Name: L Th Vit Hng

Class: 12E18

ARGUMENT ANALYSIS TASK

Argument 1:
The following appeared in a newspaper article about law firms in the city of
Megalopolis. "In Megalopolis, the number of law school graduates who went to work
for large, corporate firms declined by 15% over the last three years, whereas an
increasing number of graduates took jobs at small, general practice firms. Even
though large firms usually offer much higher salaries, law school graduates are
choosing to work for the smaller firms most likely because they experience greater job
satisfaction at smaller firms. In a survey of first-year students at a leading law school,
most agreed with the statement that earning a high salary was less important to them
than job satisfaction. This finding suggests that the large, corporate firms of
Megalopolis will need to offer graduates more benefits and incentives and reduce the
number of hours they must work."
Argument Analysis
This article concludes that large, corporate law firms of Megalopolis should offer law
graduates more benefits and incentives as well as decrease working hours to attract
more law school graduates. To support this conclusion the author notes that during the
last 3 years the number of new law-school graduates choosing to work for small firms
has risen by 15%. The author also cites a survey at one leading law school in which
most first-year students indicated that job satisfaction was more important than salary.
I find this argument logically unconvincing in several respects.
First and foremost, the argument rests on the unsubstantiated assumption that the
students preference to work for small, general practice firms is responsible for the
15% decline in the number of students who went to work for the large, corporate firms
over the last three years. Yet logic and common sense inform me that the results might
have been due instead to one or more other factors. Perhaps graduates still prefer to

work for large corporate firms but these firms have had fewer and fewer job openings
for them over the last three years. Perhaps an increasing number of customers turn to
small and medium law firms to enjoy lower-priced services so they recruit more
graduates. In short, without considering and ruling out alternative explanations for the
15% decline, one cannot say that graduate students no longer favor large firms
because they experience greater job satisfaction at smaller firms
Furthermore, the reliability of the survey the author cited is questionable because the
opinions of first-year law students do not necessarily reflect those of junior students. It
is likely that a law student's job orientation can change over a three-year period.
Similarly, since this is a survey conducted in one single leading law school in the city,
the opinions of these first-year students cannot represent those of all law-school
graduate students in whole Megalopolis city. In short, lacking assurances that firstyear students are statistically representative of all law-school graduates, the author
cannot draw any reliable conclusions based on the survey.
Finally, the author fails to establish a connection between job satisfaction and benefits,
incentives and the reduction of work hours to make such recommendation. It is a
common knowledge that such an abstract definition as job satisfaction can be
characterized distinctively by each individual. To some people, job satisfaction means
big monetary rewards; while other may consider a friendly working environment and
cooperative colleagues as the most important factors to feel satisfied. If so, reducing
working hours as the author recommends may prove ineffective.
In sum, the argument is logically flawed and therefore unconvincing as it stands. To
strengthen it, the author must either account for other possible reasons for the 15%
decline in the number of students who preferred to work for large, corporate firms, or
supply persuasive evidence that the first-years student were representative of the total
law school graduates. Finally, to better evaluate the claim that raising salary and
incentives may attract more graduates, I would need more information about how a
majority of law-school graduates in Megalopolis define job satisfaction.