Loaded Question Question Pack: Critical Thinking, Comic, Comprehension
Loaded Question Question Pack: Critical Thinking, Comic, Comprehension
Loaded Question Question Pack: Critical Thinking, Comic, Comprehension
FREE
You won't be charged yet
Description
Alfred Dreyfus's judges never asked whether he had sold military secrets. They asked when he had started - and any answer confirmed what the question had already decided.
A loaded question is a question with a false or unverified assumption baked into the framing. "Have you stopped lying?" assumes lying happened. "When did you first start selling our secrets?" assumes secrets were sold. The question isn't asking for information - it's announcing a conclusion and asking the target to respond within it. The trap is elegant: answering looks like you're accepting the assumption. Refusing to answer looks like you have something to hide. There's no clean exit.
You hear it everywhere: "Have you stopped lying to me yet?" "When did you first realise you weren't cut out for this?" "Why do you always have to make things so difficult?" The verdict was in the question. The answer was never the point.
This free expansion pack teaches you to ask "what is this question assuming - and has that assumption been established?" - through a true historical story, real-life examples, and activities that feel nothing like homework. It's the companion to the full Loaded Question Activity Pack and a free preview of the upcoming book, 24 Fallacies and the Historical Disasters That Followed.
⭐ Rated 5.0 by people who now win arguments
THE STORY INSIDE
In 1894, a memo was found suggesting someone in the French army had been selling military secrets to Germany. The army needed someone to blame. Without solid evidence, they settled on Alfred Dreyfus - a French army officer who was Jewish, which made him a convenient target in a military culture rife with antisemitism.
His trial was less an investigation than a performance. Judges asked questions like "When did you first start selling our secrets?" - questions that assumed guilt before a word of evidence was presented. Any answer Dreyfus gave confirmed the thing the question had already decided. He couldn't say "no." The question hadn't offered that option.
He was convicted, stripped of his rank, and sent to Devil's Island - a penal colony off the coast of South America. He spent years there.
The real culprit, Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, was eventually identified. He was quietly acquitted.
Dreyfus was later pardoned. The question that convicted him had assumed what it should have been required to prove.
The pack closes with the one question that exposes a loaded question every time: "What is this question assuming - and has that assumption been established?" Because a question that smuggles in a verdict isn't asking for truth. It's asking you to confirm one that's already been decided.
WHAT'S INSIDE
📖 Illustrated True Story - how Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason through questions that assumed his guilt before a word of evidence was presented - and spent years on Devil's Island while the real culprit went free
🔍 Real-Life Examples - spot the Loaded Question in courtrooms, advertising, political interviews, and everyday conversation
✏️ Activities - written questions, Going Deeper analysis, Spot it in the Wild, graphic organiser, and Draw Your Own Comic Strip
📋 Answer Sheet - for whoever's playing referee
WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT
Most fallacy resources are a definition on a slide and a matching worksheet. This pack shows the fallacy destroy lives in a true story, makes you recognise it in your own conversations, then sends you hunting for it in the wild. That's how it sticks.
WHO IT'S FOR
→ Anyone 11+ who's sick of losing arguments they were right about
→ The smartest person you know - this is their gift (see also: the other 23)
→ Homeschool families and teachers who want critical thinking that doesn't feel like a chore - yes, it works in classrooms too
WHAT YOU'LL RECEIVE
Free digital download. Includes A4 and US Letter sizes at 300 dpi - print as a booklet or as individual pages. Arrives in your email.
COLLECT THE FULL SET
This is one of 24 free expansion packs - one for every logical fallacy in the series. Each has a matching full activity pack with an illustrated comic, true history story, and more activities. Find the full series at duchessandbruno.com.
Coming soon: 24 Fallacies and the Historical Disasters That Followed - the book behind the series.
FOR THE TEACHERS
Aligns with ACARA Critical and Creative Thinking, UK National Curriculum English/Citizenship, and US Common Core ELA (Grades 6+). We promise the students will never know it's curriculum-aligned.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "We're now catching ourselves using the fallacies which I didn't think would happen. A 10/10 resource!" - Kylie
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Really clever and funny comics. I wasn't expecting them to be so funny." - Sandra
NEED HELP?
Contact us at info@duchessandbruno.com - we'll sort it out.
TERMS OF USE
For personal or single-classroom use only. Not for sharing, reselling, or commercial use.
Connect with us:
Instagram: @duchessbruno
Facebook: Duchess and Bruno
Website: www.duchessandbruno.com
Description
Alfred Dreyfus's judges never asked whether he had sold military secrets. They asked when he had started - and any answer confirmed what the question had already decided.
A loaded question is a question with a false or unverified assumption baked into the framing. "Have you stopped lying?" assumes lying happened. "When did you first start selling our secrets?" assumes secrets were sold. The question isn't asking for information - it's announcing a conclusion and asking the target to respond within it. The trap is elegant: answering looks like you're accepting the assumption. Refusing to answer looks like you have something to hide. There's no clean exit.
You hear it everywhere: "Have you stopped lying to me yet?" "When did you first realise you weren't cut out for this?" "Why do you always have to make things so difficult?" The verdict was in the question. The answer was never the point.
This free expansion pack teaches you to ask "what is this question assuming - and has that assumption been established?" - through a true historical story, real-life examples, and activities that feel nothing like homework. It's the companion to the full Loaded Question Activity Pack and a free preview of the upcoming book, 24 Fallacies and the Historical Disasters That Followed.
⭐ Rated 5.0 by people who now win arguments
THE STORY INSIDE
In 1894, a memo was found suggesting someone in the French army had been selling military secrets to Germany. The army needed someone to blame. Without solid evidence, they settled on Alfred Dreyfus - a French army officer who was Jewish, which made him a convenient target in a military culture rife with antisemitism.
His trial was less an investigation than a performance. Judges asked questions like "When did you first start selling our secrets?" - questions that assumed guilt before a word of evidence was presented. Any answer Dreyfus gave confirmed the thing the question had already decided. He couldn't say "no." The question hadn't offered that option.
He was convicted, stripped of his rank, and sent to Devil's Island - a penal colony off the coast of South America. He spent years there.
The real culprit, Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, was eventually identified. He was quietly acquitted.
Dreyfus was later pardoned. The question that convicted him had assumed what it should have been required to prove.
The pack closes with the one question that exposes a loaded question every time: "What is this question assuming - and has that assumption been established?" Because a question that smuggles in a verdict isn't asking for truth. It's asking you to confirm one that's already been decided.
WHAT'S INSIDE
📖 Illustrated True Story - how Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason through questions that assumed his guilt before a word of evidence was presented - and spent years on Devil's Island while the real culprit went free
🔍 Real-Life Examples - spot the Loaded Question in courtrooms, advertising, political interviews, and everyday conversation
✏️ Activities - written questions, Going Deeper analysis, Spot it in the Wild, graphic organiser, and Draw Your Own Comic Strip
📋 Answer Sheet - for whoever's playing referee
WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT
Most fallacy resources are a definition on a slide and a matching worksheet. This pack shows the fallacy destroy lives in a true story, makes you recognise it in your own conversations, then sends you hunting for it in the wild. That's how it sticks.
WHO IT'S FOR
→ Anyone 11+ who's sick of losing arguments they were right about
→ The smartest person you know - this is their gift (see also: the other 23)
→ Homeschool families and teachers who want critical thinking that doesn't feel like a chore - yes, it works in classrooms too
WHAT YOU'LL RECEIVE
Free digital download. Includes A4 and US Letter sizes at 300 dpi - print as a booklet or as individual pages. Arrives in your email.
COLLECT THE FULL SET
This is one of 24 free expansion packs - one for every logical fallacy in the series. Each has a matching full activity pack with an illustrated comic, true history story, and more activities. Find the full series at duchessandbruno.com.
Coming soon: 24 Fallacies and the Historical Disasters That Followed - the book behind the series.
FOR THE TEACHERS
Aligns with ACARA Critical and Creative Thinking, UK National Curriculum English/Citizenship, and US Common Core ELA (Grades 6+). We promise the students will never know it's curriculum-aligned.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "We're now catching ourselves using the fallacies which I didn't think would happen. A 10/10 resource!" - Kylie
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Really clever and funny comics. I wasn't expecting them to be so funny." - Sandra
NEED HELP?
Contact us at info@duchessandbruno.com - we'll sort it out.
TERMS OF USE
For personal or single-classroom use only. Not for sharing, reselling, or commercial use.
Connect with us:
Instagram: @duchessbruno
Facebook: Duchess and Bruno
Website: www.duchessandbruno.com