diff --git a/convert-to-parquet/convert-to-parquet.py b/convert-to-parquet/convert-to-parquet.py
index 2f716b436c80c339acd5063457e367334cd8f5a9..6fea930b5d231604580041ac755481c2350c6b99 100755
--- a/convert-to-parquet/convert-to-parquet.py
+++ b/convert-to-parquet/convert-to-parquet.py
@@ -21,9 +21,9 @@ def parse_args():
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=desc,
                                      formatter_class=argparse.RawTextHelpFormatter
                                      )
-    parser.add_argument('-p','--policy',help="Print the policy the script uses as a template and exit")
+    parser.add_argument('-p','--policy',help="Print the policy the script uses as a template and exit",action='store_true')
     parser.add_argument('-o','--output-dir',help="Directory to store the output parquet. The parquet file will have the same name as the input. Defaults to input_file_dir/parquet")
-    parser.add_argument('-f','--file',required=True,help="Log file from mmlspolicy run to be converted to parquet. Can be either a full log or just a part")
+    parser.add_argument('-f','--file',help="Log file from mmlspolicy run to be converted to parquet. Can be either a full log or just a part")
     args = parser.parse_args()
     return args
 
@@ -96,11 +96,15 @@ def main():
         print_policy()
         exit()
     
-    file   = PurePath(args.file)
-    outdir = PurePath(args.output_dir)
+    if args.file:
+        file = PurePath(args.file)
+    else:
+        exit('Error: must specify a file to convert')
 
-    if not outdir:
+    if not args.output_dir:
         outdir = file.parent.joinpath('parquet')
+    else:
+        outdir = PurePath(args.output_dir)
         
     os.makedirs(outdir,exist_ok=True)