Unit 4: Rhetorical Fallacies

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21 Terms

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rhetorical fallacy
is basically faulty reasoning leading to a conclusion the advertiser, author, or speaker wants you to make.
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Emphasizing the Person
the evidence focuses on the person who supports a conclusion, not on the merits of the conclusion itself.
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Ad Populum or “bandwagon”
A certain political candidate is ahead in the polls.
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Argument from Authority
This rhetorical fallacy focuses solely on the credentials or fame of the person recommending the product, without saying anything about the product itself.
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Ad Hominem
This rhetorical fallacy turns to the other side of the coin and points out negative characteristics of the person who promotes an idea or action.
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Dogmatism
The conclusion must be correct because the author or speaker says it is and she can’t possibly be wrong.
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Equivocation
This type of fallacy leaves out facts that a reader or listener would need in order to make a thorough assessment of the conclusion.
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Sentimental Appeals
Charities often use this tactic when they ask for donations.
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Slippery Slope
According to this rhetorical fallacy, if you eat at a fast-food takeout once, pretty soon you’ll never want to eat healthy, nourishing home-cooked meals again.
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Scare Tactics
Here the speaker or author is trying to frighten you into agreeing with him.
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Red Herring
Instead of addressing the key issues of an opposing argument, a red herring fallacy focuses attention on an insignificant or irrelevant factor.
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Straw Man
The writer creates a straw man—something that’s easy to knock down and tear apart—as the opposing viewpoint.
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Faulty analogy
One thing is compared with a second thing, but the comparison is exaggerated or misleading or unreasonable.
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Faulty causality
(also called Post hoc ergo propter hoc): This type of fallacy assumes that because one event happened shortly before another, the first event must have caused the second.
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Begging the Question
In this rhetorical fallacy, an assumption which is not proven is used as evidence that the conclusion is correct.
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Circular Argument
This fallacy says essentially the same thing in both the conclusion and in the evidence that allegedly supports it.
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Missing the point
The author offers evidence that supports a conclusion—it’s just not the same conclusion that the author reaches.
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Non Sequitur
This Latin term means, “it doesn’t follow.”
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False Dichotomy
This rhetorical fallacy assumes a black-and-white world in which there is no middle ground, no other alternative.
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Hasty Generalization
Here the author or speaker assumes that a limited experience foreshadows the entire experience.
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Non-testable hypothesis
In this rhetorical fallacy, anything that has not been proven false is assumed to be true; the author doesn’t need to prove it’s true.