Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-09-22

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)

Nowadays, smoking become a serious health issue. Some masses reckon that it should be banned, I agree that smoking causes serious health problem and government should have to take strong steps to reduce it. However, I do not believe that completely banning is the most effective solution.

To emark on, There are several reasons why smoking is considered a serious public health issue. First and the foremost, cigarettes contain harmful substances that can increase the risk of diseases such as lung cancer, heart diseases and other respiratory problems. Moreover, smoking does not only affect smokers themselves, it also effect near by populace also when inhaling second hand smoke and suffer negative health effects. For example, children who are frequently exposed to cigarette smoke may develop respiratory problems. Lastly, reducing smoking can improve the health of both individuals.

Furthermore, making smoking completely illegal could create several difficulties. Some adults have smoked for many years and may find it extremely difficult to stop suddenly. In addition, a completely ban could also lead to illegal sales and a black market, making cigarettes more difficult for government to regulate. Instead of it government can introduce strong restrictions, such as increases taxes, banning smoking in public places, providing free or affordable support for people who want to quit.

In my view, government should focus on reducing smoking rather than making it illegal. A combination of education, strict regulations, higher tobacco taxes and smoking quit programmes can encourage people to starting quit it.

In conclusion, although smoking causes serious illnesses and should be stronly controlled, I do not completely agree that it should be made illegal. A carefully regulated approach is likely to address the health ricks while avoiding some of the problems associated with a total ban.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing the health risks of smoking while exploring the extent of agreement regarding making it illegal. The writer adopts a clear position from the introduction, arguing that while smoking causes serious illnesses and requires strict control, an outright ban is ineffective. Ideas are appropriately extended and supported with relevant examples, such as the impact of secondhand smoke on children and the rise of a black market if banned. Although some points could be slightly more deeply developed, the main arguments are well-reasoned and directly answer the task question.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay displays a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Information and ideas are arranged coherently, with a distinct introduction, body paragraphs addressing separate arguments, and a concluding summary. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately to group related ideas. Cohesive devices are employed adequately, such as 'To emark on' (intended as To begin with), 'Furthermore', 'Moreover', and 'In conclusion'. However, there are some minor mechanical errors in referencing and transition phrases, which prevent this criterion from reaching a higher band. Overall, the flow of ideas remains easy to follow for the reader.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'respiratory problems', 'second hand smoke', 'black market', and 'regulated approach'. However, there are notable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as 'Some masses reckon' instead of 'Some people believe', 'To emark on' instead of 'To begin with', 'effect near by populace also' instead of 'affect nearby people', and 'starting quit it' instead of 'quitting'. Despite these inaccuracies, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning without impeding communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating conditional ideas and relative clauses. There are, however, frequent grammatical errors and awkward phrasing that persist, such as 'smoking become a serious health issue' (tense agreement), 'government should have to take' (modal usage), 'completely banning' (gerund usage), and 'a completely ban' (article error). Punctuation and comma splices also occur, such as in the opening sentence ('Some masses reckon that it should be banned, I agree...'). While these errors do not impede overall communication, they prevent the text from achieving a higher band score due to the frequency of structural inaccuracies.

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