Description
Each student will assess the fallacious arguments being made by the candidates currently running for President.
Visit the C-SPAN website or other news sites to watch 1 or 2 speeches given by each candidate (available through the "videos" section below).
Once you have watched each candidate's speeches, you can begin evaluating their arguments and reasoning.
Your paper should discuss the fallacious arguments made by each candidate. Specifically, your paper should:
- Explain what argument(s) the candidate is making and how the argument(s) is being made.
- Tell which type(s) of fallacious argument(s) are being made (be specific).
- Explain why each specific argument may be seen as effective despite its lack of reasoning.
- Speculate about how the argument could be changed to make the argument valid.
The paper should have at least 1 page of discussion for each candidate (minimum 5 pages). The paper should address all parts of the questions above and conform to all paper requirements for this course (see the syllabus). Students will likely have to use multiple examples from each candidate to reach the page requirement.
Republicans
- Ted Cruz
- John Kasich
- Donald Trump
Democrats
- Hillary Clinton
- Bernie Sanders
Videos of Speeches
http://www.c-span.org/search/?sdate=&edate=&searchtype=Videos&sort=Most+Recent+Airing&text=0&tagid%5B%5D=275Fallacies Rubric
Criteria | Ratings | Pts | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arguments |
| 10 pts | |||
Fallacious Arguments |
| 10 pts | |||
Argument Strength |
| 10 pts | |||
Validity |
| 10 pts | |||
Writing |
| 10 pts | |||
Total Points: 50 |