Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-20

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 7.0)

In the contemporary society, the devastating health effects of smoking and tobacco consumption have significant attention. It is also frequently argued that smoking causes severe health conditions, the government should declare it as completely illegal. While I believe that smoking poses an threat to people's health, but don't completely agree with the notion. Instead, strict regulations, heavy taxation and moreover public education should be provided to manage such issues.

Undeniably, there are cogent reasons why many people demand for a complete ban on such products. In the current time, smoking is becoming the reason to preventable deaths, globally; leading to fatal health conditions like lung cancer, strokes, COPDs and much more. Additionally, the danger is not only confined to the smokers alone, it also forces non-smokers to inhale the toxic chemicals. Due to this, government has to spend billions of money treating all these illnesses.

However, implementing a total ban on cigarettes is impractical. On the practical side, it causes crime rates to go up and deprives the government with rise in tax money. As seen from the past events, the prohibition of alcohol and banning of highly addictive substances does not stop its demand, rather it caused massive illegal black market. People started smuggling those products in order to earn profitable pays from them.

In conclusion, even if smoking is a destructive habit that can lead to serious or fatal illness, making it completely illegal or banning it is not a solution to this issue. Instead, government should promote public health campaigns, restrict smoking in public areas and impose high taxes on such products. This approach can help in balancing such consumption without leading to increase in black market.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, clearly stating a position that disagrees with a total ban while proposing alternative solutions. The ideas are relevant and well-supported, particularly the comparison to historical prohibition and the economic implications of a ban. The position is maintained consistently throughout the essay. To reach a higher band, the student could provide more specific examples or deeper analysis of the 'public education' aspect mentioned in the introduction, as the current development focuses more heavily on the economic and crime-related arguments against prohibition.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organised with a clear introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each paragraph has a central topic, and the progression of ideas is easy to follow. Cohesive devices such as 'Undeniably', 'However', and 'In conclusion' are used effectively to signal shifts in the argument. While the paragraphing is appropriate, some transitions between sentences could be more sophisticated to improve the flow. Overall, the text is coherent and the logical progression is clear throughout.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary to discuss the topic with some precision, using terms like 'cogent reasons', 'preventable deaths', and 'impractical'. There are some minor collocation issues, such as 'deprives the government with rise in tax money' (should be 'deprives the government of tax revenue') and 'earn profitable pays'. These errors do not impede communication but indicate a need for more precise word choice. The range is adequate for the task, showing an attempt to use topic-specific terminology.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical slips, such as 'In the contemporary society' (should be 'In contemporary society'), 'an threat' (should be 'a threat'), and 'but don't completely agree' (the 'but' is redundant after 'While'). Despite these errors, the meaning is always clear, and the punctuation is generally accurate. The student demonstrates control over complex structures, but the frequency of minor errors prevents a higher score. Focusing on article usage and redundant conjunctions would improve accuracy.

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