ADMS 3900 Lecture Notes - Hasty Generalization, Fallacy
2 May 2013
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Claim: central idea that the author of a piece of writing is trying to persuade you to accept. Evidence: any statement that gives truth to the claim. Cue words: because, as a result, in the first place, for example. Indicate that the author is about to present a piece of evidence. Must be an independent and infallible source of information by performing own research. Whether the author makes other obvious errors that undermine the reliability. Overuse of ambiguous words (often, high probability, usually) are indicative of low precision. Using numbers and direct quotations of people actually said increases precision. Precision is used as an alternative to accuracy. Over precision and under precision may detract from credibility of evidence. To be persuasive, an author must provide sufficient evidence to support a claim. Fallacy: erroneous but frequently persuasive way of being led from a reason or circumstance to a conclusion (when the evidence is not sufficient to support a claim).
