Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-07-27

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Smoking can cause serious illnesses and should be made illegal.

To what extent do you agree?

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

Student answer (Band 6.5)

In this contemporary era, Smoking is being the root cause of many life threatening illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, some masses suggest that it should be completely banned by government. I vehemently agree with the notion that smoking is dangerous however, making it illegal is not the permanent solution.

The main reason I agree with the given statement is that the WHO studies suggest that the life expectancy of smokers is 5% is less than the non-smoking people. Whenever, a person smokes, the nicotine in the cigarette

cause burns in the lungs and respiratory systems which in long run, turns the lungs blacks, consequently cause mouth cancer and sometimes heart failure too. Apart from this, smoke coming out of cigarettes harm the children, pregnant women and elderly to a great extent. Thus, putting a restriction on use of tobacco can reduce the number of affected people. For example, some countries like Singapore, has put restriction on smoking in public places and it had shown evident results in their medical records too.

In my standpoint, putting a ban on smoking would promote the black market for cigarettes since a large proportion of population is addicted to smoking. As a result, a surge in crime rate will be evident. Along with this, most of the smokers are youngsters therefore, banning from government will depict excessive intervention and promote rebellious behaviour.

However, in order to control it, government can implement strick laws and high penalties on use of tobacco in particular places and some socials campaigns will prove helpful too.

In conc

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, providing a clear position that smoking is dangerous but should not be made illegal. The ideas are relevant and generally well-developed, such as the discussion on the black market and the potential for rebellious behavior among youth. However, the essay ends abruptly with 'In conc', which is an incomplete conclusion. This is a significant omission that prevents the essay from being fully developed. Despite this, the main arguments are clear and supported by examples like Singapore’s public smoking restrictions, which demonstrates a good understanding of the task requirements.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a transition to a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Therefore', 'Apart from this', and 'In my standpoint', which help guide the reader through the argument. However, the cohesion is sometimes mechanical, and the abrupt ending disrupts the overall flow of the text. Paragraphing is present, but the lack of a finished conclusion impacts the overall coherence of the piece. The progression of ideas is generally logical, moving from the health risks to the practical implications of a ban.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task. You use some good collocations and topic-specific terms like 'cardiovascular diseases', 'life expectancy', and 'black market'. There are some minor errors in word choice and phrasing, such as 'some masses suggest' (which is unnatural) and 'turns the lungs blacks' (grammatical error). You also use 'strick' instead of 'strict'. While you attempt to use more sophisticated vocabulary, the range is somewhat limited, and there are occasional inaccuracies that slightly hinder the precision of your expression. Expanding your range of synonyms and focusing on correct collocations would improve this score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors throughout the text, such as 'Smoking is being the root cause' (incorrect tense), 'Whenever, a person smokes' (unnecessary comma), and 'banning from government' (awkward phrasing). Subject-verb agreement is also inconsistent, for example, 'the nicotine... cause burns'. While these errors are noticeable, they do not generally impede communication. You have attempted complex structures, but they are not always error-free. To reach a higher band, you should focus on improving accuracy in sentence construction and reducing these recurring grammatical slips.

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