I am so lost! My professor is really tough and todays assignment is confusing to me...?

Question

She wants me to find a fallacy in a newspaper editorial and summarize the issue, and determine which side the writer supports. Then categorize the fallacies based on their characteristics, and describe the impact of the fallacies on their respective articles. What does that mean?

Answer 1

Hi moon-
I'll lead you through it one step at a time.

1) A fallacy is a statement not true, or unsupported by facts, so when you're reading the editorials, you must first find one that you recognize the issue that is being addressed, and if the person who wrote it knows what they are talking about, or just stating an opinion.

2) When you've found the editorial you're going to use, first you need to explain what the editorial is about, and both sides of the issue. Next you'll describe which side the writer stands for or against.

3) Next, tell what the fallacies, or false statements are that the writer uses, and what they represent. Are they opinions? Misrepresentations? outright false statements, or changing of the facts?

4) Now you wrap it up by telling how the false things said made the editorial biased, or wrong, and how bad that may be.

This kind of work requires you to analyze the remarks of others, and figure out how to use your own powers of deduction to see what lies below the surface of what others write...an important lesson in decision making for you throughout your life.
Good luck-

Answer 2

She wants you to find an article in which the writer has a decided point of view and misrepresents information in some way to make his/her point. I guess, an example could be that the writer quotes someone out of context to make it sound like that particular person supports the writer's point of view, or the writer may use statistics that aren't actually appropriate to the subject matter.

I suppose the easiest way to go about this might be to find a hot topic editorial like global warming, the war in Iraq or even abortion - some topic most people feel strongly about. Then read the article and decide what the writer believes: for it or against it?

After you decide what side the author supports, go back through the facts and arguments that are laid out in the article and analyze them. Did the writer represent them fairly? Are they skewed slightly to make one side look better than the other? Are certain well known facets of the argument simply not adressed because they weaken the writer's argument? How is language used in the article? Are words with negative connotation only used when the writer adresses the opposing view?

As for "describe the impact of the fallacies on their respective articles," I think she means: How do these fallacies affect how the article is read and understood. After all, the writer's main goal is to sway the reader to their side, by using facts, figures, arguments and writing style. Often a writer with a great writing style can sway many people just becuase his/her argument sounds good not because it's well supported.

Answer 3

A fallacy is an error in reasoning, so you need to read some editorials and find a mistake in the logic of the writer.

Then you're supposed to identify what type of fallacy the writer committed. There are only so many kinds of logic errors one can make, so the types are presumably well known -- is that part of the material for your course?

And you need to determine what parts of the writer's argument remains valid in spite of the error in the fallacious part.

Answer 4

That is tough. A political issue would probably do the trick. I live in Chicago area where this project would be fairly easy. Are you limited to local papers? If not, try ChicagoTribune.com. (and others on the web like NY Times, Slate.com, and others.) There are a lot of editorials about Barack Obama and his qualifications for the presidency. Arguments for: his charisma--rock star like and his stand on various issues, and against--lack of experience and position on various issues. Your task would be to find an editorial for and an editorial against. List the main points and compare them. For example: If Obama came out with a negative statement about stem cell research (which he won't) the impact would be the number of votes he could garner on this subject. Depending on who his message speaks to (liberals or right wing) could cause him to win or lose the election.

It shouldn't be too difficult to determine which side the writer is on. Case in point--Rush Limbaugh.

A fallacy is a false statement or belief, like the one above concerning stem cell research. It's category would be something like Health Care. How would this fallacy affect his ability to win the election?

Hope this helps. I'm glad I'm not in your class!

Answer 5

A fallacy is a component of an argument that is demonstrably flawed in its logic or form, thus rendering the argument invalid in whole, except in the case of begging the question, a false analogy and other informal fallacies. In logical arguments, fallacies are either formal or informal.
She wants you to find a reporter that might want to be fair and balanced, but is allowing there opinion to be expressed in there writing

Answer 6

First, dig out the editorial page from the newspaper.
Read the editorial.
Decide what the editorial is supporting.
Then, ok now I'm lost with you. Sorry