be good enough

for international management/business!”• “Do it and you’ll get a high mark in this course to make your

mother proud of you.”

Practice “th” every day• Emotion• “Do it or you will fail”

• Character & Credentials• “Native English speakers who have taught thousands of

Chinese students just like you, say this practice is vital.”• “Chinese students with great English spend a lot of time

practicing like this.”

Practice “th” every day• Emotion• “Do it or you will fail!”

• Character & Credentials• “Native English speakers say…”

• Logic & Reason• “th” sounds are not part of Chinese• Chinese face muscles and tongue are not used to doing the

right thing for “th”• muscles learn by repetition over time

Sometimes the strategies overlap• C&C can be stronger combined with L&R• “He saw a tiger on East Campus” but one person is easily

wrong, crazy, or lying• “200 students saw a tiger on East Campus” is much more

convincing. • The witness of many people logically gives stronger evidence

than just one such person

• L&R is usually weakened by inserting opinion (C&C).“This fact proves this claim”

is much better than“I believe this fact proves this claim”

Arguments: Scientific vs. BusinessScientific: • Use L&R for 90% or more of evidence• C&C and Emotion can be used to motivate, but are

considered very weakBusiness: Depends on the context but…• L&R still best (How will this lead to the “bottom line”?)• C&C (e.g. reputation of company) can be strong• Emotion can be used to get attention

• Never use “Proof by intimidation”• “Believe it!” (because I say so)• “If you don’t believe it you’re stupid”• “As we all know…” (Dajia zhidao?)

Argument Strategy Exercise• Working with your partner, figure out how to use all 3

strategies to argue that the following claim is true:

Claim: “Intelligent beings from outer space have visited Earth.”

(Please use only English in your discussion)

Some Possible L&R Arguments• “Mysteries like how ancient people build huge things

like Egyptian pyramids – easy to solve if helped by advanced aliens.”• “So many planets in Universe implies so many aliens

that it’s likely one visited.”• Bad math actually• “It’s easy to get a girlfriend at USTC because there are

3,000 girls here” • ignores 12,000 boys competing for the girls and

compatibility issues.

Some Possible C&C Arguments

• “Governments of many major nations have seriously investigated UFO sightings and cannot explain them all as false.”

• “In the past 100 years thousands of people around the world have reported seeing UFOs or aliens.”

Some Possible Emotion Arguments• “Aliens advanced enough for space flight must be

scientifically ahead of us. We must prepare to defend ourselves! (i.e. at least behave like we believe they exist)”

• “If they’ve visited, then they’re technologically superior and have not destroyed us. Maybe they’re helping us develop like parents guiding children.”

Logical Fallacies(those on the handout)(There are many more than these, but we’ll focus on these.)• Hasty generalization• Missing the point• Post hoc = False cause• Slippery slope• Weak analogy• Appeal to authority ~ who

believes it• Ad populum (majority rules)

~# that believe it

• Ad hominem ~ type of person who believes it• Appeal to pity• Appeal to ignorance• Straw man• Red herring• False dichotomy• Begging the question• Equivocation

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Let’s look at logical fallacies trying to support this

claim.• Remember: These examples are BAD arguments.

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “hasty generalization”• “Western people working in China often make this much,

even people with less experience than Murray.”

• Why is this wrong?

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “missing the point”

• “Murray is a valuable member of the USTC teaching community, and USTC should reward those who contribute to its success.”• “In Canada, Murray could make much more money as a

computer scientist than he does here at USTC.”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “post hoc” (also called “false cause”)

• “Murray has been at USTC for 15 years since 1991, and since he came here, USTC’s research results and international reputation have grown tremendously.”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “slippery slope”

• “If we don’t pay Murray enough, he will leave USTC and tell others it is a bad place. Then we will not be able to get any good foreign teachers here and the students’ English education will fail. Soon no USTC student will have good enough English to be an international scholar.”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “weak analogy”

• “People will pay almost anything to stay alive when they have an illness. Ignorance of English can kill a student’s academic life, so how can we complain about paying Murray a high salary?”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “appeal to authority”

• “Murray’s father, who was a principal at the University of Toronto, says Murray is worth this much.”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “ad populum”

• “Almost all of Murray’s former students view Murray as a treasure. The USTC authorities have invited him back year after year. Everybody likes him, so let’s do whatever it takes to get him to stay!”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “ad hominem”

• “The Chinese people who claim foreign teachers are paid too much are the stupid ones who failed English and they’re just bitter. Why should we believe people who will never amount to anything?”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “appeal to pity”

• “Murray’s daughter Emily just started college, so Murray’s family will be needing a lot of money for her education. Should Murray’s daughter’s education suffer because he is teaching at USTC when he could be making more money in Canada?”

Is “appeal to pity” always fallacious?• Isn’t that using the argument strategy of “emotion” which is

at least somewhat acceptable?• Pity alone is not enough.

• “Buy my product because otherwise I’ll get fired.”

• Could be strengthened by logic. • “My new company needs sales, so it will do a lot to make and keep

you as a customer. You’ll be doing us and yourself a favor.”

• Many fallacious arguments have a grain of truth in them, but if that grain is all you’ve got then you’re in trouble.

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “appeal to ignorance”

• “Can you imagine how much Murray could make if he were working as a computer scientist in Canada? $200,000 per year might be average for someone of his experience and talents.”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “straw man”

• “If you don’t want to pay foreign teachers a good salary for working at USTC then what sort of teachers do you think you are going to get? We cannot pay teachers 1% of what they’d make in their home countries and expect them to do good work here in China.”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “red herring”

• “Dedicated teachers put their hearts into educating their students. It takes time, talent, experience, and energy. Murray deserves this salary.”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “false dichotomy”

• “We can pay Murray this much or we can watch him walk away from USTC next year. Which do you want?”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “begging the question”

• “Murray should get this salary because good teachers deserve to be paid what they are worth to the school, and Murray is worth it.”

Claim: Murray’s salary at USTC should be US$200,000 per year• Using “equivocation”

• “One of the basic rights of any worker is ‘Fair pay for good work’. Any lower salary would be wrong, not right.”

• “Having Murray teaching at USTC is better than nothing, and nothing is better than USTC having all the money it needs. Therefore, logic says that having Murray teaching here is better than USTC having all the money it needs.”

“The moral of the story is…”• Presentations in business are arguments.• Your arguments must be sensible and avoid

fallacious reasoning.

Homework• Consider the claim that I should give you a grade of

95% in this course.• Claim: “I, <your name>, should get 95% in this course.”

• Email to me (msherk@ustc.edu.cn) before next class a document (.txt or .doc or .docx) with 15 fallacious arguments for that claim, one for each of the 15 logical fallacies on today’s handout.• For each argument, tell me the name of the fallacy but

you do NOT have to explain why it is a fallacy.• Please list them in the order that they are on the

handout.• At the top of your document, make sure you have your

English name and student#.