Chapter 18 of "Everyone's an Author" discusses various fallacies that writers should avoid while creating their texts. Here are three of them:
a. The Ad Hominem Fallacy: This fallacy involves attacking the person making an argument instead of addressing the argument itself. It is a way of trying to discredit the opponent's argument by attacking their character or personal qualities, rather than addressing the argument's validity. For example, instead of addressing the argument that climate change is real and caused by human activity, someone might say, "You can't trust that person because they work for an environmental organization."
b. The False Dilemma Fallacy: This fallacy involves presenting only two options when there are actually more available. It is a way of limiting the choices and making it seem like there is no other alternative. For example, a politician might say, "You can either support our plan for reducing taxes or you can support higher taxes that will hurt the economy." This presents a false choice, as there may be other options that the politician is not acknowledging.
c. The Slippery Slope Fallacy: This fallacy involves suggesting that one event will lead to a chain reaction of events, without sufficient evidence to support the claim. It is a way of creating fear or panic by suggesting that a minor event will have catastrophic consequences. For example, someone might argue that if we allow same-sex couples to marry, it will lead to the destruction of traditional marriage and the breakdown of society. This argument assumes a cause-and-effect relationship between two unrelated events and ignores other factors that may contribute to societal changes.