The Language of Composition Ch. 3 Fallacies

Ad Hominem

"To the man"... refers to the specific diversionary tactic of switching the argument from the issue at hand to the character of the other speaker

Ad Populum (Bandwagon)

Everybody's doing it so it must be a good thing to do

Appeal to false authority

When someone who has no expertise to speak on an issue is cited as an authority

Circular reasoning

a fallacy in which the writer repeats the claim as a way to provide evidence

either/or (false dilemma)

a fallacy in which the speaker presents two extreme options as the only possible choices

Faulty analogy

A fallacy that occurs when an analogy compares two things that are not comparable.

Hasty generalization

a fallacy in which a faulty conclusion is reached because of inadequate evidence

Logical fallacy

potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses in an argument that often arise from a failure to make a logical connection between the claim and the evidence

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

"After which therefore because of which"... meaning that is incorrect to always claim that something is a cause just because it happened earlier

Straw man

Occurs when a speaker chooses a deliberately poor or oversimplified example in order to ridicule and refute an idea

Red herring fallacy

An attempt to redirect a conversation away from its original topic. A red herring is used by introducing an irrelevant piece of information that distracts the reader or listener.