Outliers: The Story of Success

1. Outliers: The Story of Success By  Malcolm Gladwell 

2. Introduction  Genre Outliers: The Story of Success is a nonfiction work.  Nonfiction is writing about real events; however, nonfiction is not necessarily true, it just has a claim of truth The author shapes his or her message by carefully choosing which information to include and which to exclude.  The emergence of creative nonfiction writers (Rebecca Skloots) has blurred the line between fiction and nonfiction. Creative nonfiction may contain re-created dialogue or composite characters, it still remains essentially fact-based.

3. Genre Malcolm Gladwell is credited as having pioneered a genre of nonfiction that book reviewers now refer to as "Gladwellian." Outliers examines academic theories from Sociology and psychology through a narrative lens, which allows a broader audience to understand these complex theories. Gladwell cites case studies, academic texts, experts, and other data, but he relies primarily on  anecdotes to provide his examples and evidence.  The tone of his work is more conversational than academic. 

4. Genre Outliers is also a form of social commentary. Gladwell examines social systems and cultural values and reveals how they are flawed.  He also recommends how these systems and values could be changed so the benefit more people than they currently do. Since Gladwell makes such recommendations and uses rhetorical devices to convince readers to accept his arguments, Outliers can be considered a piece of persuasive writing.

5. Logic and Arguments  Logic is the science of the formal processes used in thinking and reasoning. Arguments are composed of three elements: a claim, which is the position being argued for, also called a conclusion; grounds or evidence used to support the claim; and warrants, which explain why the grounds prove the claim. Two main types of argument—deductive and inductive. A deductive argument is strictly based on formal logic. Inductive Arguments evaluated based on whether the grounds provide legitimate support for the truth of the conclusion.  

7. Logic Fallacies A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning, namely an argument in which the premises do not provide adequate support for the conclusion. In a deductive argument, if the conclusion or any of the premises are false, the argument has committed a formal fallacy. An informal fallacy is a defect in the content of the argument, not the structure. The majority of logical fallacies are informal. Gladwell has been accused of committing, either intentionally or unintentionally, a few key logical fallacies and of citing others’ fallacious arguments in Outliers. 

8. • Appeal to Common Practice is the assumption that if most people perform an action or practice, then that action or practice is correct, moral, reasonable, or justified.  Appeal to Novelty is the assumption that if something is new, it is good or correct. • Cum Hoc is the assumption that because two events occurred together, they must be causally related, ignoring that fact that correlation is possible without causation. • Description of Division is the inference that what is true for a whole must be true of its parts even though no justification for this inference is provided. • Hasty Generalization occurs when a conclusion is based on too few observed examples. • Ignoring a Common Cause is the assumption that if two events occur together, one must have caused the other, ignoring the possibility that a third factor may have caused both of the events. • Misleading Vividness occurs when a few dramatic examples are used to outweigh a significant amount of statistical evidence. • Post Hoc is the assumption that if one event occurred after another, it must have occurred as a result of the rst event. • Straw Man is an argument that fabricates, misrepresents, or otherwise distorts a position, refutes this weaker, misrepresented position, and concludes that the original position has been refuted. 

9. The Matthew Effect "For unto everyone hat hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." (See Handout)

10. Lewis Terman  (See Handout)

11. Kipp Schools (See Handout)

12. Outliers: The Story of Success By  Malcolm Gladwell