Newsflash! Mature Reasoning is going extinct!

Citizens of the United States, you should be aware of an ongoing problem that has recently become a dire situation.  Mature reasoning as we know it (or don't) is becoming extinct.  It is of upmost importance at this desperate time to be on the lookout for mature reasoning and attempt to help it to flourish.  Unfortunately, it is unlikely that anyone will find it. And if you do, it is even more unlikely that anyone will recognize it.  Complicating our situation, sightings of mature reasoning are squelched by our society's drive for answers, money, politics, and convenience.

The textbook qualifications of mature reasoning attempt to describe it, but do little to really identify it.  According to "Aims of Argument" by Crusius and Channell, mature reasoners are "well-informed, open to criticism, argue with their audience in mind, and know their argument's context."  Mature reasoning utilizes rhetoric (the art of argumentation) as well as other strategies to inquire, convince, persuade, or mediate.  Although these goals may be quite different, the elements of mature reasoning are the same.

Personally, I think this gives a pretty dry synopsis of a deep topic like this. 

Mature reasoning can take many forms.  However, in order to be effective, it must be communicated in some way.  It must have elements of curiosity and the reasoner cannot be afraid to question accepted standards and methods.  It is not partisan, it is not bipartisan, it is logical and therefore does not need a label.  It is not an answer but a series of implied yet eloquent questions.  It is not a destination but the path to get there.  It is the right facts with the right explanation at the right time in the right place.  These elements are even more abstract and possibly vague than the textbook definition. But this is mature reasoning to me.  

I hope in my blog, I can utilize organization and facts to channel emotion and passion for what I am arguing.  I think this is the most useful and effective theory of argumentation.  I hope to avoid being hypocritical and use mature reasoning in my own argumentation and analysis of other's arguments. I will be very excited if I can accomplish this and apply it to scientific writing.  Scientific writing originally seems very different from argumentative writing but I hope to draw more parallels so I can apply what I am learning and practicing to more realms of academia.  

Here is a little information to consider.  Maybe this is why mature reasoning seems to be dwindling...http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSL/is_1_80/ai_n6113182/

Kaitlyn

An initiation, a beginning, a first step...

My name is Kaitlyn Patterson and I am currently a sophomore at the University of Michigan.  I am majoring in Movement Science in the School of Kinesiology and hope to attend medical school or some type of graduate school to study physiology.  I am originally from Cadillac, a small town in Northern Michigan. Cadillac was not named after the car, but Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the explorer that founded Detroit.  It is also hosts the North American Snowmobile Festival on frozen Lake Cadillac in February.  There, now Cadillac is on the map.

Now for what I do when I am not in class, doing homework, sleeping, or eating.  I am likely running.  I am a member of the Michigan Varsity Cross Country and Track teams and I run distance.  For those of you that are not familiar with running sports, women's college cross country entails racing a random distance (6k) on golf courses, random fields in Indiana, etc.  The distance events in track include the 1500, 3000, 5000, and 10000 meter.  Therefore, we run in circles, up hills, in loops, and even sometimes in squares during practice. I also firmly believe that you can get some places in Ann Arbor faster by running than by car.  And yes, I have been the recipient of calls of "Run Forrest, Run!"

Although school and running constitute a huge portion of my life at the time, I used to be a bit more well rounded.  I like to think that my "well-roundedness" is temporarily hibernating.  I am an avid, competitive cross country skier but this is unfortunately replaced with indoor track for the time being.  And by cross country skiing I do not mean plodding through the snow in too much clothing.  Flying through the woods in spandex is much more like it.

I also play the viola.  This has unfortunately taken a backseat to running since college, but I miss it a lot.  I played in multiple orchestras in high school and attended Interlochen for the All-State program three summers.  My viola more than anything makes me wish that time were not a limiting factor in life.

I have several hopes for this blog.  I hope it can help prevent me from becoming a robot from all the science classes I am taking.  I hope it can help me to synthesize the immense amounts of information that I am trying to process in short periods of time.   I hope it can help me to organize and present some of the research that I am doing regarding elite female athletes and iron regulation. I hope it can help me share my unique perspectives on the university and life in general.  And finally, I hope that if anybody decides to read my blog, they find it at least moderately informative and engaging.

Now for identifying a potential audience.  It is difficult to come up with reasons for people to read my blog right now because it is still somewhat of a foreign concept to me and I'm not sure what this will evolve into.  A few reasons are an interest in endurance sports, physiology, or the intriguing relationship between athletics and academia in the college environment.  An appreciation for subtle sarcasm is also appreciated.

Well, here's to the initiation of a newbie blogger, the beginning of we"b log", and the first step of an intriguing journey.

Kaitlyn