Rhetoric

Fallacious Logos

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Jessica McKee, Megan McIntyre - University of Arkansas

Creative Challenges - appeal to nature, Argument, argument from ignorance, cum hoc, ergo propter hoc, ethos, fallacious, fallacious argument, fallacious logos, false dilemma, hasty generalization, kairos, logos, pathos, position, rhetorical appeals, slippery slope, straw man, therefore because of this, with this

Appeal to Nature: Suggesting a certain behavior or action is normal/right because it is "natural." This is a fallacious argument for two reasons: first, there are multiple, and often competing, ways to define "nature" and "natural." Because there is no one way to define these terms, a writer cannot assume his or her reader thinks of "nature" in the same way he or she does. Second, we cannot assume that "unnatural" is the same as wrong or evil. We (humans) have made lots of amendments to how we live (e.g., wearing clothes, living indoors, farming) with great benefit.

Logos – Logos Definition

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Emily Lane

"Logic is the anatomy of thought."
– John Locke

"Logos" is the appeal to logic. Logos isn't logic like the formal logic in math, philosophy, or even computer science; it is the consistency and clarity of an argument as well as the logic of evidence and reasons.

In formal logic, in abstraction, the following is the case: if A is true and B is true and A is an instance of B, then the repercussions of B will always be true.

Fallacious Pathos

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Jessica McKee, Megan McIntyre - University of Arkansas

Creative Challenges - appeal, appeal to pity, Argument, dismissal, emotional response, emotional words, emotive language, ethos, Evidence, explanation, fallacious, Fallacious Ethos, fallacious kairos, fallacious logos, Fallacious Pathos, kairos, logos, pathos, personal experience, pity, response, slippery slope, the slippery slope, unconnected, viewpoint

Argument by Dismissal: Rejecting an idea without providing a reason or explanation for its dismissal. For instance, there is a tendency to cry "socialism" when faced with calls for a single-payer system in the ongoing health care debate. Such a dismissal of the single-payer system may include the observations, "This is America!," or, "You are free to live elsewhere if you prefer."

Pathos

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Kendra Gayle

Creative Challenges - anecdotes, Argument, audience, connect, develop, direct quotations, effective, emotion, emotional response, emotionalism, emotionally driven, essay, ethos, humor, images, kairos, logos, media, moral, pathos, readers, relate, rhetorical device, subject, topic, writing, writing methods

"Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives, and we obey them without realizing it."
– Vincent Van Gogh

Remember those after-school specials that aired on TV when you were a kid? They always had some obvious moral (like "don't drink and drive"). And they were often really emotionally driven.

At the end of the show, the camera would pan out, showing the protagonist alone and suffering for the poor decisions that he or she had made.

Fallacious Ethos

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Jessica McKee, Megan McIntyre - University of Arkansas

Creative Challenges - ad hominem, anonymous authority, appeal, Argument, authority, ethos, expertise, fallacious, Fallacious Ethos, false authority, inflation of conflict, kairos, knowledge, nonspecific groups, pathos, person, rhetorical appeals, support

Ad Hominem (Argument to the Person): Attacking the person instead of the argument. For example, "You say I shouldn't drink so much, but you drink every day." The validity of the argument (drink less) can't be based on the behavior of the person making the argument. Instead, the validity of the argument should be evaluated on its own terms—separate from the person making the claim.

Beware of “Oh, that makes sense”: Ethos in Context

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Joseph M. Moxley

Creative Challenges - audience; experience; ethos; truth; true; conventional wisdom; speaker; sounds true; dangerous; credibility; establish

There is also, however, the credibility that comes from saying or writing something that the audience already believes or that reinforces the audience’s experience. We should treat this kind of ethos with a healthy dose of suspicion. Just because something sounds right to you or makes you feel good about what you believe does not ...

Ethos

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Megan McIntyre - University of Arkansas

Creative Challenges - appeal to credibility, authority, character, credibility, ethos, experience, fallacious, intrinsic authority, kairos, logos, pathos, Persuasion, references, rhetor, Rhetorical Analysis, rhetorical appeals, supporting, symbols, writer, writing

I've always wondered why candidates have to "approve this message"; I mean, if President Obama is on camera talking about himself, then can't I assume he approves the message? Why does he have to state that he approves it at the end?

There's certainly a law that governs what must be said at the end of a political advertisement, or else President Obama wouldn't say exactly the same thing as every other politician at the end of an ad, but there's also an element of persuasion at work here.

Logical Fallacies

By now you know that all arguments operate according to an internal logic. No matter which of the four rhetorical appeals the author uses, her thesis will succeed or fail based on the soundness of her argument. In classical logic, an argument is sound only if all of its premises are true and the argument is valid. And an argument is valid only if its conclusion follows logically from the combination of its premises. For example, Plato’s classic syllogism, “All men are mortal; Socrates is a man: therefore, Socrates is mortal” is both valid and sound. Its premises are true, and the conclusion is undeniable given an understanding of the definitions of the terms.

Why Study Rhetoric? or, What Freestyle Rap Teaches Us about Writing

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Kyle D. Stedman

The website eHow has a page on “How to Freestyle Rap” (“Difficulty: Moderately Challenging”), and I’m trying to figure out what I think about it. On one hand, it seems like it would be against the ethos of an authentic rapper to use a page like this to brush up on freestyle skills. After all, the page is hosted on a corporate website owned by Demand Media, Inc., the same people behind, among other things, a golf site.

But on the other hand, the advice seems solid. The eHow page encourages me to follow an easy, seven-step model

Thesis

What is a thesis?

A thesis consists of one or two sentences that clearly and concisely summarize the main point, purpose, and/or argument of an academic document. The thesis serves as the foundation—or heartbeat—of a paper; without a thesis, a paper is incomplete and lifeless. Ideally, a well-crafted thesis increases the likelihood that the target audience will engage with the writer’s discussion.

Fallacious Logos

Logos – Logos Definition

Fallacious Pathos

Pathos

Fallacious Ethos

Beware of “Oh, that makes sense”: Ethos in Context

Ethos

Logical Fallacies

Why Study Rhetoric? or, What Freestyle Rap Teaches Us about Writing

Thesis

What is a thesis?

Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community

Professional Writing – How to Write for the Professional World – Guide to Professional and Business Communication

Credibility and Authorial Authority – How to Develop Readers’ Trust and Respect

Rhetoric

What is a thesis?

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