A.

LOGICAL FALLACIES
LOGICAL FALLACIES are ERRORS IN REASONING that INVALIDATE AN ARGUMENT. As a
critical thinker you have to identify and examine fallacies and manipulative language.

Fallacy Description Example

False Dilemma Occurs when an arguer presents his/her argument as Either you fully devote
one of only two options despite the presence of yourself to company or you
multiple possibilities. quit.
Appeal to Ignorance Occurs when something is instantly concluded to be The writer does not talk
true just because it is not proven to be false, and about the connection between
vice versa. the victim’s killer and his
sister, so there must be none.
Slippery Slope Occurs when a series of increasingly superficial and If we ban computer shops,
unacceptable consequences is drawn. then students will not be able
to do research. And if they do
not have tools for research,
these students will fail their
subjects.
Complex Question/ Occurs when two or more points are rolled into one “Have you stopped cheating
Loaded questions and the reader is expected to accept or reject both at on exams?”
the same time, when one point may be satisfactory
while the other is not.
Appeal to Force Occurs when a threat, instead of reasoning is used If you do not admit that
to argue. evolution is not real, we will
isolate you from the group.
Appeal to Pity Occurs when the element of pity is used instead of Please do not fire me for
logical reasoning. being absent all month; I
have a sick mother and a
special child to support.
Appeal to Occurs when unpleasant consequences of believing You can’t believe that
Consequences something are pointed out to show that the belief is colonialism is bad, because if
false. it were, then we would not be
civilized.
Bandwagon Occurs when an argument is considered to be valid Most Filipinas want to have
because it is what the majority thinks. fair skin because they think
they look beautiful.
Therefore, having fair skin
must be the real standard of
beauty.
Ad Hominem Occurs when someone tries to refute an argument I cannot accept your
by attacking the character of a person instead of argument because, unlike me,
attacking the ideas of the argument. you were not educated at
Harvard University.
Appeal to Authority Occurs when the argument quotes an expert who’s Bill Gates, the co-founder of
not qualified in the particular subject matter. Microsoft, recommends the
effective fabric softening
properties of Downy fabric
softener.
Anonymous The authority in question is not mentioned or Experts claim that eating
Authority named. peanuts causes pimples.
Hasty Generalization Occurs when a sample is not significant enough to Martha, the foreigner from
support a generalization about a population. France is very impolite.
French people are mean and
rude.
False Analogy Occurs when a writer assumes that two concepts Drugs are like massages: they
that are similar in some ways are also similar in make you feel good.
other ways.
Post Hoc It is an informal fallacy that states: “Since event A Dina saw cat when they went
followed event B, event A must have been caused home. Along the way, they
by event B.” crashed into a tree. The black
cat must be the reason why
 they met an accident.

VOCABULARY LIST
• Stand - viewpoint
• Claims - these are statements that support the author’s stand; ARGUMENT
• Evidences - these are proofs or evidences to strengthen the author’s claim
• Fallacy - an error in reasoning which weakens an argument
• Counterclaims – arguments opposing a stand

B. FACTORS ON AUTHENTICITY AND VALIDITY OF EVIDENCES/INFORMATION

1. Relevance of the Source
 How well does the source support your stand?
 You can check the title, table of contents, summary, introduction or headings of the text to have a sense of
its content.

2. Authority/Author’s Qualifications
 Is the author’s name identified?
 Is the author’s background, education or training related to the topic?
 If the source does not have an author, think twice before using it.
 Legitimate academic texts must include citations. Citations demonstrate that the writer has thoroughly
researched the topic and is not plagiarizing the material.

3. Currency/Date of Publication
 What is the date of the publication?
 In most fields, the data from the older publications may no longer be valid. As much as possible, the date
of publication should be at most five years earlier.

4. Contents/Accuracy of Information
 Does the author have a lot of citations in his or her text and/or bibliography or works cited section?
 You do not want to use source that is disputable, so make sure to verify your findings with multiple
sources

5. Location of Sources
 Where was the source published? Was it published digitally or in print?
 Is it a book, an academic journal or a reputable news source as www.nytimes.com or
www.economist.com?
 Does it provide complete publication information such as author/s, editor/s, title, date of publication and
publisher?
 What is the URL of the website?
 Avoid using blogs or personal homepage and wiki sites (Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Wikiquotes)
 If the URL includes the top-level domain .edu, then that means that it has been published by an academic
institution such as university
 Common URLs include .gov (government), .org (organizations), .com (commercial sites) and .net
(network infrastructures). In academic writing, reputable sites are those with .edu, .gov, .net and .org in
URL. Source: Barrot, J, T. & Sipacio P.J (2016). Communicative Today English for Academic and
Professional Purposes for Senior High School. C&E Publishing, Inc.