Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-07-29

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)

It has been observed that, the smoking can cause serious illnesses and can be made illegal. I agree with the given statement to a large extant. My inclination is elaborated in ensuing paragraph and relevant examples.

The foremost arguments to justify my stand is that protects public health Example: Due to smoking it can cause the diseases like lung's cancer, heart related issues as well as mouth cancer these are the major diseases that caused by the smoking. Secondly, Reduce healthcare cost Example: The government of Pakistan spend less money for the treatment related to the smoking persons.

Furthermore the other reason to tell my point is that Protects non-smokers Example: Banning smoking can cause the huge reduce by the deceases that are caused by smoking. If people do not smoke they can live a healthy life. Moreover, Discourage Young peoples: Making smoking illegal can safe many persons specially the teenager that are growing young could be safe from the bad habits of the smoking.

Moreover, Banning smoking companies: Example: the government need to take a strong steps against the company who create the cigarette as well as other harmful smoking materials.

To conclude the discussion, it can be said that smoking can causes serious illnesses and it should be banned permanently. I fully agree with this types of the statement.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position in favor of banning smoking. However, the development of ideas is limited and repetitive. The essay fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, which significantly impacts the depth of the argument. While you provide reasons such as public health, healthcare costs, and protecting non-smokers, these points are presented in a list-like format rather than being fully extended or supported with sophisticated reasoning. To improve, you should expand on each point with more detailed explanations and ensure you meet the length requirement to allow for a more comprehensive discussion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay uses basic cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Furthermore' to organize ideas. However, the structure is somewhat mechanical, and the paragraphing is inconsistent. The use of 'Example:' as a label within the text is inappropriate for an academic essay; these should be integrated into the sentences using linking words like 'For instance' or 'Specifically'. The progression of ideas is clear, but the lack of sophisticated transitions and the reliance on a repetitive structure hinder the flow of the argument. Improving the variety of cohesive devices will help the essay read more naturally.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. There are several instances of awkward phrasing and word choice errors, such as 'the smoking persons' instead of 'smokers' and 'deceases' instead of 'diseases'. You rely on simple, repetitive vocabulary throughout the text. To achieve a higher score, you should aim to use more precise academic collocations and avoid repeating the same terms. Expanding your vocabulary to include topic-specific terminology related to public policy and health would be beneficial.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and some attempted complex structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors. Issues include incorrect article usage ('the smoking'), subject-verb agreement ('smoking can causes'), and awkward sentence construction ('the government of Pakistan spend less money'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the use of commas. While the meaning is generally clear, these persistent errors demonstrate a lack of control over complex structures. Focusing on basic sentence accuracy and proofreading for common errors like pluralization and verb forms will help improve your score.

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