Reading Comprehension

PT131 · S4 · P2 · Q12 Statutory Law

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A proficiency in understanding, applying, and even formulating statutes—the actual texts of laws enacted by legislative bodies—is a vital aspect of the practice of law, but statutory law is often given too little attention by law schools.

Topic

Statutory law and why law schools should emphasize it more in legal education.

Framework

Challenge Position (the author pushes back against the way most law schools under-emphasize statutory law)

Main Point

Law schools focus too much on judicial decisions and case analysis, often neglecting statutory law, but developing skills related to statutes is essential for legal practice, making statutory law a crucial part of legal education even if statutes differ regionally. (The Most Valuable Sentence for the main point appears at the end of the first paragraph and is fleshed out in the final sentence of the passage.)

P1: Law School’s Emphasis on Judicial Decisions

Many law schools tend to focus their teaching on analyzing past court cases, which can give students the wrong impression that legal practice is mostly about interpreting case law rather than directly using or understanding statutes (laws written by legislatures).

P2: The Importance of Statutes in Legal Practice

In real legal work, lawyers often need to consult statutes directly to answer clients’ questions, and while sometimes using statutes is straightforward, accurately interpreting them when things aren’t clear is a vital legal skill.

P3: Teaching Statutory Law Develops Synthesis Skills

Teaching statutory law helps students become better at seeing how different laws fit together as a whole, rather than just analyzing one case at a time—a valuable ability, especially since most law students eventually specialize.

12.

The author discusses the skill of synthesis in the third paragraph primarily in order to

Correct
identify and describe one of
Why this is right
The purpose of a paragraph is usually revealed in its opening sentence. This 3rd paragraph began, "Another skill that teaching statutory law would improve is synthesis." So the paragraph is building the case that we should make sure law schools do a good job teaching statutory law. That's the change advocated in the passage, because "statutory law is often given too little attention by law schools". In the 2nd paragraph the author provides the first benefit of studying statutory law: sometimes the wording of the statute is ambiguous and you're unsure of its relation to your client's situation. In those nebulous situations, a keen ability to interpret statutes would be super useful. In the 3rd paragraph the author provides the second benefit of studying statutory law: you build your ability to synthesize bodies of laws together, by better understanding the interrelations among laws.
Skill tested: Local Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
90% picked this
indicate that law schools currently
Out of Scope: explain why
Nowhere in the 3rd paragraph does the author offer an explanation for why law schools currently value other skills over the skill of synthesis. This paragraph doesn't talk about law schools. We know that law schools currently seem to value studying individual cases and citing precedent, but nowhere in the 3rd paragraph does the author explain why they value that stuff more than synthesis.
1% picked this
argue for the greater importance
Too Strong: greater importance
The author wants to make sure statutory law isn't ignored. She isn't necessarily arguing that it's more important than case laws. So we can't say she's arguing that "knowing how a system of laws interrelate (synthesis)" is a more important skill than "analyzing individual cases". Nothing in the 3rd paragraph sounds comparative. At no point is the author saying that synthesis is more important than something else. She frames her discussion of synthesis as simply "a 2nd benefit we could get by making sure we teach statutory law in law schools".
4% picked this
explain why this skill is
Too Strong: necessary Reverse Causality
Nothing here would support the extreme claim that "Synthesis is necessary for the study of statutory law". Also, that makes it seem like synthesis comes first, but the author was saying that studying statutory law leads to having more skill with synthesis.
5% picked this
provide an example of the
Out of Scope: example / typical problem
Nothing in the 3rd paragraph gets specific enough to qualify as an example. And the author isn't talking about any typical problem encountered in law. The author is talking about a skill that is acquired when you're taught statutory law in law school.
0% picked this

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