Logical Fallacies

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Ask we work on persuasive, or argumentative, writing you will want to make yourself credible. In order to do this, you want to avoid logical fallacies. We talked about these in our webinar this week, but I would like you to review this lesson to make sure you have them covered.

Purdue OWL states that, "Fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument. Fallacies can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points, and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim."

To put it in simple words, logical fallacies are things that discredit your argument. Often times they contain errors in logic, data, facts, or organization that make you you seem like you don't know what you are talking about, or that you are lying. In the end they make your argument fall flat.

Check out the video below on logical fallacies, take notes on the different types of fallacies that are presented. These fallacies tend to be ones that students struggle with often.

Sources:

Education Portal. http://youtu.be/qfBZuBGYDm4. 13 December 2013.

Purdue OWL. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/659/03/. 13 December 2013.