Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-12

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 6.5)

Smoking is a harmful, addictive habit and can lead to severe health conditions. I strongly believe in this perspective, hence smoking should be banned because it causes passive smoking and major diseases like asthma and cancer.

Nowadays, people are becoming increasingly aware about their health. They are pushing away bad habits and adopting good ones, such as eating a clean diet and exercising. For example, there has been seen a constant decrease in the number of adults smoking and drinking during the past 3 years. The younger generation is showing greater willingness to steer clear from activities that could harm their wellbeing, especially after the Covid19 pandemic. However, I think there is still a vast community that is passionately involved in smoking.

Smoking is not just injurious for yourself, but also for the passerby's who are also inhaling the smoke, and serving as secondhand smokers. Your surrounding could include all types of people, from the elder ones to babies. Their immune systems are especially weaker and could easily catch diseases. The individual itself, is causing slow harm to its internal organs, which could in the future, lead to issues like asthma or even cancer. For instance, a greater number of existing smokers are shifting from traditional cigarettes to cigars and vapes. These devices are even more destructive. Therefore, I believe making smoking illegal is the most efficient way to curb this habit.

In conclusion, even though the population today is self aware about the side effects of smoking, It requires to be banned because of its severe effects to the surrounding and the person itself.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

You have clearly stated your position in the introduction and maintained it throughout the essay. The response addresses the prompt by discussing the health risks of smoking and the impact on others, which supports your argument for a ban. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. The second paragraph focuses on general health trends rather than directly supporting the argument for a legal ban. To reach a higher band, ensure every paragraph directly contributes to justifying why legislation is the necessary solution, rather than just describing the current state of public health awareness.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each with a central theme. You use some cohesive devices such as 'However', 'For instance', and 'Therefore' to link ideas. However, some transitions feel a bit mechanical, and the flow between the second and third paragraphs could be smoother. The referencing is generally clear, though some sentences, such as 'The individual itself, is causing slow harm', contain awkward phrasing that slightly disrupts the flow. Overall, the progression of ideas is easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'injurious', 'wellbeing', and 'passive smoking' appropriately. There are some minor errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'passerby's' (should be 'passersby') and 'self aware' (should be 'self-aware'). While you attempt to use more sophisticated vocabulary, some phrasing is slightly unnatural, such as 'passionately involved in smoking'. Expanding your range of collocations and ensuring precise word forms will help you achieve a higher score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'there has been seen a constant decrease' (passive voice error) and 'It requires to be banned' (incorrect verb pattern). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some unnecessary commas, such as in 'The individual itself, is causing...'. While these errors do not impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and correct passive constructions will improve your accuracy.

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

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