Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-11-14

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 believed that people who smoke suffer from serious diseases, and the government should take steps to ban it in the country. I believe that this could increase the smuggling of cigarettes in the area, so the government should take safety precautions to reduce their use.

Firstly, if smoking becomes illegal, people who are addicted to it will be unable to survive without it; their health will be affected, and they will start looking for illegal ways to buy it. It will increase the number of smugglers, who will charge them more money. In Pakistan, smoking was banned 5 years ago, which increased the illegal trade of cigarettes and vapes, and the crime rate was also at a peak. In fact, the illegal trade of cigarettes will pose serious risks to human health because there will be no safety regulations to measure the quality of the tobacco in them.

On the other hand, if policies will make to run campaigns that provide free education to young adults about the diseases that occur from smoking, such as heart diseases and lung cancer, they will avoid using them. For example, in Australia in 2006, the government launched a policy to run anti-smoking campaigns in schools and universities, and the results of this measure were shocking that smoking reduced to nearly 40 percent in the country. It would be better if counseling centres opened in every city for people who want to quit but are unable to do so.

In summary, a ban on smoking will increase the crime rate and decrease the quality of cigarettes. Campaigns and counselling centres can play a better role to reduce the smoking.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you oppose making smoking illegal and favour measures to reduce its use. You address the main issue by explaining that prohibition could encourage smuggling and by proposing education and counselling as alternatives. The examples about Pakistan and Australia also help make the discussion relevant. However, some points are asserted rather than fully explained. For instance, the claim that a ban would raise the crime rate needs a clearer link or support, and the Australia example would be stronger if you explained how the campaign produced the reported reduction. Develop the reasons more carefully and make your degree of agreement explicit in the conclusion to address all parts more fully.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting the risks of prohibition and alternatives, and a concluding summary. Sequencing words such as “Firstly” and “On the other hand” help readers follow the contrast, and the examples are placed alongside the relevant arguments. Some connections are less smooth or precise, however. The first paragraph moves from addiction to smuggling, then crime and product safety without fully showing how each point follows from the previous one. The conclusion repeats the main ideas but does not clearly restate your position. Use more explicit links between claims and explanations, and ensure pronouns such as “it” and “them” have unmistakable references.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “smuggling,” “illegal trade,” “safety regulations,” “heart diseases,” and “counselling centres.” These choices communicate the main ideas, and some are appropriately specific to public health and policy. However, several expressions are imprecise or do not collocate naturally, such as “suffer from serious diseases,” “safety precautions to reduce their use,” and “the results … were shocking that.” Repetition of “smoking,” “illegal,” and “increase” also limits flexibility. Aim for more precise phrasing and vary how you refer to tobacco use and its consequences. Check word forms and collocations so that your vocabulary sounds natural as well as relevant.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentences, including conditional structures such as “if smoking becomes illegal” and a relative clause in “smugglers, who will charge them more money.” Most of the argument remains understandable, but some grammatical errors affect accuracy. For example, “if policies will make to run campaigns” has an incorrect conditional construction and missing passive form; “smoking was banned 5 years ago, which increased” also presents the relationship between events awkwardly. There are issues with articles and number in “the smoking” and “heart diseases,” as well as the construction “the results … were shocking that.” Practise accurate conditionals, passive forms, and sentence patterns for reporting results while retaining your attempts at complex sentences.

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