One way to learn and retain the Informal Logical Fallacies is to take a long and difficult exam, but let’s do something different (I have tortured you with enough of those). I am a firm believer that we learn by doing, so for this discussion forum, I want you to make fallacies.

Yes, you read it right; I want to read your best (or worst?) fallacious reasoning.

One more time: I am asking your to purposefully make errors in logic in your essay.

This is true.

Instructions:

Part I: Brief Essay Post (50 points)

• Choose an issue (or make up your own), and write an argumentative paragraph (no more than 500 words) driven by a clear major claim/thesis (i.e., “Donuts should be illegal.”) . In addition, you must make a minimum of five Informal Logical Fallacies as you attempt to make your peers chuckle and/or think differently about the issue. Do not write about religion, gay marriage or abortion. With that said, irony and sarcasm are welcome (meanness is not). Do not identify the fallacies, as your peers will be doing that in Part II.

To recap, this assignment asks you to engage with an issue in the wrong way, to not use effective critical reasoning with regards to your subject, but to use critical reasoning with regards to illustrating that you fully comprehend a minimum of five fallacies. The goal is to think deeply about the fallacies as you study and apply them, then to never use them again! Actually, you will want to recognize and avoid them. Have fun, but make sure you are making the specific informal fallacies in the previous slide presentation.

• Fallacies outside the ones presented in the slideshow will not be accepted.

Guidelines:

• Extended paragraph post must be in correct MLA format and style an no more than 500 words in length.
• Research is not required, but feel free to make sources up!
• Place your word count at the end of the paper in parenthesis.
• You must post before you can see anyone else’s post.
• You may edit as you receive feedback. If you wait too long to post, you will probably not receive helpful feedback in time to do so.

• Make sure you have followed all instructions and guidelines. Not doing so will significantly affect your grade. There are no acceptable excuses for errors in MLA.