Logical Fallacies with Satire and Listing

Hubby came to me to get feedback on his Satire Project. Part of the project involves students examining the transcript of one of the primary debates and recording the logical fallacies. He came to me to see if I had an idea for what to do with the logical fallacies. I came up with two options: satire lists and comic creation.

Inspired by the research for my listicle article, my mind instantly went to listing.

McSweeny's has great satirical lists. Not all of them are appropriate so make sure you preview lists prior to sharing with students! One type of list they use is set up almost like a quiz. They will have two things they are comparing that could be easily confused: "Email Subject Heading from the Democratic National Convention or Text From an Emotionally Immature Friend?" and then a numbered list of statements for you to determine which was said/written/from which, then there is a small answer key at the bottom. 

How the assignment works for logical fallacies:

1. View one of the 2016 presidential primary debates for one of the two major parties, Democrats or Republicans. Read the transcript of your selected debate. Links to the transcripts of the debates are available at this site: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/debates.php.
2. Locate fallacies committed by the various candidates.
3.   Examine the fallacies and think about some other speaker for whom they could be confused to statirize he tone/maturity/logic/etc. of the debate. For example: Crazy things my uncle says at Thanksgiving or Twitter comments made by a college student who has never actually had a job
4. Refer to http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/email-subject-heading-from-the-democratic-national-committee-or-text-from-an-emotionally-immature-friend for an idea of format and tone
5. Come up with a list of fallacies you create that would mimic your made up speaker
6. Create the answer key for the bottom

Happy satirizing!