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The Is A Logical Fallacy?

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When it comes to the genre of persuasion, whether it be a speech you are giving to sway the views of your peers, or writing a letter to request a change or call to action, you want the listeners and readers to feel the same way you do about a topic. To do this, you want to apply sound logic and back up your information with strong research to support it… but your ideas may be ruined by what is called a “logical fallacy.” What exactly is a logical fallacy…? Logical fallacies are errors in reasoning that undermine the logic of your argument (Weber). There are a vast number of different types of fallacies, including Begging the claim, Sweeping Generalizations, slippery slope, hasty generalization, Ad hominem, red herring, and circular argument. Many of these types of logical fallacies can be witnessed throughout the media, whether it be in a presidential debate, or even a news article. I am going to focus on three types of fallacies through this paper, red herrings, ad hominem, and hasty generalizations. All of these are present in current politics. Let’s go into more detail about each of these three and how they have recently been used. First, the Red Herring. Out of all the fallacies, this one is the easiest to catch. This logical fallacy is when a question or argument arises, but instead of addressing the issue, the speaker will avoid it and talk around the subject, rather than about it. It is almost like a transition of topics without any reason. An example that I

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