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Fallacies - Definitions
More Fallacies - in Context
What's That? More Fallacies!
Argument
MLA
100
Appealing to popularity or the fact that many people do something as an attempted form of validation.
What is the bandwagon fallacy?
100
Powering energy-efficient appliances is very inexpensive because they do not cost much money to operate.
What is circular argument?
100
Appeals to prejudice and self-interest. One might argue that people should oppose any form of government regulation of business since America was founded on the principle of freedom from oppression.
What is Argumentum ad Populum?
100
This is the response to your concession.
What is the refutation?
100
Titles of larger works such as books, anthologies, movies, and TV shows appear in this.
What is italics?
200
This is a conclusion reached with too few examples or with examples that are not representative.
What is a hasty generalization?
200
We can recognize that athletes who participate in major sports must be given special consideration at Texas A&M, or we can let the university sink into athletic oblivion.
What is either/or reasoning or black-or-white?
200
When a person misinterprets or distorts an opponent's position to make the attack easier, or attacking weaker opponents over strong ones.
What is the Straw Man fallacy?
200
These are the 3 features of the Toulmin model.
What are claims, support, warrants?
200
Titles of shorter works like articles, essays, poems, short stories, and TV episodes appear in these.
What are quotation marks?
300
A different issue raised to lead attention away from the issue being debated.
What is a red herring?
300
From an episode of Sesame Street: Ernie believes that by keeping a banana in his ear, he will keep Sesame Street safe from alligators. There are no alligators on Sesame Street, so Ernie believes the banana is working.
What is post hoc or ergo propter hoc (false cause)?
300
Any celebrity-endorsed weight loss program: Kardashians, Jessica Simpson, Anna Nicole Smith, Jennifer Hudson, etc...
What is unreliable testimony or appeal to authority?
300
When you start with a generally held belief (warrant) and reason logically to a conclusion.
What is deductive reasoning.
300
You do this to avoid a hanging/floating quote.
What is embed the quote in a sentence?
400
Making what could be called an appeal to purity as a way to dismiss relevant criticisms or flaws of an argument.
What is no true scotsman?
400
If we legalize marijuana, the United States will become a nation of addicts and criminals.
What is a slippery slope?
400
From a Wendy's ad for a cheeseburger. "Try our new bacon cheese burger. When you gotta have it, you gotta have it!"
What is begging the question?
400
When you come to conclusions based on evidence and arrive at a statement of what is generally true about something or a group of things.
What is inductive reasoning?
400
In a Works Cited entry, this "element" apears before the period at the end.
What is the medium of publication?
500
Avoiding having to engage with criticism by turning it back on the accuser - answering criticism with criticism.
What is tu quoque?
500
From the NRA advertisement: "Are the President's kids more important than yours?"
What is false analogy, ad hominem, or loaded question?
500
Daniel was a precocious child and had a liking for logic. He reasoned that atoms were invisible, and that he was made of atoms and therefore invisible too. Unfortunately, despite his thinking skills, he lost the game of hide and go seek.
What is composition/division?
500
These are four ways to read arguments critically.
What is: research the writer, identify the intended audience, find the main claim, considering why the writer wants us to accept the claim, identify evidence, consider whether the writer ignores key facts, look for fallacies, take notes?
500
The entries on a Works Cited should appear in this order.
What is alphabetical?