Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-11

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 is often argued and i completely agreed smoking can causes serious illnesses and it should be made illegal .The main reason is that smoking spread serious illnesses and severe diseases on to the human s and enviromental health.

Firstly,smoking involves smoke burning tobacco or plant material.Millions of the people along the worldwide, despite health risk.The main reason is that the young generation people often start young due to peer pressure or stress so that the reason ,they are addicted to take nicotine ,which are very dangerous to the health.For example ,in Bangladesh 2020 there younger people were badly effected to take nicotine by the smoking ways and almost 2 Billion young community were dead by the lungs damage and by the mouth cancer which were caused to to smoking.

Secondly ,should be made illegal that involved significant public health concern balanced against personal freedom and economic health because inhaling smoke from others harms non smokers including children and people with breathing problems .For instance, in 2022 German people were died by the heart diseases and lungs cancer .It also cause chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases ( COPD ).So, in Germany it was considered illegal because smoke spread serious and severe illnesses on the public human health.

To sum up ,I believe that smoking is a harmful habit driven by addiction and initiated by social pressure .Because it destroys health and shortens lives, quitting smoke or preventing people from is essential for a healthy world .Government should take any step to reduce this .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that smoking should be illegal. However, the development of ideas is inconsistent. While the essay attempts to provide reasons, the supporting arguments are often unclear or rely on inaccurate, hyperbolic statistics (e.g., '2 Billion young community were dead'). The connection between the arguments and the conclusion is present but lacks depth. The essay covers the main points required by the task, but the lack of logical development and the use of questionable data prevent it from reaching a higher band. To improve, focus on providing more realistic, well-reasoned arguments rather than relying on unsupported or extreme claims.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate, such as the repetitive use of 'The main reason is that' and awkward transitions like 'So that the reason'. Referencing is sometimes unclear, and the flow between sentences is frequently disrupted by grammatical errors. While there is a basic logical progression, the lack of sophisticated linking words and the occasional confusion in sentence structure mean that the cohesion is not always effective. Improving the variety and accuracy of transition signals would significantly enhance the readability of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is generally limited and repetitive. There are frequent errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'smoking ways', 'badly effected', and 'quitting smoke'. Some terms are used incorrectly, which occasionally causes confusion for the reader. While the essay manages to convey the basic message, it lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. To improve, you should focus on learning common collocations related to health and social issues and ensure you are using words in their correct grammatical form (e.g., 'affected' vs 'effected').

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a high frequency of grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('smoking can causes', 'it should be made illegal that involved'), incorrect pluralisation ('human s'), and awkward sentence construction. Punctuation is also inconsistent, with spaces missing after commas and periods. While the meaning is generally understandable, the errors are pervasive and occur in both simple and complex structures. To reach a higher band, you need to focus on basic sentence construction, ensuring that subjects and verbs agree and that punctuation is used correctly to separate ideas.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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