Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-14

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that the best way to discourage smoking is to make smoking illegal in public places. Other people say that this is not enough and that other measures are needed.

Discuss both these views, and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer, and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

People have different perspectives concerning to prevent smoking in public places. While it is sometimes thought that considering smoking illegal act outside, i personally believe that publishing that rule is not enogh, and should consider other aspects acoordingly.

On the one hand, those who claim that it is enough to discourage smoking with preventing it in public places have some reasons. Firstly, many countries respect people's right of freedom. This is means that any one can do anything since it does not conflict with government's rules. people think if smoking becomes illegal will protect the environment air from the pollution, and other public's health without put any more pressure on the smokers. As a result, smokers will do only smoking at their properties.

On the other hand, i side with those who argue that we should consider other measures. To begin with, letting people to smoke at home does not serve the smoking discouragement. I believe that providing campaigns of smoking causes on human health could be one of the main ways to encourage smokers people to stop that habbit. Furthermore, raising up the concept of daily exercises can improve the human desire to stay healthy. This is because, people who exercise everyday would like to eat healthy food and keep on good dietry to improve their health. Thus, we could save the environment air, and people's health as well.

In conclusion, despite the arguments against making smoking illegal in public places, it seems to me that providing campaigns of the harmful effects causes by smoking and encourage people to excercise are more effective.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both views and state your position clearly: you acknowledge the argument for banning smoking in public places, then support additional measures. The ideas about protecting public health and using health campaigns are relevant to the question. However, the first view is not fully explained: the point about freedom is difficult to connect to why a public-place ban alone would be sufficient, and the claim that smokers would then smoke only at home needs support. Your proposed measures are also unevenly developed; campaigns are explained, while the link between exercise and discouraging smoking is less direct. To strengthen the response, explain how each measure changes smoking behaviour and give a specific example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, and a conclusion that restates your opinion. Signposting such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” makes the progression easy to follow. This meets the lower-band expectation of coherent organisation and shows some features of stronger progression. However, connections within paragraphs are sometimes mechanical or unclear. For example, the move from exercise to healthy food and then to saving the air does not establish a clear chain of reasoning. Some references, such as “that rule,” are also vague. Use linking phrases to show cause and effect more precisely, and ensure each supporting sentence clearly develops the paragraph’s main point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “public places,” “pollution,” “campaigns,” and “harmful effects,” so the reader can follow the main argument. However, the range is limited and several inaccurate word choices or collocations make parts of the response awkward or unclear. Examples include “prevent smoking,” “publishing that rule,” “smokers people,” and “save the environment air.” Spelling and word-form errors such as “enogh,” “habbit,” and “dietry” also reduce accuracy. Build a more precise set of phrases for discussing laws, public health, and behaviour change, and check spelling and collocations during revision. This would make your ideas easier to understand and more natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a contrast clause beginning “While” and a reason introduced by “This is because.” These attempts help you express relationships between ideas, but control is inconsistent, and errors sometimes make sentences difficult to interpret. For example, “This is means that any one can do anything” has an incorrect verb construction, while “without put any more pressure” uses an incorrect verb form. There are also problems with sentence boundaries and capitalisation, such as “people think” after a full stop and lowercase “i.” Practise accurate clause construction, verb patterns after prepositions, and subject–verb agreement, then proofread punctuation and capital letters.

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