Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-30
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 most nations, it is believed that smoking could endanger peoples health. It can cause serious health issues and should be made illegal by the government. I strongly agree with this because it causes lungs damage and contributes to crime in the society.
The primary reason why smoking should be band from the community is because of its damage to lungs. Some of the people who indulge in this usually come down with lungs problems, It could be lung cancer. During this time, some family members are subjected to loss all they have saved to medical care. As a result, it leads to hunger and poverty. Although, there are households that has the money but it does not justify it. For example, a nation with several people both young and old smoking will face serious crisis with lung issues. Some researchers said that 80 percent of the young adults are into different kinds of harmful smokes globally.
On the other hand, smokes of different forms should be illegal because it contributed to crime. Many of the individuals sometimes are out of their budget, borrows money or steal to satisfy their cravings. It causes addictions which needs to be taken by all means. For instance, there has been an increase in crime in some countries. people leaping of others for money to purchase cigar or marijuana .
In conclusion, smoking is harmful and dangerous to health that the authorities should enforce a strict rules against it . It would encourage the mass to deviate from smoking.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position in favor of banning smoking. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. While the health argument is clear, the link between smoking and crime is tenuous and lacks logical depth, making the argument feel slightly underdeveloped. The essay covers all parts of the task, but the reasoning provided for the second point (crime) is not fully convincing or well-supported with relevant examples, which limits the overall impact of the argument.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, each with a central topic. There is a logical progression from the introduction to the body paragraphs and the conclusion. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly awkward, such as the transition 'During this time' or 'Although, there are households that has the money'. Referencing is generally clear, but the flow between sentences could be improved to make the connections between ideas more natural and less repetitive.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the precision and variety required for a higher band. There are several instances of incorrect word choice or collocation, such as 'band' instead of 'banned', 'lungs damage' instead of 'lung damage', and 'leaping of others' which is unclear. While the student attempts to use some topic-specific vocabulary like 'addictions' and 'marijuana', the overall range is limited, and errors in word form occasionally distract the reader.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'households that has the money') and article usage. Punctuation is also inconsistent, with misplaced commas and periods. While the meaning is generally clear, these persistent errors in basic grammar and sentence construction prevent the writing from reaching a higher level of accuracy.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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