Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-10-18

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)

Nowadays, an increasing number of people think that smoking affect on the public health, and the government should think to take a legal action accordingly. I strongly agree with this trend for many reasons.

One major reason of smoking harmful effects on public health is that there are many people who is Asthmatic. Those people can be affected rapidly from any smoking smell. That smell can cause to them a heavy caughing at the same moment with decreasing the Oxygyn rate in their lungs. Some cases may be ending them to go to the emergency at hospital. Furthermore, this smell can attach easily in clothes . As a result, children and sick people will be affected even with an indirect way.

Another reason why i agree to take a legal action with smokers is that not all people respect smoking sign. It means that some people may smoke in places that shows no smoking without any law respect. For instance, in transportation such as public buses or train, there are people may use a portable Vape. That machine is considered a type of smoking. smokers think because it is portable does not mean it is harmful. This is abosolutely wrong idea. Vape or Cigerate has the same effect on air and public health. As a result, i am wih who argue that smoking should be made illegal.

In conculsion, from my perspective, Smoking can cause a bad effect on children and adults who has a medical case, and i believe a legal action should be taken with any one who think to do smoking in public.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear from the introduction (“I strongly agree”) and remains consistent in the conclusion. You give relevant reasons, especially the effects of second-hand smoke on people with asthma and the difficulty of enforcing no-smoking rules in public transport. These points address the health and public-safety aspects of the topic. However, the response focuses mainly on smoking in public places and does not fully explain why smoking itself should be illegal, including how a ban might address smokers’ own health or what consequences a legal ban would have. The vaping example is relevant to enforcement but needs clearer support. Develop each reason with a specific example and explain how it supports making smoking illegal.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting separate reasons, and a conclusion. Linking expressions such as “Furthermore,” “For instance,” and “As a result” help show relationships between ideas, and the main progression is easy to follow. This meets the lower-band expectations securely and shows some features of stronger organisation. At times, however, connections are mechanical or unclear: “That smell” is repeated, and the link between people ignoring signs, vaping, and making smoking illegal could be explained more explicitly. Improve cohesion by using clearer references and by making each paragraph’s central claim explicit before developing its examples.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some topic-related vocabulary, including “public health,” “emergency,” “portable,” and “legal action,” so the reader can understand the main argument. However, the range is limited and several noticeable word-choice, collocation, and spelling errors make parts less clear or natural. Examples include “smoking affect on,” “a heavy caughing,” “Oxygyn rate,” “abosolutely,” and “Cigerate.” Phrases such as “take a legal action with smokers” and “the same effect on air” also do not express the intended meaning precisely. Build a more accurate set of collocations for health effects, legislation, and enforcement, and proofread spelling and word forms. This would make your ideas easier to understand and more precise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a relative clause (“people who is Asthmatic”) and a result clause (“As a result, children and sick people will be affected”). The overall meaning is usually recoverable, but errors in agreement, verb forms, articles, and sentence construction occur across the response. For example, “smoking affect” needs subject–verb agreement, “people who is” should agree with the plural noun, and “children and adults who has” has the same agreement problem. Some clauses are also awkwardly formed, as in “Some cases may be ending them to go.” Practise checking each sentence’s subject and verb, and use simpler, controlled structures when expressing cause and effect.

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

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