Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-12

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 5.5)

Smoking is dangerous for health and affect health adversely. Some people believe that it should be banned. I partly agree with this viewpoint and in my opinion, smoking should be banned at public areas because it is unhealthy for both smokers and non-smokers.

To begin with, smoking should not be made illegal because there are so many people who have smoking addiction and cannot quit it in a short span of time. If government makes it illegal then such individuals will face serious difficulties in becoming non-smokers. For example, a person who has been smoking for many years may find it difficult to quit it after a complete ban and there is extensive medical proofs that quitting smoking cause short-term physical and psychological side effects such as irritability, restlessness, and mood swings. Therefore, a complete ban is not a viable solution.

However, government can impose higher taxes on products that are made up of tabaco this will help many individuals to minimize their addiction. Moreover, banning smoking at public places will benefit non-smokers as they will not face any health issues related to second hand smoking. Lastly, regular health campaigns can make people aware about the consequences of smoking

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, which significantly impacts the development of ideas. While you present a clear position and address the prompt, the arguments are underdeveloped. For instance, the point about addiction is relevant, but it lacks sufficient depth or supporting evidence to fully explore the 'extent' of your agreement. The conclusion is also missing, leaving the essay feeling incomplete. To improve, you must expand on your points with more detailed explanations and examples to reach the required length and provide a more comprehensive discussion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the flow of ideas. You use some basic cohesive devices like 'To begin with', 'However', and 'Moreover' to signal transitions. However, the progression of ideas is somewhat limited due to the brevity of the response. The connection between sentences is generally clear, but the overall structure lacks the sophistication required for higher bands. To improve, ensure that each paragraph contains a clear topic sentence and that you use a wider variety of cohesive devices to link ideas more fluidly within and between paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task but remains quite basic. You use some topic-specific terms like 'addiction', 'side effects', and 'second hand smoking', which is positive. However, there are some minor errors in word choice, such as 'medical proofs' (should be 'medical proof' or 'evidence') and 'tabaco' (spelling error: 'tobacco'). The range of vocabulary is limited, and there is little attempt to use less common or more precise lexical items. To improve, focus on learning collocations and synonyms to express your ideas with more precision and variety.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical errors, such as 'affect health adversely' (should be 'affects'), 'at public areas' (should be 'in public areas'), and 'quitting smoking cause' (should be 'causes'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the lack of a concluding sentence or paragraph. To improve, focus on subject-verb agreement and proofreading for small errors. Incorporating a wider range of complex sentence structures, such as conditional clauses or relative clauses, would also help demonstrate better grammatical control.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.