Rhetorical Fallacies

AP LANG TERMS

Scare Tactics

exaggerating danger to scare people

Either or

presenting only two choices when other exists: ignoring alternatives

Slippery Slope

Portray a point into a disaster through a flawed line of reasoning

Sentimental Appeals

Appeal to emotions excessively to distract or make you feel guilty

Bandwagon appeals

based upon following same path everyone else is taking

False Authority

draw on authority from unreputable sources

Dogmatism

a position is the only acceptable one or no rational person would disagree

Ad Hominem

attacking your opposing viewpoints character rather than argument

Hasty generalization

inference drawn from insufficient evidence

Faulty Causality

Unreasonable thinking that one event causes another

Begging the question

on grounds that cannot be true

Equivocation

gives a lies on honest appearance: half truth

Non Sequitur

claims, reasons, warrants fail to connect: example you don’t love me or you would buy me a puppy.

Straw man

attack on an argument that really isn’t there fails to address the claim

Faulty analogy

false on their own to taken to far: example compares invading a country to invading them all.