Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-20

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)

In this cutting edge epoch, smoking has been played fatal role among human being. I am strongly believer with the given point that smoking is creating serious health problem and it should be stop to produce or cell by communities as well as governments. However, there are many reasons, which given in details below.

First and foremost reason is cancer. In this world, almost 60% of death cause by cancer and WHO - World Health Organization has been reviewed and find out the shocking reason behind the cancer death, which is happed by smoking: cigarettes, weeds, vapes and many more dangerous products. Even companies manufacture these health issues products and cells in markets, which should be totally stopped or banned by government to prevent major death issues by smoking and eventually save majority of human being lives.

Secondly, smoking is not only affecting people's health but it also affects nature by creating pollution all across the society. Because, after smoking, smokers blow the puff in air, which create lots of negative pollution in public and on accord of this reason, some no smoker and environment got affected. Somehow it also creates allergy among non smoker people.

Last but not least, producing smoking product, which affect financially to the nation because some of products: weeds or vapes are banned in some countries and bootleggers buying those products in illegal money, which considering as a black money, which affects to the nations one of the worst ways. Thus, taking all above given points in mind, I am strongly believer of smoking can affect human health, environment as well as nations. Which should be stopped by authorities to produce or cell in country.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The essay addresses the prompt by taking a clear position in favor of banning smoking. However, the development of ideas is somewhat superficial. While you mention health risks, environmental impact, and financial implications, the arguments lack depth and specific evidence. For instance, the claim that '60% of deaths are caused by cancer' is a sweeping generalization that lacks nuance. To improve, focus on developing two strong, well-supported arguments rather than listing several points briefly. The conclusion restates your position, but the overall response would benefit from more sophisticated reasoning and a clearer link between the health issues and the proposed legislative action.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. You use basic cohesive devices like 'First and foremost', 'Secondly', and 'Last but not least' to signal transitions. However, the flow within paragraphs is sometimes hindered by awkward phrasing and repetitive sentence structures. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the final paragraph where the connection between 'black money' and the need to ban smoking is not logically developed. To reach a higher band, focus on using a wider variety of cohesive devices and ensuring that each sentence logically follows the previous one.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but there are frequent errors in word choice and collocation that impede precision. For example, you use 'cell' instead of 'sell', 'happed' instead of 'happened', and 'no smoker' instead of 'non-smokers'. These errors are noticeable and sometimes distracting. While you attempt to use some topic-specific vocabulary like 'bootleggers' and 'authorities', the overall range is limited. To improve, focus on learning the correct collocations for common phrases and proofreading for basic spelling errors, as these significantly impact the clarity of your arguments.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay relies heavily on simple sentence structures, and there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Issues include incorrect verb forms ('smoking has been played'), subject-verb agreement ('some of products... are banned'), and missing articles or incorrect prepositions ('in public and on accord of this reason'). While the meaning is generally understandable, the high frequency of errors prevents the text from reaching a higher band. To improve, practice using complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses or conditional sentences, and pay closer attention to basic grammar rules like verb tense consistency and article usage.

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

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