The CES Letter is Crowd-sourced

The CES Letter is a crowd-sourced compilation of many anti-Mormon arguments. The document is presented as a personal letter written by Jeremy Runnells to a CES director. The author never received a reply. The letter was first written in 2013 and posted on an ex-Mormon Reddit. Later that year, Runnells created a website to house the Letter: cesletter.com. The CES Letter has been through some title changes and has had at least one major revision in 2017. According to the website, the major change was a softened tone. 

There are various errors in the research presented in the CES Letter, some of which might be considered purposeful deceptions. There are also facts presented in the letter. It can be difficult to discern which pieces of evidence are fact and which are not, especially considering the other rhetorical strategies used in the CES Letter. One of the significant rhetorical strategies used in the Mormon CES letter is gish gallop. 

Gish gallop is a term that describes a speaking and writing strategy in which the speaker or writer presents an immense amount of information to the audience at once. This is meant to overwhelm the listener or reader with the surplus of arguments. In the CES Letter, this tactic can be seen in the frequent repetition of information. The CES Letter uses this strategy to great effect.