Argumentation Vocab Quiz

Question 1

Provides easy answers to complicated questions often by appealing to emotions rather than logic.

Answer 1

Oversimplification

Question 2

Uses misleading or unrelated evidence to support a conclusion

Answer 2

Red Herring

Question 3

Try to frighten people into agreeing with the arguer by threatening them or predicting unrealistically dire consequences

Answer 3

Scare Tactics

Question 4

encourage an audience to agree with the writer because everyone else is doing so

Answer 4

bandwagon appeals

Question 5

arguments suggest that one thing will lead to another oftentimes with disastrous results.

Answer 5

slippery slope

Question 6

Reduces complicated issues to only two possible courses of action

Answer 6

either/ or

Question 7

arguments create an unnecessary desire for things

Answer 7

false need

Question 8

asks audiences to agree with the assertion of a writer based simply on his or her character or the authority of another person or institution who may not be fully qualified to offer that assertion

Answer 8

false authority

Question 9

is the assertion of a claim without presenting reasoned argument to support it

Answer 9

failure to accept the burden of proof

Question 10

occurs when someone offers personal authority as proof

Answer 10

using authority instead of evidence

Question 11

calls someones character into question by examining the character of that persons associates

Answer 11

guilt by association

Question 12

shuts down discussion by asserting that the writers beliefs are the only acceptable ones

Answer 12

dogmatism

Question 13

compares minor problems with much more serious crimes (vice versa)

Answer 13

moral equivalence

Question 14

arguments attack a persons character rather than that persons reasoning

Answer 14

ad hominem

Question 15

arguments set up and often dismantle easily refutable arguments in order to misrepresent an opponents argument in order to defeat him or her
(provides a weak counterargument that is rebuttled)

Answer 15

straw-man

Question 16

draws general and premature conclusions from scanty evidence

Answer 16

a hasty generalization

Question 17

arguments confuse chronology with causation

one event can occur after another without being caused by it

Answer 17

Faulty Causality Latin Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Question 18

a statement that does not logically relate to what comes before it

Answer 18

non sequitur

Question 19

a half truth a statement that is partially correct but that purposefully obscure the entire truth
a word with multiple meanings that the writer manipulates and changes throughout the course of an argument

Answer 19

equivocation

Question 20

occurs when a writer simply restates the claim in a different way; such an arugment is circular; trying to prove one idea with another idea that is too similar to the first idea

Answer 20

circular reasoning

Question 21

is an inaccurate inappropriate or misleading comparison between two things

Answer 21

faulty analogy

Question 22

represents only one side of the issue thus distorting the issue

Answer 22

stacked evidence