2. Opponents of Richard Nixon, the thirty-seventh president of the

United States, once raised doubts about his integrity by asking

a single ruinous question: Would you buy a used car from this

man?  your own version of the argument of character.

Begin by choosing an intriguing or controversial person or

group and finding an image online. Then download the image

into a word-processing file. caption for the photo that

is modeled after the question asked about Nixon: Would you

give this woman your email password? Would you share a

campsite with this couple? Would you eat lasagna that this guy

fixed? Finally,  a serious argument that explores

 

 

 

·        Read Chapter 4 Arguments Based on Facts and Reason: Logos. 

 

Bring to class a full review of a recent film that you either enjoyed or

did not enjoy. Using testimony from that review, write a brief

argument to your classmates explaining why they should see that

movie (or why they should avoid it), being sure to use evidence from

the review fairly and reasonably. Then exchange arguments with a

classmate, and decide whether the evidence in your peer's

argument helps to change your opinion about the movie. What's

convincing about the evidence? If it doesn't convince you, why

doesn't it?

 

 

·        Read Chapter 5 Fallacies of Argument. 

 

Examine each of the following political slogans or phrases for logical fallacies.

"Resistance is futile." (Borg message on Star Trek: The Next

Generation)

"It's the economy, stupid." (sign on the wall at Bill Clinton's

campaign headquarters)

"Make love, not war." (antiwar slogan popularized during the

Vietnam War)

"Build bridges, not walls." (attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.)

"Stronger Together" (campaign slogan)

"Guns don't kill, people do." (NRA slogan)

"Dog Fighters Are Cowardly Scum." (PETA T-shirt)

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." (attributed

to Harry S Truman)

2. Hone your critical reading skills by choosing a paper you've

written for a college class and analyze it for signs of fallacious

reasoning. Then find an editorial, a syndicated column, and a

news report on the same topic and look for fallacies in them.

Which has the most fallacies—and what kind? What may be the

role of the audience in determining when a statement is

fallacious? How effective do you think the fallacies were in

speaking to their intended audience?

3. Find a Web site that is sponsored by an organization (the

Future of Music Coalition, perhaps), a business (Coca-Cola,

Pepsi), or another group (the Democratic or Republican

National Committee), and analyze the site for fallacious

reasoning. Among other considerations, look at the relationship between text and graphics and between individual

pages and the pages that surround or are linked to them.

4. Political blogs such as Mother Jones and InstaPundit typically

provide quick responses to daily events and detailed critiques

of material in other media sites, including national

newspapers. Study one such blog for a few days to see whether

and how the site critiques the articles, political commentary, or

writers it links to. Does the blog ever point out fallacies of

argument? If so, does it explain the problems with such

reasoning or just assume readers will understand the fallacies?

Summarize your findings in a brief oral report to your class