Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-11-05

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 6.0)

It is often argued that smoking can cause severe health problems and ought to be made illegal. I completely agree with this statement because smoking dramatically increases the mortality rate. In the upcoming paragraph, I will discuss the causes and also give relevant examples.

To begin with, there are many reasons why smoking should be banned. Firstly, it causes life-threatening diseases when people start smoking at a young age, which severely damage their lungs and health. By smoking regularly, they destroy their health. Moreover, when people feel disappointed and stressed in their lives, they start smoking to forget their bad moments, and that creates a big overreliance on cigarettes. Additionally, most of the young people start committing crimes and joining theft groups with this lifestyle. For example, my brother started being violent in our family because he desperately needed money to buy cigarettes. As a result, smoking leads to social harm and decreases their memory capacity at a young age.

In my opinion, if the government takes action for making this illegal, it would be helpful for the young generation and older people. Because most older people suffer from various health issues, banning smoking will protect everyone.

In conclusion, while smoking is a personal choice, its harmful effects on health and society are too significant to ignore. Therefore, making smoking illegal is a necessary step to protect public health and secure a better future for the younger generation. It would be helpful for the protection of pregnant women, because it affects the whole person who stands by the side of a smoker.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear from the opening: you completely agree that smoking should be illegal, and the conclusion returns to protecting public health. You also give relevant reasons, including serious illness, effects on young people, and harm to others through second-hand smoke. However, these points are not developed equally. The claim that smoking leads young people to crime is supported mainly by one personal example, so the link between smoking and criminal behaviour remains unclear. The discussion also shifts between health, stress, and social harm without explaining how each supports a legal ban. Develop fewer reasons more fully, and explain why prohibition—not just education or restrictions—would address them.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion, and signposting such as “To begin with,” “Moreover,” and “In conclusion” helps readers follow the broad direction. However, progression within the body is sometimes mechanical, and several ideas are placed together without a clear connection. For example, the paragraph moves from lung damage to stress, then crime, memory, and social harm. The sentence beginning “In my opinion” forms a very short separate paragraph and repeats the case for a ban rather than extending the previous reasoning. Group related points into focused paragraphs and use clearer links to show how each example supports your position.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of topic vocabulary, including “mortality rate,” “life-threatening diseases,” “overreliance,” and “public health.” These choices show an attempt to express more specific ideas, and the overall meaning remains clear. Some word choices and collocations are less natural or precise, however. “A big overreliance” is awkward, while “joining theft groups” is unclear and does not convincingly express the intended social consequence. “The whole person who stands by the side of a smoker” is also difficult to interpret; “people exposed to second-hand smoke” would be clearer. Aim for precise, conventional collocations and avoid broad claims when a more exact term is available.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including a conditional construction (“if the government takes action…”) and a relative clause (“which severely damage…”). Most sentences communicate the intended meaning, but some grammatical errors and awkward constructions remain. In “diseases…which severely damage their lungs,” the relative clause has an unclear reference, and “Because most older people suffer…” is a sentence fragment when used as a standalone sentence. The phrase “takes action for making this illegal” also shows difficulty with the grammatical pattern after “action.” Work on clause boundaries, clear pronoun references, and verb agreement; these improvements would make your reasoning easier to follow while preserving your range of sentence structures.

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