Rhetorical terms and devices
Ethos: credibility, character, ethics
Pathos: appeal to emotions
Logos: appeal to logic
Logical fallacies: potential weaknesses in an argument. They often arise from failure to make a logical
connection between the claim and the evidence to support it. They can be accidental, but they can also
be used deliberately to manipulate or deceive.
Fallacies of relevance (using evidence that’s irrelevant to the claim; also known as red herring. EX: We
can debate these regulations until the cows come home, but what the American people want to know
is, when are we going to end this bipartisan bickering?
Ad hominem—Latin for against the man; a diversionary tactic of switching the argument from
the issue at hand to the character of the other speaker. EX: a court case involving book-making
that hinges on the testimony of one witness and that witness is a prostitute. The prostitute’s
job has nothing to do with book-making, therefore attacking her character and her testimony as
unreliable is ad hominem.
Faulty analogy—analogies used to appeal to ethos, pathos or logos by adding drama to the
claim. It is important to question whether the similarities really fit and illuminate the point or
simply add an emotional appeal. EX: We put animals who are in irreversible pain out of their
misery, so we should do the same for people. EX: in an ad for a very expensive watch or car or
whatever, a well-known athlete may cause the viewer to draw an analogy between the artistry
and ability of the person and the product.
fallacies of accuracy: Using evidence that is either intentionally or unintentionally inaccurate.
Straw Man—Occurs when a speaker chooses a deliberately poor or oversimplified example in
order to ridicule and refute an opponent’s viewpoint. EX: Politician X proposes that we put
astronauts on Mars in the next four years. Politician Y ridicules this proposal by saying Politician
X is looking for little green men.
False dilemma (either/or fallacy)—only two extreme options are presented as possible choices.
A statement that offers only two ways to view an issue, and both are extreme and inaccurate.
EX: Either we agree to higher taxes, or our grandchildren will be mired in debt.
Fallacies of insufficiency—evidence is insufficient
Hasty generalization—there is not enough evidence to support a particular conclusion. EX:
“Smoking isn’t bad for you; my great aunt smoked a pack a day and lived to be 90.”
Circular reasoning—repeating the claim as a way to provide evidence, resulting in no evidence
at all. EX: You can’t give me a C! I’m an A student. The so-called evidence is insufficient because
it merely repeats the claim. Another example: Buy this shampoo because it's the best shampoo!
Bandwagon—evidence boils down to everybody’s doing it so you should too!
Rhetorical terms and devices
Post hoc ergo propter hoc (post hoc for short)—Latin for “after which therefore because of which”
meaning that it is incorrect to always claim that something is a cause just because it happened earlier,
or, correlation does not imply causation. EX: We elected President Johnson and look where it got us:
hurricanes, floods, and stock market crashes.
Glittering generalities—Words of praise for a product or person; using nice words like goodness,
amazing, fantastic, or patriotism. EX: McDonald’s is America’s favorite!
Testimonials—a famous person recommends a product; also political endorsements; Using the
testimony of someone famous or important in an effort to get you to think the way they do
Plain Folks—appealing to regular people's values like family, patriotism
Flag waving—an effort to arouse intense patriotic or nationalist feelings by a deliberate appeal to the
emotions; a conspicuous show of patriotism.
Scare tactic—a strategy using fear to influence the public's reaction; coercing a favorable response by
preying upon the audience’s fears. Scare tactics are not direct threats, but are intimidated conclusions.
Instead of threatening a consequence onto a person, scare tactics highlight the possible negative
outcomes to the extreme, while merely suggesting connectedness. The audience is supposed to use its
own logic to draw the obvious negative
conclusions.
Slippery Slope—an assertion that some event must inevitably follow from another without any
argument for the inevitability of the event in question. The argument has the following format: Event A
has or might occur, therefore event B will inevitably happen. EX: I want to buy a Green Day album. If I
buy a Green Day album I might end up buying a Ramones album. If I buy a Ramones album I will end up
being a Punk Rocker, and I don’t want to be a Punk Rocker, so I better not buy the Green Day album.
Appeal to vanity—making audience feel better about themselves if they do/buy/behave a certain way
(younger, smarter, better looking, more popular)
Call to action—persuasive technique in which the writer calls audience to action or to behave a certain
way.
Slogan—use of catchy phrases or words to identify a product
Snob appeal—this appeal suggests that you can be like the wealthy, well-dressed people who support
this product
Transfer—Positive feelings/desires are connected to a product/user