{"id":4587,"date":"2023-02-03T19:00:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T19:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/?p=4587"},"modified":"2025-03-12T05:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T05:32:17","slug":"what-is-a-red-herring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/what-is-a-red-herring","title":{"rendered":"What is a red herring logical fallacy? Definitions and examples"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"main-content\" data-grid=\"col-12\">\n<p class=\"c-paragraph-3\">You won\u2019t need a fishing rod to identify red herrings in your writing, but they might seem a bit fishy to your audience. Improve your writing by learning the meaning of a red herring. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"full-bleed-image\">\n        <picture class=\"c-image\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/081-What-is-a-red-herring-logical-fallacy-1600x600-1.jpg\" media=\"(min-width:767px) and (max-width:1600px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/081-What-is-a-red-herring-logical-fallacy-1600x600-1.jpg\" media=\"(min-width:540px) and (max-width:767px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/081-What-is-a-red-herring-logical-fallacy-1600x600-1.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/081-What-is-a-red-herring-logical-fallacy-1600x600-1.jpg\" alt=\"A swarm of red herring fish\" \/>\n    <\/picture>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"links-menu\">\n<h2>Table of Contents<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n            <a href=\"\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/what-is-a-red-herring#red-herring-meaning\">What is the meaning of a red herring logical fallacy?<\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li>\n            <a href=\"\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/what-is-a-red-herring#red-herring-vs-strawman-logical-fallacy\">Red herring vs. strawman: What\u2019s the difference?<\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li>\n            <a href=\"\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/what-is-a-red-herring#how-people-use-red-herrings\">How do people use red herrings?<\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li>\n            <a href=\"\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/what-is-a-red-herring#red-herring-origins\">Where did red herring originate?<\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li>\n            <a href=\"\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/what-is-a-red-herring#red-herring-examples\">Examples of red herrings<\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A red herring may seem more suited to fishing than writing, but this fallacy can weaken your persuasive arguments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-4587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a red herring logical fallacy? Definitions and examples \u2013 Microsoft 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Using a red herring means distracting from the original topic in an argument. Learn the definition of red herring and how to identify one in your writing through examples.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"What is a red herring logical fallacy? Definitions and examples \u2013 Microsoft 365\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Using a red herring means distracting from the original topic in an argument. 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Definitions and examples \u2013 Microsoft 365","twitter_description":"Using a red herring means distracting from the original topic in an argument. Learn the definition of red herring and how to identify one in your writing through examples.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/m365contenthub.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/081-What-is-a-red-herring-logical-fallacy-800x550-1.jpg","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/what-is-a-red-herring","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365-life-hacks\/writing\/what-is-a-red-herring","name":"What is a red herring logical fallacy? 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