logical fallacies

ad hominem attacks

attacking a person’s character instead of their argument

name calling

attacking a person directly by calling them names, used frequently in political campaigns

bandwagon appeal

tries to persuade the reader to think, do, or buy something because it is popular or “everyone” is doing it

red herring

is an attempt to distract the reader with details not relevant to the argument (changing the subject…)

glittering generalities

aka “loaded language” tries to persuade the reader by using keywords or buzzwords that are important to the audience, uses loaded language to send the persuasive message

scapegoating

shifts blame away from a government entity or leader, and on to someone else, a person or group of people made to bear the blame

ad nauseam

tireless repetition of an idea, repetition of a single argument to the exclusion of everything else

sweeping generalizations

aka “hasty generalizations”, makes an oversimplified statement, or comes to a conclusion based on very little evidence or reason, also when someone applies a belief about a narrow topic to a larger population

card stacking

only revealing overwhelmingly positive information about a product or idea, without mentioning any negatives, manipulating the facts to make it look better than others

either/or fallacy

only two options are presented, and one is obviously wrong, when more options are available, but not acknowledged, aka “false dilemma”

slippery slope

this implies that the end result of today’s actions could lead to something terrible/tragic

straw man fallacy

this takes an argument the author disagrees with and mischaracterizes it on purpose so it looks weak or extreme, making the author’s side appear more reasonable

circular reasoning

aka “begging the question”, an argument that comes back to its beginning without having proven anything, leans on an argument that may not be true in the first place

non sequitur fallacy

refers to any claim that doesn’t follow from its premises or is supported by irrelevant premises, a conclusion that does not follow logically from its premise

post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy

the assumption that because one event preceded another, they must be casually related, in other words, A caused B

rtheoric

the ability to speak and write (persuade) using the four ethos, logos, kairos, and pathos

plain folks appeal

using everyday people to promote a product, for relatability

testimonials fallacy

inserting an endorsement of the argument by someone who is popular or respected but who lacks expertise or authority in the area under discussion

guilt by assosiatoin

a false correlation between two events (ex: 9/11 and Sandy Hook)

parallelism

repetition of the same pattern of words/phrases and grammatical structure within a sentence or passage to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance; may create a sense of rhythm and movement (all parallelism is repetition, but not all repetition is parallelism)

analogy

a comparison in which the subject is compared point by point ot something far different, usually with the idea of clarifying the subject by comparing it to something familiar

concessions and refutations

restatements of arguments made by the other side (concessions) and the writer’s arguments against those opposing viewpoints (refutations) + why the writer’s arguments are more valid

support

the reasoning behind the argument, can be logos, pathos, etc.

summary/call to action

closing statement with a final plea for action

faulty cause/effect

ex: we’ve been in business for 50 years, which is why we’re the best!

false needs fallacy

ex: if parents want intelligent children, they must buy our book!