Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-17

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 7.0)

Smoking is always a menace for society. It is affecting the life of individuals in numerous ways. I certainly agree with the statement that smoking leads to various cardiovascular diseases and should be banned by the government.

Smoking has detrimental effects on both the active smokers and the passive smokers. Most individuals smoke in public places or around their families or friends and this practice can cause issues to them as well because they are inhaling the same harmful air as them. Moreover, smoking cigarettes or being in such an environment can cause diseases especially associated with lungs such as lung cancer and asthma. This is because lungs are the major organs involved in the smoking. Additionally, teenagers are also addicted to smoking e-cigarettes known as 'vapes'. These vapes are the modern version of traditional cigarettes and are destroying the life and health of the young generation in the same way.

All these tobacco products such as cigarettes, vapes and nicotine tablets should be banned by the government and they should run awareness campaigns to educate the population regarding its harmful outcomes. This should be done through TV adverts, social media, posters, and education camps in neighborhoods. Additionally, individuals who are smoking in public should be heavily penalized by law enforcement authorities. Consequently, this could contribute towards better and healthy lifestyles of citizens and reduce stress on the healthcare system. For example, prohibited sales and declaring trade of tobacco products illegal significantly reduced the cancer cases in India.

To sum up, the consumption of tobacco can negatively affect individuals and their families. Authorities should ban the sale of such products and raise awareness among individuals. Therefore, I believe a balanced approach, combining careful planning with strong and strict laws against tobacco, is the most practical solution.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response7.0
Coherence and Cohesion7.5
Lexical Resource6.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy7.0
Overall7.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, clearly stating a position in favor of banning tobacco products. The ideas are relevant and supported by examples, such as the mention of India's experience with tobacco regulation. The argument is well-developed, covering both the health risks to active and passive smokers and the role of government intervention. To reach a higher band, the student could provide more nuanced discussion regarding the potential economic or social challenges of such a ban, which would demonstrate a more sophisticated level of critical thinking and task development.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.5

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each paragraph has a central theme, such as health impacts in the second paragraph and government solutions in the third. Cohesive devices like 'Moreover', 'Additionally', and 'Consequently' are used effectively to link ideas. However, the transition between the discussion of health risks and the introduction of 'vapes' could be smoother. The paragraphing is appropriate, and the progression of ideas is easy to follow throughout the response.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is generally appropriate and sufficient for the task. The student uses topic-specific terms such as 'cardiovascular diseases', 'passive smokers', and 'law enforcement authorities'. There are some minor issues with collocation, such as 'destroying the life and health' (which is slightly unnatural) and 'major organs involved in the smoking'. While the range is adequate to convey the message clearly, the use of less common lexical items is somewhat limited. Expanding the range to include more precise academic collocations would improve the score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 7.0

The student demonstrates a good control of grammar with a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. Most sentences are clear and error-free, though there are occasional slips, such as 'the life of individuals' (should be plural 'lives') and 'involved in the smoking' (the article 'the' is unnecessary here). Punctuation is generally accurate. To achieve a higher band, the student should aim for a greater variety of complex grammatical structures, such as conditional sentences or passive voice constructions used more consistently to enhance the formal tone of the argument.

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

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