Questions

There are two main kinds of questions:  Rhetorical and Factual, and in formal writing, both should be avoided. 

Factual questions are those seeking facts; you ask them because you truly do not know and you need an answer.  Generally, your job when writing persuasive and informative papers is to have the answers.  Therefore, if you don’t know, then why am I reading anything you have to say?

Rhetorical questions are those that are not intended to be answered.  You ask them because you are trying to make a point, such as the one at the end of the previous paragraph.  But what point am I trying to make?  There!  I did it again!  You wanna know why you shouldn’t ask questions?  I’ll tell you!

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Generalizations

Generalizations, at their purist, are syllogistic reasoning.  If A = B, and B = C, then A = C – every time and without exception.  Syllogisms are very tempting to use when making a persuasive argument.  For instance, if everybody who drove a car while intoxicated were to die, it would make a very strong argument not to do that.  However, they don’t.  More...