Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-10-26
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)
Over the past years,smoking has become an serious problem worldwide.Smoking has led to many dangerous diseased and it should be completely banned.I agree that this probem can only be solved if restricted fully.
Firstly,smoking can cause many health related problems such as mainly lungs and heart issues ,which are prevailing at an alarming rate these days.People are facing such helath issues due to which they are suffering either with major helath problems or dying.Therefore,if smoking will be iilegal,then may people lives are saved.
Secondly,smokers are not as affected as elderly and young people comes under the negative influence of this smoking.passive smokers are facing hurdles than active smokers. For example ,pregnant women can easily affected by the smoking in the air.Thus banning of such iilegal activities offers more prosperity among people.
Thirdly,budern on government increases when ratio of sick people increases .People with smoking habbits usually get sick and face many diseases which are harmful and not easy to cure.many expensive medical tretaments are required to cope up with such diseases.If this acticity will be banned ,then government do not need to spend money on helathcare system.
To sum up,I would like to reiterate that smoking is harmful for everyone whether they are active or passive smokers.I believe banning is a solution to make a world better place to live.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
Your position is clear from the opening: you agree that smoking should be banned, and you give relevant reasons concerning smokers’ health, passive smoking, and pressure on government healthcare spending. These points address the question, but they are not developed equally. The discussion of pregnant women is a useful example, while the claims about illness and public costs would benefit from a specific illustration or explanation of how a ban would reduce harm. The conclusion restates your view but adds little. The response also falls 30 words short of the required minimum, so there is less space to explain and support your ideas. Develop each reason with a clear example and explain how it supports your position.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5
The essay has a clear overall structure: an introduction, three body paragraphs signposted with “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “Thirdly,” and a concluding summary. This makes the main line of argument easy to follow. The progression from direct health effects to passive smoking and then government costs is logical. To strengthen cohesion further, make links between claims more precise rather than relying mainly on sequencing words. For example, “Therefore” and “Thus” introduce consequences, but the reasoning connecting the evidence to those consequences is brief. Some references, such as “this activity” and “such diseases,” could be clearer if the preceding idea were developed more fully. More explanation within paragraphs would create smoother progression and stronger connections between sentences.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “passive smokers,” “pregnant women,” “government,” and “healthcare system,” so the reader can understand the subject and your main points. However, the range is limited and several inaccurate word choices, collocations, and spelling errors make the writing less precise. Examples include “dangerous diseased,” “major helath problems,” “habbits,” and “cope up with.” Some phrases, such as “offers more prosperity among people,” do not express the intended benefit naturally. Aim to learn accurate word partnerships for health and public policy, and proofread spelling carefully. More precise vocabulary would help you explain the consequences of smoking without relying on repeated general terms such as “problems” and “diseases.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
You attempt both simple sentences and longer structures, including a relative clause in “issues, which are prevailing…” and conditional forms such as “if smoking will be illegal.” However, the range is limited, and errors in sentence construction and verb forms sometimes make the meaning difficult to follow. For example, “if smoking will be illegal, then may people lives are saved” has an unclear conditional structure, while “elderly and young people comes” has a subject–verb agreement problem. Articles and sentence boundaries also need attention, as in “an serious problem” and the run-on punctuation in “worldwide.Smoking.” Practise accurate conditional patterns and check agreement, articles, and punctuation when editing.
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