Rhetoric deivices

Fallacy

An argument that may sound logical, but is not true or logical. Example: “He must be right because he sounds confident.”

Ethos

Appeal to ethics/credibility; asks the audience to trust the speaker or writer. Example: “As a doctor with 20 years of experience, I recommend this.”

Logos

Rational appeal using reasoning, logic, and evidence. Example: “This car gets 40 miles per gallon, so it will save you money on gas.”

Pathos

Emotional appeal using beliefs, values, or feelings. Example: “Imagine how scared and alone that child must feel.”

Personal attack / ad hominem

Attacking the speaker rather than the argument. Example: “Don’t listen to Maya’s idea; she got an F in science.”

False dilemma / false binary

Presents only two options while ignoring other possibilities. Example: “Either you study every night or you will completely fail.”

Slippery slope

Claims one event will lead to a chain of increasingly unreasonable results. Example: “If you miss one assignment, you’ll fail, never graduate, and never get a job.”

Scapegoating

Unfairly blames a person or group for a problem they did not cause. Example: “Those immigrants are the reason our town’s economy is struggling.”

Argument from Authority

Says a claim should be accepted because a respected person says it, even if they may not relate to the topic. Example: “A famous doctor says it, so it must be true.”

Tu quoque (you too)

Rejects an argument by pointing out that the person making it does not follow their own advice. Example: “You say I shouldn’t eat junk food, but you eat it all the time.”

Straw man

Attacks a distorted version of someone’s argument. Example: “The teacher wants more handwriting, so she must hate technology.”

Moving the goalposts

Keeps creating new standards before a statement is accepted. Example: “You got an A, but do three more assignments before I’ll give you an A.”

Anecdotal fallacy

Uses a personal experience or isolated example instead of strong evidence. Example: “My grandfather smoked for 80 years and lived to 100, so smoking isn’t harmful.”

Middle ground

Assumes the truth must be between two extreme positions. Example: “One says elephants can fly and one says they can’t, so some probably can.”

Hasty Generalization

Makes a broad conclusion from too little evidence. Example: “Two dogs barked at me, so all dogs are aggressive.”

False Analogy

Compares two things that seem alike but do not have enough in common. Example: “A cloud and a watermelon are mostly water, so a plane can fly through a watermelon.”

Begging the Question

Assumes the very point it is trying to prove. Example: “I am perfect because I never make mistakes, and I know I never make mistakes because I am perfect.”

Red Herring

Brings in an unrelated issue to distract from the real issue. Example: “We shouldn’t have uniforms because our school has high test scores.”

Association / Guilty by Association

Discredits an idea or person by associating them with an undesirable person or group. Example: “Joe can’t be trusted because his brother was charged with shoplifting.”

Bandwagon

Encourages people to follow the crowd. Example: “Everyone else is buying this phone. Don’t you want one too?”

Appeal to Ignorance

Claims something is true because it has not been proved false, or false because it has not been proved true. Example: “No one has proved aliens don’t exist, so they must exist.”

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant letters. Example: “Peter Piper picked a peck of peppers.”

Direct Address

Calling the audience “you” using a name or nickname. Example: “Friends, we must stand together.”

Hyperbole

Extreme exaggeration. Example: “I’ve told you a million times to clean your room.”

Allusion

An indirect or passing reference to something or someone famous. Example: “He met his Waterloo in the championship game.”

Expletive

A single word or phrase that interrupts the normal flow of speech. Example: “In fact, we have already finished.”

Polysyndeton

Excessive use of conjunctions. Example: “We laughed and talked and played and danced.”

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunctions. Example: “We laughed, talked, played, danced.”

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. Example: “We will work. We will fight. We will win.”

Tricolon

A group of three similar phrases, words, clauses, or sentences parallel in structure. Example: “Reduce, reuse, recycle.”

Rhetorical Question

A question posed without expecting a verbal response. Example: “Who doesn’t want to succeed?”

Hypophora

The speaker poses a question and then answers it. Example: “What can we do? We can start by helping our community.”

Anadiplosis

Repetition of the last word in one phrase or clause at the beginning of the next. Example: “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate.”

Litotes

An ironic statement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary. Example: “That test was not easy.”

Epistrophe

Repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses or sentences. Example: “I want justice; they demand justice; we all deserve justice.”