Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-09-03
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 recent years, there are significant surge in smoking habits, becoming a detrimental situation in the modern community. Although some individuals believe that a considerable amounts of disease is caused by smoking and should be banned. I am disagree with above notion despite having negative effectives like second hand smoke and lung cancer, banning promotes the illegal market of supply and authorities might face reduction in tax revenue.
First and foremost, habit of smoking may rise the majority of health concerns such as lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. owing to this, people may spend their life either in hospital for potential treatment or might face consequences of the death. Thus, it is the major factor behind serious threats to the life. In addition to that, it may hampers the livelihood of nearby population. To elaborate, secondhand smoking could impose adverse effects on surrounding people since air is totally polluted by chemicals and germs which is existed in the smoking products. As a result, nearby people could undergo through serious medical circumstances.
Nevertheless, banning such things boost not only the supply of illegal market but also eventually increase the crime rate due to fulfill the wish of obtaining smoking products. To illustrate, prohibition is not acceptable by those smokers who consume this products on regular basis, leading significant risk of whether purchasing smoking equipment from black market or criminal activity for occupying products. Moreover, smoking products are sold under heavy tax rate. Therefore, banning such things may become a significant reason for tax reduction which is largely utilized in pubic services and educational industries.
To conclude, although having significant drawbacks of smoking such as dedaly disease and cause a plently of issue to surrounding society, banning should encourages crime rate and black market. However, there is considerable decline in tax income because of prohibition.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 6.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 6.0 |
| Overall | 6.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5
The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position against banning smoking, citing economic and practical concerns. The ideas are relevant and generally developed, though some arguments, such as the link between prohibition and crime rates, could be supported with more specific evidence or nuance. The introduction clearly states the writer's stance, and the conclusion reinforces it. However, the development of the counter-argument regarding health is somewhat repetitive. Overall, the response covers all parts of the task well, providing a balanced view that justifies the writer's position, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.5 or 7.0 level of task response.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5
The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each with a distinct focus. Cohesive devices such as 'First and foremost', 'In addition to that', and 'Nevertheless' are used to guide the reader through the argument. However, there are instances where the flow is slightly mechanical or awkward, such as the transition in the conclusion ('although having significant drawbacks... banning should encourages'). Referencing is generally clear, but some sentences lack smooth connectivity, which prevents the response from reaching a higher band. The paragraphing is appropriate and contributes to the overall coherence of the piece.
Lexical Resource — Band 6.0
The vocabulary is adequate for the task, with attempts to use topic-specific language like 'detrimental', 'prohibition', and 'adverse effects'. However, there are several instances of inaccurate word choice and collocation, such as 'negative effectives' (effects), 'undergo through' (undergo), and 'dedaly' (deadly). The phrase 'fulfill the wish of obtaining' is also slightly unnatural. While the student demonstrates a sufficient range to communicate their ideas, the frequent minor errors in word form and collocation indicate a need for more precise vocabulary control to reach a higher band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0
The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors throughout, including subject-verb agreement issues ('there are significant surge', 'smoking products... which is existed') and incorrect verb forms ('may rise' instead of 'may raise', 'banning should encourages'). Punctuation is generally functional, but some sentence fragments and awkward phrasing hinder clarity. While the meaning is usually clear, the frequency of these errors suggests a lack of control over complex structures, placing the response in the Band 6.0 range.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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