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Good readers analyze the quality of written and spoken evidence and can spot fallacious reasoning. Thinking and reading critically will allow you to debunk faulty reasoning and improve your ability to argue effectively.

1. Synonym Errors

A synonym reasoning error occurs when the writer substitutes one term for another in the argument, yet the terms are not same.

Example: The undemocratic government of Mexico had only one political party with real power. This dictatorship has been in control of Mexico since 1919.

Explanation: The writer substitutes dictatorship for undemocratic. However, not all undemocratic forms of government are the same as dictatorships.

2. Non Sequitur Errors

A non sequitur reasoning error means that the argument does not follow logically. In other words, the conclusion cannot be reached from the facts presented.

Example: If the sky is blue, and blue is the color of the ocean; then the sky must be made of ocean water.

Explanation: The conclusion that “the sky must be made of ocean water” does not follow logically from the facts presented.

3. Red Herring Errors

A red herring reasoning error means that an unconnected reference is used to distract the reader from the argument. A red herring refers to a smelly fish that was sometimes used to throw hunting dogs off the track of the fox in English foxhunts.

Example: The politician suggests that poverty remains the most important problem in the world today; however, the world has always had its share of poor people.

Explanation: The statement “the world has always had its share of poor people” attempts to distract the reader from the issue of poverty as the most important world problem.

4. Unsupported Generalization Errors

An unsupported generalization reasoning error applies specific facts to a broad generalization without justification.

Example: Bobby and Amanda have blonde hair. They both excel at sports. All blonde children excel at sports.

Explanation: The fact that specific children who have blonde hair are good athletes does not justify the broad generalization that “All blonde children excel at sports.”

5. Poisoning the Well Errors

A poisoning the well reasoning error means that an argument is weakened by a criticism in the argument itself.

Example: The president’s plan to reduce taxes in order to encourage taxpayers to spend more money to help business has been harshly criticized as “unworkable” by all leading economists.

Explanation: The president’s argument that reducing taxes will encourage taxpayers to spend more money is weakened by the comment that all leading economists have criticized the plan.

6. Cause and Effect Errors

A cause and effect reasoning error occurs when the writer assumes that something directly causes something else, but the result is actually a matter of coincidence.

Example: An irritating commercial aired after my favorite television show. I sneezed twice. Irritating commercials always make me sneeze.

Explanation: Sneezing after a commercial is a matter of coincidence. Commercials do not cause sneezing—there is no logical cause-effect connection.

7. Begging the Question Errors

A begging the question reasoning error takes place when the writer assumes something to be true, that has not been proven, in order to support the argument.

Example: No one likes the poor musicianship of country music.

Explanation: The statement assumes that country music has poor musicians to support the argument.

8. Either-Or Errors

An either-or reasoning error sets up a false choice between two ideas or issues and ignores other options.

Example: Either you support the president, or you are not a true American.

Explanation: The statement ignores other options that true Americans might choose.

9. Comparison Errors

A comparison reasoning error attempts to find similarities or differences between two unrelated ideas or issues.

Example: The price of Chinese tea has increased and so has the price of American gasoline.

Explanation: The price of tea and gas are unrelated issues and cannot be compared.

10. Questionable Authority Errors

A questionable authority reasoning error refers to a source that is not a specific expert on the idea or issue.

Examples: Experts say that the world will run out of oil in 20 years. A Harvard mathematician claims that love at first sight is impossible.

Explanation: In the first example, the expert is non-specific. In the second example, a mathematician is not an expert in matters of love.

11. Contradiction Errors

A contradiction error says the opposite of what has already been stated in the argument.

Example: Skateboarding is the safest of all individual sports. Skateboarding injuries account for more hospital visits than any other sport.

Explanation: Skateboard injuries contradict the claim that the sport is safe.

12. Inconsistency Errors

An inconsistency reasoning error refers to parts of an argument that are not in agreement.

Example: Children should be required to wear helmets while riding bicycles, but not while in-line skating.

Explanation: The arguments that children should be required to wear helmets while riding bicycles, but not while in-line skating, are not in agreement.

13. Omission Errors

An omission reasoning error means that a necessary piece of information is missing in the argument.

Example: The Folsom High School Band has the best band in the city.

Explanation: The fact that the Folsom High School Band is the only band in the city has been omitted.

14. Oversimplification Errors

An oversimplification reasoning error reduces a complicated idea or issue to something simple.

Example: Baseball is a simple game of pitching, running, hitting, and fielding.

Explanation: This oversimplification ignores the complicated components such as baseball strategy, substitutions, and statistical probability.

15. Sampling Errors

A sampling reasoning error refers to the data from which conclusions have been drawn. A sampling error may relate to an insufficient sample size or an unreliable sample group.

Example:  Three out of four dentists surveyed agree that people should floss twice per day.

Explanation: Only four dentists made up the sample group—hardly enough people upon whom to base a conclusion. Also, perhaps three of the dentists are paid by dental floss companies to promote their product.

Find 42 sequenced writing strategy worksheets and quickly move students from simple three-word paragraphs to complex multi-paragraph essays. With 64 sentence revision lessons, additional remedial worksheets, writing fluency and skill lessons, posters, and editing resources, the teacher can differentiate instruction with no additional prep with Teaching Essay Strategies. Also check out Critical Thinking Openers Toolkit. Both available from Pennington Publishing.

Reading, Study Skills, Writing essay, evidence, reading comprehension, reasoning

Using numerical values to identify and apply expository writing structure has proved an effective tool in identifying expository text structure and helping writers organize essays. The numerical values eliminate the writing jargon that varies from teacher to teacher and curriculum to curriculum. Instead, writers simply apply the implicit hierarchy of the number system to that of reading and writing. Writers just seem to intuitively “get” the idea of a number system applied to their expository writing in essays.

The Teaching Essay Strategies curriculum uses following number system:

(1) for the introductory strategies of an essay introduction—for example, a definition or a preview of the topic sentences.

(2) for the thesis statement that “talks about” the introduction strategies.

(3) for the topic sentences that “talk about” the thesis statement.

(4) for the major details that “talk about” the topic sentence. 

(5) for the support details that “talk about” the major details. 

(6) for the conclusion strategies—for example, a thesis re-statement or summary.

For Developing Recognition of Text Structure

Try analyzing expository reading by numbering the sentences. Critique the writing by analyzing the structure and whether there is sufficient evidence, e.g. enough (5s) to back the (4s).

For Essay Writing

Using your own writing prompts, practice varying sentence order within the numerical hierarchy to help students develop a flexible writing style to address the demands of the writing prompt and improve the quality of your essays. Try the following paragraph organizations and watch your students improve their writing structure and recognition of text structure at the same time.

1. (3)-(4)-(4)

2. (3)-(4)-(4)-(4)

3. (3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5) 

4. (4)-(5)-(3)-(4)-(5) 

5. (4)-(5)-(4)-(5)-(3) 

6. (4)-(5)-(4)-(5) 

7. (3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5) 

8. (3)-(4)-(4)-(4)-(5)

9. (3)-(4)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5) 

10. (3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5)-(5) 

11. (Transition Statement)-(3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5)

12. (3)-(4)-(5)-(4)-(5)-(Concluding Statement)

13. (1)-(1)-(2) added to any two of the above body paragraphs

14. (6)-(6)-(6) added to any two of the above body paragraphs

15. (1)-(1)-(2) added to any two of the above body paragraphs (6)-(6)-(6)

Find 42 sequenced writing strategy worksheets and quickly move students from simple three-word paragraphs to complex multi-paragraph essays. With 64 sentence revision lessons, additional remedial worksheets, writing fluency and skill lessons, posters, and editing resources, the teacher can differentiate instruction with no additional prep with Teaching Essay Strategies.

Writing conclusion, essay, essay strategies, evidence, introduction, paragraphs, reasoning, teaching strategies, teaching writing, writing style

Many writers have not learned how to write body paragraphs for an essay, article, formal research paper, or business letter. All too often, students only received this limited instruction about how to write body paragraphs: “Write a topic sentence; write major detail sentences; then, support the major detail sentences with minor detail sentences.” Not much help with that limited instruction…

The following strategies will help you write learn how to write body paragraphs that will be appropriate to the writing task, provide pertinent evidence to prove your thesis, and also show off your writing skills. The CeF SCALE memory trick will help remind you of the evidence strategies you need to use on timed writing tasks. Not every evidence strategy fits the purpose of every writing task, so learn and practice these options to increase your writing skill-set.

CeF SCALE Evidence Strategies (Think Centigrade Fahrenheit)        

1. A comparison means to show how the subject is like something else in a meaningful way. (C)
2. An experience used as evidence may be a commonly known event or an event of which there is limited knowledge. (e)
3. A fact means something actually said or done. Use quotes for direct or indirect quotations. (F)
4. A statistic is a numerical figure that represents evidence gained from scientific research. (S)
5. A counterpoint states an argument against your thesis statement and then provides evidence against that argument. (C)
6. An appeal to authority is a reference from an authority on a certain subject. (A)
7. Logic means to use deductive (general to specific) or inductive (specific to general) reasoning to prove a point. (L)
8. An example is a subset typical of a category or group. (E)

Body paragraphs are organized around the topic sentence, which is the main point, reason, or argument to prove the thesis statement. Always place your topic sentence at the beginning of each body paragraph. Writing research indicates that the topic sentence is placed at the beginning of the body paragraph 80% of the time in published works, so don’t re-invent the wheel. Write in the way your reader expects to read.

Then, use the CeF SCALE evidence strategies to provide the evidence you need to support your topic sentence. Think of writing body paragraphs much as a prosecuting attorney uses evidence to convince a jury that the defendant is guilty of the crime. Connect your body paragraph evidence strategies with effective transition words to maintain coherence. The body paragraph should flow together as one whole. Every word should move the reader toward the demanded verdict, which is your thesis statement.

Use a variety of evidence to support your topic sentence in each paragraph. I suggest that two or three types of evidence per body paragraph is most effective. A good attorney uses a wide variety of evidence. Limiting evidence to one form will weaken your overall argument and not win your conviction. Think of the O.J. Simpson’s “Trial of the Century.” The prosecution overly relied on DNA evidence and failed to convince its jury. All it took was “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit” to provide enough doubt to the jury to acquit the defendant.

After composing the topic sentence, flesh out each evidence strategy in a compound-complex sentence or two separate sentences. Then, analyze the evidence in another sentence. Of course, sometimes it is also appropriate to do the reverse: state a major detail that addresses the topic sentence and then provide the evidence strategy to support that detail.

A good body paragraph might be structured in this way:

• Topic Sentence
• Evidence Strategy #1 Sentence
• Analysis Sentence
• Evidence Strategy #2 Sentence
• Analysis Sentence
• Major Detail
• Evidence Strategy #3 Sentence

Generally, avoid concluding statements in short essays. Concluding statements are helpful when used in longer research papers, following several paragraphs organized by one umbrella topic sentence.

I suggest that you take the time to pre-write before drafting any writing task. Compose your thesis statement first; then, brainstorm the body paragraphs. Next, draft the body paragraphs, skipping space to later write your introductory paragraph. Then, write the introduction. Finish the writing with your conclusion paragraph.

Now you have the right strategies to make your case, using a variety of effective evidence. Using the CeF SCALE evidence strategies will help you convince your jury.

Find 42 sequenced writing strategy worksheets and quickly move students from simple three-word paragraphs to complex multi-paragraph essays. With 64 sentence revision lessons, additional remedial worksheets, writing fluency and skill lessons, posters, and editing resources, the teacher can differentiate instruction with no additional prep with Teaching Essay Strategies.

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