Game Plan Go over Speech to Virginia Convention HW Logical Fallacies Go over Colonialism Tests “Common Sense” – A pamphlet by T. Paine Class Starter: on your CS sheet 1)Write two examples of appeals to logic from Patrick Henry’s “Speech to Virginia Convention” 2)Write two examples of appeals to emotion from the speech (EOL pg. 117)

A logical fallacy is an error of reasoning in an argument. When someone adopts a position, or tries to persuade someone else to adopt a position, based on a bad piece of reasoning, they commit a fallacy. The ability to identify logical fallacies in the arguments of others, and to avoid them in one’s own arguments, is both valuable and increasingly rare. Fallacious reasoning keeps us from knowing the truth, and the inability to think critically makes us vulnerable to manipulation by those skilled in the art of rhetoric.

Rhetoric - the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, esp. the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. Style – Distinctive way that an author uses a language

Bandwagon – is an effect that encourages listeners to act or think in a certain way simply because everybody else does. Bandwagon Ex: The student council, the football team, and the entire cheerleading squad are going to the game. So should you. Testimonials- (appeal to authority) Appeal to an “expert” or person of interest to endorse your argument. A glittering generality (also called glowing generality) is an emotionally appealing word so closely associated with highly-valued concepts and beliefs that it carries conviction without supporting information or reason.

Ad Hominem – An attack on a person associated with the issue instead of the issue itself. Ad Hominem EX: "Candidate George's proposal about zoning is ridiculous. He was caught cheating on his taxes in 2003."

False Causality – assumes one event caused another simply because one happened before the other. False Ex: " We were robbed right after that family moved in, so they must be the culprits."family

Overgeneralization – is based on too little evidence or evidence that ignores exceptions. Overgeneralization

A fallacy in which a course of action is objected to on the grounds that once taken it will lead to additional actions until some undesirable consequence resultsfallacy Ex: You should never gamble. Once you start gambling you find it hard to stop. Soon you are spending all of your money on gambling, and eventually you will turn to crime to support your earnings

The picture below is only meant to distract you. Red Herring – takes a listener’s attention away from the real issue or point. Example – Baseball Player Mark McGuire just retired. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. After all, he’s such a nice guy, and he gives a lot of money to charity.

False Analogy – draws an invalid conclusion from a comparison that is weak or unreasonable. False Analogy EX: Employees and nails are the same. As it is necessary to hit nails on the head in order to make them work, the same must be done with employees.

Rhetoric—imagery, parallelism, repetition, anecdotes, rhetorical questions Logical Fallacies—either/or, appeal to authority, slippery slope, ad hominem, red herring, false analogy, false causality Propaganda—bandwagon, glittering generalities, testimonials (spokesperson/plain folk), fear, name calling Satire—exaggeration, understatement, verbal irony (sarcasm), situational irony, juxtaposition