AP Lang Rhetorical Fallacies Final

Scare tactics

 Using fear to force agreement

 Example: claim that immigration will destroy jobs and cause chaos

Either-or choices

Reducing complex issues to two options

Example: “Come with us for Thanksgiving or be alone and miserable”

 Slippery slope

Arguing one small action will lead to extreme negative outcomes

Example: allowing assisted suicide will lead to legalizing murder

Sentimental appeals

Using excessive emotion to distract from facts

Example: ads showing cute baby animals to guilt people into donating

Bandwagon appeals

Urging people to follow what “everyone else” is doing

Example: “Many Americans are doing this so you should too”

 Appeals to false authority

Using unqualified sources as evidence

Example: “It’s true because my mom says so”

Dogmatism

Claiming one position is the only acceptable view

Example: implying disagreement is immoral

Ad hominem

Attacking a person instead of the argument

Example: calling someone stupid rather than addressing their point

Hasty generalization

Making a claim from too little evidence

Example: one comment by a Google executive “proves” the whole company is anti-American

Faulty causality

Assuming that because one event follows another, the first caused the second

Example: blaming a beer ad for someone’s drunk-driving accident

Begging the question

 Using the claim itself as evidence

Example: “He’s honest because he wouldn’t lie”

Equivocation

Using ambiguous wording to mislead

Example: saying you “wrote” an essay yourself when it was plagiarized

Non sequitur

A conclusion that doesn’t logically follow from the reasons

Example: defending steroid use accusations by praising your teammates

Straw man

Misrepresenting someone’s argument so it’s easier to attack

Example: turning a nuanced policy into an extreme version and arguing against that

Faulty analogy

Comparing things that aren’t truly comparable

Example: comparing using condoms to cheating on a test