Build an Argument
This is the main point a speaker wants the audience to accept.
"Ignore his academic proposal - he failed basic algebra" commits this fallacy.
What is ad hominem?
A company shows only glowing reviews for its product and hides the negative ones, using this selective evidence trick.
what is cherry-picking?
what is cross-examination?
An animal shelter uses sad music and imagery, utilizing this persuasive appeal, to convince people to donate money to their organization.
what is pathos?
Facts, examples, and study results can serve as this support for a claim.
What is evidence?
what is a red herring?
A company has a bar graph to show that its car surpasses all others in reliability. By starting the vertical axis at 95%, the graph uses this trick to make the difference between 96% and 98% seem misleadingly large.
what is a truncated axis?
This practice fairly presents the strongest reasonable version of an opponent's argument.
what is steel-manning?
A surgeon, relying on this rhetorical appeal, emphasizes his years of experience and his impressive credentials in order to convince a reluctant patient to have a certain procedure.
what is ethos?
"The playground equipment should be fixed. Broken playground equipment is inherently dangerous for children." The second sentence provides this part of the CREW argument.
what is the reason?
"Either we allow pets in every classroom or we never have any animals allowed in the school at all" commits this fallacy.
what is a false dilemma?
A researcher surveys 100 people leaving a local gym about how often they work out. He then goes on to claim that "the average person in this city works out 5 to 6 times a week," forgetting that he has committed this evidentiary flaw.
what is selection bias?
This note-taking method tracks the arguments made in a debate and the responses to them.
what is flowing?
what is logos?
This part of the argument is the bridge that explains why your evidence supports your claim and why the link holds true.
what is the warrant?
"If we let students choose what to read, then they'll choose nothing but comic books and then eventually they'll tire of those and choose comic strips and eventually they'll stop reading altogether" commits this fallacy with a predicted chain of catastrophic events.
what is a slippery slope?
"Ice cream sales and drownings both rise in the summer; therefore, ice cream is a leading cause of drowning" makes this terrible evidentiary mistake.
what is correlation does not equal causation?
In this component of the debate, you attack your opponent's argument by showing a weakness in its reasoning or support.
what is refutation?
The doctor relies on these persuasive appeals when he says, "As a neurosurgeon with over 30 years experience, I always advise my patients to wear helmets. Imagine the heartbreak of a family in the waiting room, weeping over the horrible head injury their loved one suffered."
what are ethos and pathos?
In a CREW argument, while evidence provides statistical proof, this component comes before the proof to explain why the claim is logically sound.
what is the reason?
An debater proposes limiting music in the library's quiet zone. His opponent commits this fallacy and redescribes the argument as "wanting to ban music everywhere."
what is a straw man?
A brochure, committing this evidence trick, claims that, "the average salary at this company is $97,500!" Of the twenty member workforce of the company, 19 employees make $50,000/year and the CEO makes $1,000,000.
what is a misleading average?
This speech responds to opposing arguments and rebuilds your argument after your opponent's attack.
what is rebuttal?
The doctor decides to try these persuasive appeals and says, "the Highway Safety Administration data shows that helmets reduce fatal head injuries by 75%. If you have any concern for your family's feelings, then you'll wear a helmet to spare them the pain of watching a loved one die."
what are logos and pathos?