Logical Fallacies
What is a logical fallacy?
Potential weaknesses or vulnerabilities in an argument.
A question not answered by the writer because its answer is obvious or obviously desired, and usually just a yes or no. It is used for effect, emphasis, or provocation, or for drawing a conclusionary statement from the facts at hand.
Rhetorical Question
Arranged in order of climax; withholds important or critical information to make the end information a surprise.
Periodic Sentence
"Zimbabwe is in Africa" is a claim of ________.
Fact
Taking notes directly on the text
annotation
Arguing against the man instead of against the issue. Example: We can’t elect him mayor. He cheats on his wife! Or: He doesn’t really believe in the First Amendment. He just wants to defend his right to hold racist views.
Ad hominem fallacy
Define tone
Speaker's attitude toward the subject as revealed by his or her language choices.
The deliberate use of multiple conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses or words.
Polysyndenton
A proposal that relies heavily on strong emotional reactions.
Appeal to emotion/pathos
An example of this syntactic feature:
"Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them...."
Anaphora
Attempting to redirect the argument to another issue to which the person doing the redirecting can better respond.
(also known as: beside the point, misdirection [form of], changing the subject, false emphasis, the Chewbacca defense, irrelevant conclusion, irrelevant thesis, clouding the issue, ignorance of refutation)
Red Herring
A/an __________ thesis is one that does not list all the points the writer intends to cover in an essay.
Open
Similarity or structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases or clauses
Parallelism
Most common type of claim.
Arguments that promise to protect our values (success, freedom, equality, courage, etc.) and argues if something is good or bad, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable.
Claim/appeal of value
Name this literary technique:
"Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans?"
Rhetorical Question
Asserting a point that has just been made. There is no evidence. Sometimes called “begging the question.” Example: She is ignorant because she was never educated. Or: "You can't give me a C; I'm an A student"
Circular reasoning
An assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it.
A paradox
When the verb comes before the subject in a sentence.
Ex: Tired is he who faithfully completes his homework
Inversion
asserts that specific courses of action should be instituted as solutions to problems
Claim of policy
What rhetorical mode tells a story, usually based on personal experience
Narrative/Narration
The mistake of assuming that, because event a is followed by event b, event a caused event b. Example: It rained today because I washed my car. Or: The stock market fell because the Japanese are considering implementing an import tax.
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
or Faulty causality
Substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant.
Euphemism
Use of two different words in a grammatically similar way that produces different, often incongruous (unsuited/out of place)meanings.
Example: She broke his car and his heart.
The teenage sweethearts, the elderly couple, and the flickering candles all danced late into the night.
The runner lost the race and his scholarship.
Zeugma
asserts that a condition has existed, exists, or will exist and is based on facts or data that the audience will accept as being objectively verifiable
Claim of fact
This rhetorical mode takes a subject and analyzes its parts
division