Why you stink at arguing: studying rhetorical fallacies to improve your persuasion skills

Originally posted 11/21/11.

Do you regularly get pwnd by your teacher or friends because you lack the basic persuasion and/or debate skills necessary for your success? In class today, I went over the following presentation:

Logical Fallacies on Prezi

As I said at the end of the presentation, you have one assignment: Go to  and find 3 videos that exemplify one fallacy from each of each of the categories of rhetorical fallacies

• Emotional fallacies [pathos]
• Ethical fallacies [ethos]
• Logical fallacies [logos]

Embed (not link to) each example into a blog post with 1¶ (each) explaining why it is an example of that fallacy.

Ok, so there's that! Good luck!

Vote for me, or DIE: Fallacies + Persuasion speeches

Originally posted 11/21/11.

A few days ago, I started the following presentation:



Your first assignment was the 3  videos—one for each category of rhetorical fallacy we studied.

Shoutout to Janelle for a great/terrible example
of a slippery slope!

The second assignment is to write a 5-7¶ "campaign speech" (following the typical outline). You are running for SA president against a speech class classmate using as many rhetorical fallacies as possible. You are writing this in a paragraph style (as opposed to an outline) because, as you are using rhetorical fallacies, you will  highlight and label  what fallacies they are.

By next Monday, you should have the 5-7¶s uploaded to your blog. During class, you will present your speech to the rest of the class. I will give extra points to

1. whomever I feel is the most convincing, and
2. who correctly uses and identifies the most rhetorical fallacies

This should be the worst speech you do all semester, so get out all your terrible-ness!

The worst speeches of the year: Running for SA president while using rhetorical fallacies

Previously, Communication class spent some time studying rhetorical fallacies, or unfair arguments commonly made when someone is trying to persuade someone else. After learning to identify them, the students wrote speeches announcing their candidacy for SA president. The twist: they had to use as many logical fallacies as they could (and identify them) in making those arguments. Here's a peek at what went down in class.


If I may plug a class, honestly, not only for Freshmen or Sophomores—Communication is the most valuable class that I teach, and I truly wish that it was a requirement for every student in the school. Consider it for a class option next semester!