Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-03

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)

In contemporary society, the younger generation has a habit of smoking. Some people contend smoking can lead to serious illnesses and should be banned and made illegal. Therefore people should protect from harmful effect. I partially agree with this statement and relevant examples will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

To begin with, a smoking activity should be banned because there are substantial drawbacks. First and foremost, smoking can cause chronic diseases like asthma which is a very dangerous disease and also it contains tabacco so it can lead to cancer also. For instance, a person who smokes have higher changes of cancer and asthma because of frequent exposure. In addition, passive smoking also can increase serious illnesses, thus who are not smoking but stand near to the smoker, it can equally damage to non-smoker people.

Conversely, smoking is personal choice and habit, hence some people believe that smoking should not be made illegal. Firstly, a smoker cannot easily quit smoking if they suddenly stop smoking, it could cause adverse effects which is more chronic than disease. For example, a person who has smoked two packs of cigarettes every day for 20 years may experience intense headaches, mood swings, difficulty concentrating, and severe cravings after quitting suddenly. Moreover, it creates illegal markets if government banned smoking and habitual smokers give a high pay for illegal products.

To sum up, although smoking is personal choice, it has more drawbacks and negative development. I believe that, smoking should be completely banned because passive smoking is a very harmful and causes chronic diseases.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, providing a clear position that is partially in agreement with the statement. The ideas are relevant, such as the health risks of smoking and the potential for illegal markets if a ban were implemented. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the argument regarding the 'illegal market' is introduced but not fully explored in terms of its societal impact. The conclusion is a bit repetitive, restating the initial position without adding further depth. To reach a higher band, you should aim to expand on your supporting points with more detailed explanations or nuanced examples.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, each with a central theme. The use of cohesive devices like 'To begin with', 'For instance', and 'Conversely' helps guide the reader through the argument. However, some transitions feel a bit mechanical, and the referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the sentence 'thus who are not smoking but stand near to the smoker, it can equally damage to non-smoker people', which lacks grammatical cohesion. Improving the flow between sentences and ensuring that pronouns clearly refer to their antecedents would enhance the overall coherence of the piece.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, allowing the message to be conveyed clearly. You use some topic-specific terms like 'chronic diseases', 'passive smoking', and 'adverse effects'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'smoking activity' (better as 'smoking') and 'high pay for illegal products' (better as 'pay a premium for illicit goods'). There is also a spelling error: 'tabacco' should be 'tobacco'. To improve, try to incorporate more sophisticated vocabulary and ensure that words are used in their correct collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede the flow. For example, 'people should protect from harmful effect' is missing a reflexive pronoun and an article. The sentence 'a person who smokes have higher changes' contains a subject-verb agreement error ('has') and a word choice error ('chances'). Additionally, there are issues with punctuation and sentence fragments. Increasing your control over complex structures and proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and article usage would significantly improve your score.

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