Writing Voice and Rhetorical Fallacies

Finding your writing voice is an ongoing process, a "journey without a destination."
Improvement comes with practice; the more you write, the better you become, and the more your voice develops.

Differentiate between:
- Your voice.
- Direct quotations (exact words from a source).
- Indirect quotations (paraphrases or summaries of others' ideas).
Color-coding can be a useful technique to visually distinguish these elements in your writing.
Mentally color-coding can also work.

Richard Vinson uses "propaganda" broadly to mean almost any form of persuasive communication.
Propaganda serves specific interests and often employs logical fallacies.

A list of logical fallacies can be found in the chapter, specifically after the subheading "The Donald J Trump era."
The chapter illustrates these fallacies using examples from Trump's 2016 campaign and early presidency.
Examples from Trump's communication style provide resources for understanding these abuses of communication.
Some strategies are logical fallacies (missteps in reasoning), while others are rhetorical strategies (e.g., appeal to ignorance, appeal to fear).

Choose two logical fallacies from the list that:
- You find interesting.
- You want to learn more about.
- Are relevant to your discipline.
Discuss these fallacies in your groups:
- How are they described in the chapter?
- Provide an example of each.
- How are these fallacies used in your discipline?

Whataboutism:
- Deflecting criticism by pointing out a worse offense by the accuser or someone else.
- A distraction method.
- Shifting the focus from the original issue to a different, often more extreme, issue.
Example: A politician asked about the legality of gay marriage responds by talking about crocodile attacks.