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    Fallacies - Academic and Research Writing

    This quiz discusses the different variations of fallacy and how they come into play in writing.

    1

    Generalizations often stem from having insufficient evidence, but the most obvious characteristic of this misnomer is that one fallacy often breeds another.

    2

    Which fallacy assumes that an exceptional case is typical, or assumes erroneous relations between individuals?

    3

    Not knowing something is a good reason for investigating it, but ignorance is not good evidence to support a reason. Which type of fallacy is this?

    4

    Absolute claims should rarely—if ever—be asserted (even if you believe very strongly in them) because one exception is all that is necessary to falsify an absolute claim. What is this called?

    5

    Fill in the blank: __________ is when you claim that things fall into two or three categories, you should be positive that there can be no other. It is more often the case that there is some intermingling between the categories and some outlying data.

    6

    Cause and effect are very hard to prove. Demonstrating that one event happened before another does not necessarily mean that the earlier one caused the latter. This is called:

    7

    Analogies are an important means for making an argument, particularly when there is little or no direct evidence to support a point, but they should not be the argument’s only support. Which method of fallacy relates best to this statement?

    8

    False authority is when you use an authority to support your claim, you need to be sure that he or she has actual authority in that particular field. For example: A Nobel prize-winning biologist like James Watson is probably not an expert in economics or population dynamics.

    9

    A person’s affiliation with a certain group (like a religion or a political party) does not necessarily mean that his conclusions are biased or untrue, although the affiliation might influence his thinking. This is called jumping on the bandwagon.

    10

    Closely related to this fallacy is the ad hominem fallacy, in which a person’s ideas are discredited solely because of who he or she is or because of qualities the audience might find distasteful. This is called: