Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-10-07

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 recent years, this topic has become a subject of considerable debate.

I strongly agree that, smoking can cause serious illnesses and should be made illegal. According to my perspective, the main reason is that smoking can be detrimental for health. It has a crucial effect on our lungs. When we inhale smoke, it would directly impact on your inner parts especially lungs.

Another factor is that, it is a extremely toxic habit. One thing that is involved in cigrettes is the ''nicotine'' and it is intensely addictive. People use this chemical compound in tabacoo. I firmly believe that, this would damage physically and mentally to any person.

For instance, my father was a smoker. He smoke on daily basis after meal. He was extremely addicted. In old age, he has encountered significant challenges regarding health such as cough, lungs and stomach issues. Doctors said, due to intensive smoking we can not escape his life.

Before death, he advised me to prevent from smoking.

As a result, I would like to assert that, smoking is injurious to health. It can have a harmful effects on our health. In today's era, young generation is smoking for exhibit to others. But, over the period of time they will substantial effects on health. On the other hand, government should take immediate actions against smoking. Indeed, goverment is earning from smoking but humanity should be our first priority. Government can play vital role to made illegal in constitiution and those who use should face serious challnges and fines.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear from the start: you strongly agree that smoking should be illegal, and you give relevant reasons about health risks, nicotine addiction, and the government’s role. The account of your father provides a personal example, while the final paragraph returns to your main view. However, some points are less fully developed: the effects on health are repeated rather than explained in detail, and the argument for making smoking illegal could address how a ban would work or why it is preferable to regulation. The response also contains 244 words, six below the required minimum; this limits the space available to develop your reasoning and examples. Add a fuller explanation of the policy argument and meet the minimum length.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, paragraphs giving health-related reasons and a personal example, and a concluding paragraph. Connectors such as “Another factor,” “For instance,” and “As a result” help signal the direction of the argument. However, progression is sometimes repetitive: the conclusion restates that smoking harms health without clearly synthesising the reasons. Some links are also awkward or unclear, such as “On the other hand” before a point that supports your position, and “Before death” is not smoothly connected to the preceding account. Group related ideas more tightly, use transitions that show the actual relationship between points, and make the conclusion follow directly from the argument.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “addictive,” “nicotine,” “toxic,” and “significant challenges,” and the reader can generally understand your meaning. However, the range is limited and several word choices, collocations, and spelling errors make the writing less natural: “detrimental for health,” “intensely addictive,” “exhibit to others,” and “made illegal in constitution” are awkward or inaccurate. There are also misspellings such as “cigrettes,” “tabacoo,” and “goverment.” Aim to learn common collocations for health and public policy, and check spelling carefully. More precise phrasing would help you express the argument without repeating general terms such as “harmful effects.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a conditional-style explanation beginning “When we inhale smoke” and a relative clause in “those who use.” Meaning is usually recoverable, but errors in sentence structure, verb forms, agreement, articles, and punctuation occur across the response. For example, “I strongly agree that, smoking…” has an unnecessary comma, “He smoke on daily basis” has an incorrect verb form and missing article, and “it can have a harmful effects” has an agreement error. The sentence about doctors and your father’s death is also difficult to interpret grammatically. Practise accurate past-tense narration and subject–verb agreement, and proofread sentence boundaries and commas while retaining your attempts at varied structures.

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