rhetorical appeals, devices, and fallacies

pathos

appeal to emotion

ethos

appeal to credibility

logos

appeal to logic

mythos

appeal to beliefs

kairos

saying the right thing at the right time

topos

appeal to theme

adages

short well known sayings with general truth

allegories

art forms symbolizing morals or political beliefs/events

allusions

indirect references

amplification

building on one word over and over again

analogies

literal comparisons of two things for clarification

anaphoras

when you repeat something at the start of a clause, phrase, or sentence

anecdotes

personal short stories

antanagoge

when a clause or sentence sets up another clause or sentence that goes against the first

antithesis

physically contrasting two things by putting them next to each other

assonance

repetition of vowel sounds

chiasmus

when words are said in one order but then reversed to complete a thought and/or change the meaning

chremamorphism

giving a human non-human qualities

consonance

repetition of vowel sounds

didactic

something that has a purpose of teaching

double entendre

word or phrase with two meanings

disphemisms

replacing positives/neutrals with negatives

euphemisms

replacing negatives with positives/neutrals

hypophoras

when speakers ask the audience a question and then immediately answer it themselves

idioms

commonly used phrases that make no sense but are generally understood

irony; dramatic

when the audience knows something the characters don’t

irony; situational

when the outcome of a situation is antithetical to expectations

irony; verbal

sarcasm

juxtaposition

physically comparing two things

litote

affirming something by negating the opposite

metonymy

describing something by using something associated with it

synecdoche

using a part of something to describe the whole

oxymoron

two words that directly contradict one another

paradox

self-contradicting statements

paraprosdokians

sentences with endings that recontextualize everything that came before

symbolism

when one thing represents something else

syllogisms

logical progressions of multiple ideas like “if a=b and b=c then a=c“

syntax

how you structure a sentence

tautology

saying the same thing twice in two different ways but meaning the same thing

ad hominem

attacking a person instead of their argument

argument to the people

when someone says we should keep doing something because it’s always been that way

argument to authority

when you keep a status quo because someone enforces it, no matter the reason

bandwagoning

using popularity as a form of reasoning, or saying everyone does it as justification

begging the claim

using your claim as evidence to support your claim, or saying the same argument. ina different way

cardstacking

only presenting the positives of an argument

causation not correlation

when two things happen but you try to say one caused the other, mistaking them for being connected by cause and effect

common man

when a speaker tries to relate to their audience by trying to seem like one of them

complex question

trap question/question made to have no answer

demagogue

speaker who relies heavily on fallacies

dogmatism

when you treat a belief as being true to allow for only one possible outcome

false authority

relying too heavily on one source of evidence; hammering the claim

flagwaving

appeal to patriotism/nationalism as your argument

genetic fallacy

making your stance on an argument based on who it comes from

glittering generalities

only using words with positive connotation

hasty generalization

making a conclusion without proper evidence

moral equivalence

trying to justify your actions by relating them to unrelated actions

no true scotsman

leveraging identity as means of persuasion

namecalling

only showing the negatives of an argument

nonsequitor

a jump in an argument with no connection to the prior argument

strawman argument

making a tangential argument

slippery slope

creating an illogical scenario through hypotheticals