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Diagramming Practice – Drug Test

Diagram the following conditional statement and find its contrapositive: “Passing a drug test is a precondition of employment in this office.”

Answer

This is a tricky diagramming question because it does not involve our typical diagramming indicator words.  Instead, we have to think about what the sentence is trying to say to figure out how to diagram it.  Notice that the sentence says that a drug test is a “precondition” of employment.  If something is a “precondition,” that is sort of like saying it is a prerequisite, or a requirement.  So, if a drug test is a requirement for employment, that means that it is necessary for employment.  Thus, we put “drug test” on the necessary side of the diagram and “employment in this office” on the sufficient side.

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