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GRE Argument Prompt (Topic) No. 1 and Sample Essay
The GRE Argument writing task is designed to test your ability to your critical-reasoning and analytic (as well as writing) skills. Your task is to compose an essay in which you provide a focused critique of the stated argument — but not to present your own views on the argument's topic. [Argument format and directions]
Argument prompt No. 1 consists of an argument followed by a directive for responding to the argument. Keep in mind: the argument itself is not from the official pool, and so you won't see this one on the actual GRE.
The following appeared in a memorandum issued by the human-resources department of Capital Bank:
"Capital Bank has always required that its employees wear suits at all times while at work. Last month, Capital’s employee absenteeism and attrition rates both reached all-time highs. In order to reverse these trends, Capital should adopt a company-wide "casual Friday" policy, under which all employees would be encouraged to dress casually for work every Friday. After all, many software companies that boast low absenteeism and attrition rates allow their workers to dress casually while on the job, and those workers often remark that this policy enhances their job satisfaction."
Discuss what questions need to be answered in order to determine whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable.
Each body paragraph identifies and discusses a different question (or set of related questions) that must be answered in order to properly evaluate the recommendation.
Some phrases are highlighted to help you see the structure of the essay and how it responds to the specific directive. (The exam's basic word processor does not provide this feature.)
This essay is brief enough to plan and type in 30 minutes. But it was not composed under a strict time limit. Be assured that you can attain a top score with an essay that's less polished and a bit briefer than this one.
The essay is intended as a benchmark response — one that would earn a top score of 6. But it is by no means "the" correct response to the prompt. Other top-scoring essays might be organized differently or provide supporting examples that are different than the ones given here.
The problem with the recommendation is that it is based solely on certain dubious comparisons with a different industry. To make a convincing argument that a "casual Friday" policy would reduce absenteeism and attrition, the memo's author must address specific questions about Capital's employee preferences, about Capital's other workplace policies and conditions, and about the cited statistics on which the recommendation depends.
One question that must be addressed is whether Capital employees would actually prefer casual over formal work attire at least one day each week. Perhaps they would, in which case the recommendation might be reasonable. However, in my observation finance-industry workers generally prefer to wear formal, expensive work attire in order to convey the sort of authority and wealth associated with their chosen field. If Capital Bank employees are typical in this regard, a "casual Friday" policy might have no positive impact on morale at Capital. In fact, it might even backfire, prompting even more workers to leave the company.
Another question that must be addressed is whether working conditions at the bank have changed and, if so, whether the memo's author considered and ruled out each such change as the actual reason for high absenteeism and attrition rates. Perhaps the former rate was due not to the bank's dress code but to something as obvious as a widespread flu virus. And perhaps the high attrition rate can be explained by a refusal to adjust salaries for inflation. Unless and until the memo's author can rule out these sorts of alternative explanations for last month's high attrition and absenteeism rates, the conclusion that a "casual Friday" policy will solve these problems is tenuous at best.
Two additional questions that must be answered have to do with the cited statistics on which the recommendation relies. First, how many software-industry workers expressed that they experience greater job satisfaction by dressing casually? It would seem unreasonable to draw any firm conclusions from "remarks" made "often" by such workers, unless the remarks were in response to a proper survey of a sufficiently large and representative sample. Second, what were the bank's absenteeism and attrition rates during earlier months and years? The memo indicates only that both rates hit all-time highs last month. Data from one month hardly suffices to demonstrate an ongoing problem at all, let alone one that can be solved simply by changing a dress code. Yet that is what the argument seems to suggest.
In sum, assessing the reasonableness of the recommendation requires answers to questions about the preferences of the bank's employees, about other working conditions that can affect absenteeism and attrition, and about the memo's cited statistics.
