WRD 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Herd Mentality

• School: University of Kentucky
• Department: Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media
• Course: WRD 110
• Professor: Emily Naser-Hall

Document Summary

Appealing to desires, fears, and prejudices of the audience to arouse a mob mentality and distract from the issue. Misleading clue designed to pull the audience off track from the main point under discussion. Distorting the position of the opponent and then attacking the distortion instead of the opponent"s position. Creating the illusion that the premises support the conclusion by restating the premise in the conclusion. Asking two or more questions simultaneously in the guise of a single question, thus generating a single answer to the multiple contained questions. Using disjunctive statement (either / or statement) which presents only two options where there are many. Using an ambiguous statement to draw a faulty conclusion. Using a word or statement in two completely different ways in premise and conclusions. Using authorities or witnesses who have little or no credibility with regards to the argument in question. Using the absence of evidence as the evidence of absence.