Cherry Picking

Cherry picking is used metaphorically to indicate the act of pointing at individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position. That is wikipedia’s definition of cherry picking. They also referred to cherry picking in logical fallacies. The “fallacy of anecdotal evidence” tends to overlook large amounts of data in favor of that known personally, while false dichotomy picks only two options when more are available. I took logic last semester so I kind of know what that is talking about but I will explain it to those who do not. Basically anytime you are writing something whether it be an essay, or an argument, if you deliberately leave something out that would disprove your statement you are “cherry picking” in a sense. While writing the papers that we have all been assigned on various topics, I bet there are a lot of people that are “cherry picking” through all of their information and only collecting data and facts that support their opinion on the issue. This is fine and dandy, but you have to remember that a good argument shows both sides. So if you are guilty of this in your paper, I suggest you reconsider it and try to throw in a few curve balls and maybe your paper will open up a new passage.