There are many fallacies when it comes to writing and
rhetoric. One that I see quite often and am probably guilty of is False
Authority. Many times we read articles with lots of information in them but we
have no record of where the facts or statistics came from. This is a huge
fallacy in writing because it can give people false impressions of a certain
issue being discussed. I know we read an example article in class and it was written
by Michelle Gates who is Bill Gates wife. We knew that her article was credible
because it spoke of her personal experiences traveling to third world countries
and being involved in different charities. Because she has a “big name” to back her up,
we know that her charity is legitimate and her sources are most likely
reliable. I have encountered many fallacies with false authority. Especially
when reading opinions you need to know where it is coming from. I like to
compare this to rumors. If you hear something strange about something from
someone else you know which ones of your friends are reliable and which are
not. I am not likely to believe anything I hear from someone who doesn’t have a
direct connection or relationship with the person they are talking about. It is
the same thing with reading research papers and facts. They have got to know
where the information is coming from and they need to be reliable sources. I
can avoid being tricked in the future by always checking the sources and
authors. If I want to be extra safe I can research the authors previous
opinions to check for bias.
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