Writing Tip- Avoid Fallacies in Logic

There are more than two dozen fallacies in logic. As a writer, you should become aware that your reader may have critical thinking skills that will easily see any fallacy (or mistake in reasoning) in your logic arguments.

Fallacies in Logic Resources:

• Common Logical Fallacies
• http://www.fallacyfiles.org/

Some highly manipulative writers who have a very strong grasp of most of the major fallacies in logic exploit these to coerce their reader into believing one way of thinking. Example: Candidate X is so popular right now, he’s or she’s the best Presidential candidate for 2008. (bandwagon fallacy, that assumes you’ll support this candidate because he or she is the most popular rather than the best choice for the job).

I’m not certain that all fallacies in logic are ‘bad’, but a good student of logic should become very aware to identify when you’re either identifying a fallacy in logic that someone else wrote or you’re writing a bad reasoning fallacy in logic yourself without conscious awareness. Make sense?

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 21, 2007 at 8:19 am

Views 207 | Comments (5)

Just an Author or The Authority?

You can become the expert and become the “Authority” in your niche by becoming “The Author.”

But, being an “Author” is really a cultural construct in general society just like being an “Expert Author” on EzineArticles is an awarded status to anyone who we accept (1) or more article submissions… yet are they really an expert in the “Authority” sense?

The market reputation of EzineArticles.com largely stems from the perception of the market of the collective authority of our members. Without the “authority” level author/member, we’d be no different than many copycat competitor sites.

This begs the question that we’d like to hear your thoughts & comments on:

How do you become the Author who writes from a place of Authority?

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Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 18, 2007 at 9:50 am

Views 1,943 | Comments (166)

The Gender Genie Blinks

Ok, this is just for fun: Inspired by an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, the Gender Genie attempts to predict the gender of the author.

Tip: Test it with 500 words of text or more in order to get best results. When I tried it with a few hundred words, it guessed wrong, but it guessed right with more than 500+ words.

Apparently the algorithm gives a various-weighted round of points to FEMININE keywords (With, If, Not, Where, Be, When, Your, Her, We, Should, She, And, Me, Myself, Hers, and Was) vs. a various-weighted scale to MASCULINE keywords (Around, What, More, Are, As, Who, Below, Is, These, The, A, At, It, Many, Said, Above and To).

One of the conclusions I was able to determine is that this algorithm assumes men write with a style that is *informational* and women write with a style of *involvement*. What do you think?

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 17, 2007 at 1:12 pm

Views 246 | Comments (18)

Pet Experts Are Loved At EzineArticles

*PETS* as a series of sub-categories have been removed from the *HOME & FAMILY* main category and given their own main PETS category:

• Pets: Birds
• Pets: Cats
• Pets: Dogs
• Pets: Exotic
• Pets: Farm-Ranch
• Pets: Fish
• Pets: Horses
• Pets: Reptiles-Amphibians

If you’re an expert in any of the above Pets categories, here’s your call to submit your best original articles in exchange for exposure and traffic sent back to your website. Fluffy and Fido will love you for it.

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 16, 2007 at 10:32 am

Views 214 | Comments (7)

Your Author Name In Resource Box

A simple but very powerful credibility boosting tip:

Always include your AUTHOR NAME (otherwise known as your BY-LINE) in your RESOURCE BOX (located directly below your article body).

Failure to do this tells the reader that you’re not really an expert or you don’t feel confident enough in the quality of your works to take credit for writing it. If you want your readers to believe, trust and have confidence in what you’ve written, have the courage to claim your content by putting your name on it in the resource box (in addition to the by-line as normal). Make sense?

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 15, 2007 at 10:36 pm

Views 363 | Comments (14)

Ya Got 5 Hours

Your Membership interface has received a round of security enhancements that are designed to do two things:

1. Expire your session in 5 hours so that your session doesn’t remain active in perpetuity.
2. Discourage members from linking to their membership interface URLs on other public websites.

The downside to the new security protocols is that you can no longer share a URL from within your membership interface session with someone else, but the upside is that you won’t mistakenly give control to anyone else over your account.

Lastly, keep in mind that from the time you log in, you have 5 hours to do whatever it is that you want to do and the 5 hours is from your last action (meaning the last time you executed something within your interface… Typing text in a submission form is not an action, but submitting it or saving it as a draft or clicking to view your reports is an action). Any questions?

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 15, 2007 at 9:10 am

Views 246 | Comments (9)

Review of Words That Work by Frank Luntz

I’m reading a book by Frank Luntz that came highly recommended by someone I trust called: “Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear“

The essence of his message is that crafting the right words along with the effective use of language can help you get more of what you want from life because most people hear or read and understand your messages in ways that are usually far different than the way you’d understand your own words.

It’s about using words that motivate and influence readers based on their viewpoint connections and not your own…and that the words you use to convey your message will determine whether your readers will be receptive to the rest of your message.

Luntz is very good at constructing phrases (otherwise known as *framing* or *framing an issue*) for political campaigns, so I warn you that if you’re an extreme left wing voter, you may not like this book…as he’s clearly of only Republican DNA.

I like that Luntz is on the right track thinking about ways to use words that invoke an emotional response. His thoughts can also help you beyond simple article writing as his messages are aimed at helping you become a better communicator.

The book reads like stories and examples rather than the usual bullet points type books that I enjoy. One of his theories that I’m sure is true is that how you define determines how you are received. The way you position an idea linguistically (page 45) must affirm & confirm an audience’s context because without that, you won’t provoke or evoke the exact response you want.

Knight grade = Thumbs up, especially for copywriters and article writers hoping to communicate & influence their reader with more decisiveness.

Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 14, 2007 at 8:17 am

Views 291 | Comments (11)

Give Search A Try Again

We’ve been innovating with our internal search engine and found a way to enhance the speed of the EzineArticles internal search engine found in the left navigation. Please give it a try and let us know what you think of the results or how you’d like to see the results changed enhanced further?

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Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 13, 2007 at 7:03 pm

Views 340 | Comments (4)

Juris Doctors and Esquires

EzineArticles only allows doctoral level designations author name for the by-line (Dr. / Ph.D / MD / DPM / etc. ), even though we do allow authors with any title to add their title after their name in the Resource Box below the article body.

We wrongly assumed that JD (Juris Doctor) was a doctorate level degree when in fact it means that the undergrad (or more) student has passed his or her bar exam… similar to an accounting major who passes his or her CPA exam.

After much deliberation this week, we’ve decided that it’s good to have more ‘lawyer’ friends as members and therefore we’ll allow JD or Esq (short for Esquire) in the author by-line; even though they may not be doctorate level. We will not allow “Attorney At Law” or “Lawyer” in the by-line, but we will allow it in the Resource Box.

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Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 11, 2007 at 8:56 am

Views 278 | Comments (9)

Article Comments Traffic

On the issue of allowing comments on articles, EzineArticles Expert Author “Joe” writes:

First, thank you for promoting me to Platinum status. It’s been a long time coming and I’ve worked hard for it. Next, I have a complaint, not against you guys, but against people that are able to post comments on our articles.

Theoretically, anyone who is a member here can go to any article they wish, post a comment with their name as a hyperlink and basically steal not only my potential traffic, but yours as well. I say “yours as well” because your Adsense ads and affiliate links don’t reside on their sites. I have a total of two comments on my articles and both provide a link to a competitor’s site. It seems as if it’s easier to divert traffic from our hard work than to write the articles.

I’m just putting in my two cents worth here, but do you understand my point? That’s not right that someone should put in the research, time, effort and shared expertise only to have someone post a short comment with a link AWAY from our own article. What do you think? Please share your view on this.

Joe, thanks for sending me your thoughts and agreeing to allow us to post your question so that I can provide an in-depth response:

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Posted by Christopher M. Knight on May 10, 2007 at 11:32 am

Views 516 | Comments (12)

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