avoid common writing errors?lie persuasively?publish a book?avoid the logic error of incorrectly using anecdotal evidence?avoid the logic error of incorrectly using the "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" fallacy?

SOYOUWANNA AVOID COMMON LOGICAL ERRORS?

2. DO NOT "BEG THE QUESTION"

We should start out by clarifying something. "Begging the question" is entirely separate from "prompting the question" or "suggesting the question." Many people incorrectly use the term "begging the question" to refer to anything which makes people curious or puts them in mind of a question they'd like answered. That's wrong. Begging the question refers to the practice, in argument, of assuming something which is material to the point you're trying to make. Another way of putting this is that you beg the question when the truth of your conclusion is assumed by the premises that purport to prove it.

For example: "We should not adopt gun control because unacceptable impositions on our liberty cannot be tolerated." If the premise of this argument, i.e. that "unacceptable impositions on our liberty cannot be tolerated," is construed to be relevant to the conclusion about gun control, then the premise must assume that gun control is an unacceptable imposition. If that's the case, then of course we shouldn't adopt it, but that argument begs the question of whether or not gun control is a good thing.

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