Pathos -- your connection to the audience's emotions and needs

1. The appeal to evidence that can't be examined
   • The argument that natural design infers a designer
2. The appeal to what others are doing or have done, or the appeal to what you assume others do
   • common practice ("the way it's done")
   • tradition ("the way we've always done it")
   • popularity/bandwagon ("everybody's doing it")
3. Provincialism/"The devil you know"
4. The red herring (evidence that may or may not be true, but which definitely distracts the audience from more important flaws in your argument)
   • The NEW charitable pleas (and scams that look like charitable pleas) arising in the wake of, and invoking the memory of, the 9/11 tragedy

Ethos -- the audience's view of your credibility

1. The appeal to false authority
   • product endorsements
2. Ad hominem (the act of attacking the arguer instead of the argument)
3. Strawman (an oversimplification of an opposing argument which is much easier to burn to a crisp than the argument itself)

References

An index of logical fallacies, including examples and tactics for dealing with them

Logos -- the facts and how they're organized

1. Begging the question (restating your claim in different words; circular reasoning -- this begs the audience to question your judgment :-))
   • Assuming a part can't fail because it hasn't failed; stating that it hasn't because it can't
   • "I like it because it's good; it's good because I like it."
2. The no-win scenario (a caricature of an argument in which all possible outcomes are bad)
   • "When did you stop beating your wife?"
3. The zero-sum game (a type of no-win scenario in which there are only two opposite outcomes, both bad or having bad side effects)

   Both the Zero-Sum Game and the No-Win Situation arise from oversimplification of a problem.

   • With zero-sum, we can't find face-saving choices. Do we under-inflate tires and risk blowouts? Or inflate properly and risk flipping our SUVs?
   • With no-win, we're blind to possibilities we can't see readily by the strength of whatever's obvious. Do we
     • extend the design stage and watch our market window close?
     • manufacture an incomplete design?
     • design fast and get sloppy?
     • intentionally cut corners?
     • abandon the project altogether?
     • force increased progress reports until the problem goes away?

4. The broad brush (assuming a small population has characteristics representative of a large)
   • "All engineers are nerds." :-)
5. The slippery slope (assuming that a single action will lead to a sequence of worsening results; a "domino effect")
6. Mistaking correlation with cause-and-effect (this often happens in failure investigations)