English fallacies and literary devices

Ethical Fallacies

unreasonably advance the writer’s own authority or character

Emotional fallacies

unfairly manipulate the audience’s emotions

Logical Fallacies

depend on faulty logic

Ad hominem (character attack)

ethical fallacy- arguments that attack a person’s character rather than their reasoning/argument

Either/Or choices

emotional fallacy- requiring the audience to choose between two interpretations or actions when in fact there are numerous choices (also known as false dilemma)

Hasty generalization

Logical Fallacy- draws conclusions from minimal evidence; leaps to include all instances when at best only some instances provide any evidence (can be stereotypes)

Red Herring

Logical Fallacy- When a speaker presents an irrelevant piece of information in an attempt to distract their opponent (& audience) from the topic at hand, so that the discussion shifts in another direction.

Anaphora

the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive sentences

Asyndeton

Absence of conjunctions between sentences (and, for,nor,but,or,yet,so).

Epistrophe

The repetition of words at the end of phrases or clauses

Tricolon

succession of 3 coordinate items

Allusion

A brief and indirect to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural,literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers.