ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY: UNPAID INTERNSHIPS SHOULD BE LEGALISED

In our society, students are expected to get an internship in order to complete their studies
and graduate from their university. An internship can be defined as temporary work
arrangements to gain experience in students’ fields of studies for academic credits. There are
many unpaid internships compared to paid ones. However, should unpaid internships be
legalized or not? Standing on our points of view, we strongly believe that unpaid internships
should not be legalized (stance) in contrary to the opinion of most people because many unpaid
interns receive no legal protection from discrimination (thesis statement) and it is also unfair to
profit from interns’ work when they are not paid for it (thesis statement). Even so, it is
undeniable that unpaid internships enable the company to give the intern a certificate without
making any payment (thesis statement) and that students have the opportunities to impress the
company. (thesis statement)
Firstly, unpaid internships will cause many unpaid interns to receive no legal protection
from the company (topic sentence/P1). Even though there is a law that protects employees from
sexual harassment and discrimination, many senior employees that have worked at the company
for a long time still take the advantages to bully and discriminate the weak ones, especially
interns. It can go to the point where it gets extreme and they could get depressed from it. When
there is no legal protection which covers those who are not considered as the employees of the
company, these seniors would not be afraid to push the interns around (supporting details).
Thus, internships should be paid so that interns would get the legal protection from this kind of
abuse (restate P1).
Next, another reason why unpaid internships should not be legalized is because it is
unfair for an employer to profit from the work of an intern when he or she is not paid for it (topic
sentence/P2). In today’s world, people should get paid for anything that they worked for. If not,
employers would get the results for free and this could be seen as taking advantage on a student
when the student just wants to get some experience in that field of work (supporting details).
Hence, an employer needs to pay for the work of an intern to be fair to everyone (restate P2).
Despite that, some people think that unpaid internships should be legalized because the
company would give the intern a certificate without having to make any payment (topic
sentence/C1). Meanwhile, students may still be eligible to receive the academic credits for the
work that they have done. This is because colleges or universities require students to complete an
internship in order to graduate. Besides, the interns are also able to build on their resume while
working towards getting a degree (supporting details). Because of that, getting a certificate
should be enough for interns even if they are not paid during the internship (restate C1).
 Other than that, unpaid internships also provide the opportunity for students to impress
the company (topic sentence/C2). Over their time working at the company, interns could try to
create their future job prospects because companies would evaluate their quality of work during
their internship period. Students can also learn about the working environment from inside of the
company and see whether or not they fit the work culture. This way, they can learn while making
themselves a strong candidate to be recruited by the company (supporting details). In
conclusion, students will have the time to impress the company during the internship (restate
C2).
To sum up, an unpaid internship has its own disadvantages because interns will receive
no legal protection from workplace abuse and it is also unfair to make them work hard when they
are not paid for it. (restatement of pro arguments) However, it is also said to have the
advantages as the company will give the intern a certificate without having to make any payment
and the students have time to impress the company during their internship period. (restatement
of counter arguments) From our standpoint, we think that unpaid internships have more
disadvantages than advantages (opinion). Hence, we once again totally disagree on the motion
that unpaid internships should be legalized. (restatement of stance)