Activity Quiz 1.6

Read the excerpt from We Need to Talk by Celeste Headlee.

Our world has become so fractured by politics and distracted by technology that having a meaningful conversation about anything has become a challenge. As Wesley Morris wrote in the New York Times, "We used to talk, and people would listen… People still gathered for the evening news. Mass culture was experienced en masse. A national conversation involved a large portion of the public talking about both important and frivolous stuff more or less at the same time."

It may be that conversations that matter most won’t be held on a national stage at all, but rather in office cubicles or grocery store aisles. It might be that authentic conversations can’t happen online but only in living rooms and lunchrooms and airports and restaurants.

Which choice best describes how the logical fallacy in the last sentence of the excerpt weakens Headlee’s argument?

• It is a hasty generalization that is not supported by sufficient evidence about online conversations.

• It is an either/or conclusion that does not acknowledge that inauthentic conversations can still be productive.

• It is an ad populum fallacy that appeals to the popular belief that people do not behave like their true selves online.

• It is a red herring tactic meant to divert the reader’s attention away from the key issue and onto online conversations.

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Read the excerpt from We Need to Talk by Celeste Headlee.

Take a moment to consider how many opportunities you may have missed, how many outcomes in your life may have been altered because of poor communication. Could you have landed that dream job if you’d nailed the interview? Saved a relationship if you’d been more open about certain issues?

How do these rhetorical questions help build the author's argument?

• by providing examples of when certain people have failed in life because of poor communication

• by connecting to readers on an emotional level by having them reflect on poor communication in their own lives

• 
  by showing that many people experience the same disappointments in their lives because of poor communication

• by providing the reader with personal anecdotes of how poor communication can affect a person’s life

Why is an appeal to logic, emotion, and ethics more effective than an appeal to just one of those elements?

• 
  Because logical and emotional appeals are always more persuasive than ethical appeals, a writer needs to include all three in order to convince readers.

• Because readers will ignore an argument that doesn't include all three elements, a writer must include all of them to persuade anybody.

• Because not all arguments are well suited to a specific type of appeal, a writer needs to include all three elements to persuade any reader.

• Because certain readers will find one type of appeal more persuasive than others, a piece with a variety of appeals will convince more readers.

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Which logical fallacy is a conclusion that is based on insufficient or biased evidence; in other words, rushing to a conclusion before all relevant facts are avoidable?

• Hasty Generalization

• Either/ Or

• Ad Populum

• Moral Equivalence

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Which logical fallacy is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or choices?

• Either/ or

• Ad Populum

• Moral Equivalence

• Red Herring

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Which common fallacy is an argument that concludes that a fact, position, or proposition must be true because many people believe in it?

• Hasty Generalization

• Either/ Or

• Ad Populum

• Moral Equivalence

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Which common fallacy is a comparison of minor misdeeds with major atrocities?

• Either/ Or

• Hasty Generalization

• Moral Equivalence

• Red Herring

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Which logical fallacy is a diversionary tactic that avoids the key issues, often by avoiding opposing arguments rather than addressing them?

• Either/ Or

• Ad Populum

• Moral Equivalence

• Red Herring

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DEFINITION: a mistaken belief or a false or misleading statement based on unsound evidence.

• Logical Fallacy

• potent

• frivolous

• tangible

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