• Contact Us
  • Student Login
  • My Cart

LSAT and Law School Admissions Blog

You are here: Home / Conditional Reasoning / Conditional Diagramming Part I: “Or” in the Sufficient Condition

January 30, 2016

Conditional Diagramming Part I: “Or” in the Sufficient Condition

Conditional Diagramming Part 1

Diagrams with multiple sufficient conditions can, depending on the circumstances, then be used to create multiple single diagrams. Let’s look at an example.

Consider a rule that reads: “If Operations or Sales is offered, then Accounting is also offered.”

Operations = O
Sales = S
Accounting = A

As a single conditional statement, there are two parts to the sufficient condition (O and S), that are joined by an “or” operator. That sufficient condition leads to a necessary condition of A:

O
or → A
S

This is a fully integrated diagram that contains all of the information in the given sentence.

However, because of the “or” operator, the occurrence of either individual component of the sufficient condition (O or S) will force the necessary condition to occur. Thus, if O occurs, then A must also occur:

O → A

And if S occurs, A must also occur:

S → A

Thus, writing out the two statements separately is equally valid. The decision is a personal one, and it also depends on aspects of the other rules (sometimes other rules link to only part of this rule, or don’t link neatly, etc).

Note that if the operator in the sufficient condition is “and” instead of “or,” two separate statements cannot be written out because it will be the joint occurrence of the two elements in the sufficient condition that forces the necessary condition to occur.

More on Conditional Diagramming

  • “And” in the Necessary Condition
  • “If But Only If” in Logical Reasoning Questions
  • Working with “Only”
  • Advantages of the Unless Equation
FacebookTweetPinEmail

Posted by Dave Killoran / Conditional Reasoning, LSAT Prep / Conditional Reasoning, Diagramming, Logical Reasoning, LSAT Prep Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Attend a PowerScore Webinar!

Popular Posts

  • Podcast Episode 168: The 2025 US News Law School Rankings
  • Podcast Episode 167: April 2025 LSAT Recap
  • Podcast Episode 166: LSAT Faceoff: Dave and Jon Debate Five Common Test Concerns
  • Podcast Episode 165: February 2025 LSAT Recap
  • Podcast Episode 164: State of the LSAT Union: 2024 Recap and 2025 Preview

Categories

  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!