English Vocab

Appeal to Fear

Scare tactics, alarmist warnings, drastically over-emphasizing the probability of a terrible outcome

personal attack, or ad hominem

attacking the speaker rather than the argument, also known as “kill the messenger”

false dilemma (or black and white thinking)

presents an argument with only two options (often where one option is appealing and the other is false and unreasonable), ignoring the full range of options

slippery slope

a valid cause that will lead to more and more unreasonable results, incorrectly linking events that may never exist or occur

non sequitur

“it doesn’t follow”; no logical relationship between two points

argument from athority

we should accept a claim because a respected person says it

tu quoque (you too)

claiming the argument is flawed by pointing out that the one making the argument is not acting consistently with the claims of the argument

straw man

attacks a distorted version of the argument (one that is easy to defeat)

moving the goalposts

arbitrarily setting new standards that must be met to render a statement

anecdotal fallacy

using personal experience or an isolated example instead of a sound argument or compelling evidence

middle ground

claim that a compromise, or a middle point, between two extremes must be the truth

ethos

showing credibility to make people believe something

logos

using logic to convince someone of a point

pathos

using emotion to make someone feel sympathy or fear about a certain thing

repitition

repeated word or phrase

hyperbole

exaggeration

allusion

an indirect or passing reference

anaphora

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

tricolon

a group of three similar phrases, words, clauses or sentances

question

sentence order expressed so as to elicit information

hypophora

a figure of speech in which the speaker poses a question and then answers the question

anadiplosis

repetition of a prominent and usually the last word in one phrase or clause at the beginning of the next

litotes

ironic statement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary

epistrophe

the repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences