Writing Task 2: The Compulsory Internship Claim
You have 50 minutes to write a 350-word argumentative essay: 'University internships should be compulsory for all undergraduates.' Your source notes include: a careers survey finding that 72% of graduates with an internship were employed within six months, compared with 58% without; the survey had a 31% response rate and covered only the Faculty of Business; an employer quoted as saying 'we prefer candidates with workplace experience'; and a graduate blog arguing that unpaid internships exploit students who cannot afford to work for free. A classmate's draft thesis reads: 'Internships should be compulsory because they guarantee jobs.' Your teacher has warned against absolute claims and asked you to use concession. You must integrate at least two sources and avoid overgeneralising from the survey.
1. Rewrite the thesis so it is defensible and still argumentative.
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Original: 'Internships should be compulsory because they guarantee jobs.' Problems: 'guarantee' is absolute and the survey cannot support it; the thesis also assumes one cause. A defensible version: 'Although the evidence is limited, compulsory internships are justified if universities fund them and embed them in the curriculum, because structured workplace experience improves employment prospects and exposes students to professional practice.' This keeps a clear position, adds a condition, and replaces 'guarantee' with 'improves prospects.' It also signals concession, which the teacher asked for.
2. Does the survey support the word 'guarantee'? Explain.
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No. The survey reports 72% employment within six months for graduates with internships versus 58% without. That is a 14-point difference, not a guarantee: 28% of graduates with internships were not employed within six months. The response rate is 31%, so non-response bias is possible; students who had internships and jobs may have been more likely to reply. The survey covers only the Faculty of Business, so it cannot support a claim about all undergraduates. 'Guarantee' would require near-universal outcomes and a causal design. The honest claim is 'associated with higher employment rates in one faculty'.
3. Write a concessive body paragraph that uses one source and answers one objection.
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Admittedly, unpaid internships can exclude students who need income, and the graduate blog makes this objection sharply. That is a real cost, not a fringe concern. However, the careers survey's 14-point employment gap suggests that workplace experience has labour-market value, and the employer quote indicates that recruitment preferences reward it. The solution is not to abandon compulsion but to design it: stipends, credit-bearing placements, and part-time options can reduce the exclusion risk. This concession strengthens the argument because it shows the policy can be defended on fairness grounds, not only on employment rates.