Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-29

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)

"Smoking can cause serious illnesses and should be made illegal" this statement can be understood if we first understand basically what smoking really means, the act of smoking means inhaling any type of smoke which contains amount of chemical whether it's bad for health or not.

In our daily lives we call smoking as taking a cigarette. So, in this talk we will discuss regarding cigarette specifically.

In the early 90's when paper-based cigarettes were being started to use, it became more available to people at a large rate at doorsteps which made people more addictive to smoking which started to damage the lungs of people at a huge rate. Still today everyone who smokes cigarettes believe and accepts this fact that it can cause serious illness like cancer, but they ignore this fact intentionally and forces to not make it illegal. I believe that the product cigarettes shouldn't be made illegal but the substance from it is made up of and things which is added up in it can be replaced with something specific which should be harmless and give same taste of tobacco. This is the serious work which has to be done at a WHO level, and they have to consider by discussing it with Scientists, Researchers and Doctors.

Moreover, the amount at which cigarette gradually kills the person from inside is more serious because there are many examples we can personally witness, like in our friends, family members and across the world. One of the example, I can personally discuss here is of my uncle who was the chain smoker, who used to smoke 1 box of cigarettes after every 2-3 hours which made up total around 6-7 boxes of cigarettes in 12 hours, and this habit of smoking started from his young age around 20-21 Years which got addictive at 30 and continued till 60-65 and eventually got asthma and lung cancer along with completely damaging liver and almost stopped heart circulation near the lungs.

In conclusion, I believe the cigarettes should not be banned completely as it will affect a lot of lives, but the other and better way should be adopted which eventually will lead towards completely replaced unharmful solution of smoking.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position, arguing against a total ban in favor of scientific alternatives. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The introduction is overly focused on defining smoking rather than setting up the argument. The body paragraphs provide a personal example, but the suggestion that the WHO should replace tobacco with a harmless substance is somewhat idealistic and lacks practical depth. While the position is clear, the argument could be more robust by addressing the economic or social implications of a ban more thoroughly. The response meets the requirements of the task but remains at a basic level of argumentation.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a central focus. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Moreover' and 'In conclusion', but some transitions are mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'In this talk we will discuss'. Referencing is generally clear, though the flow between the historical context in the second paragraph and the personal anecdote in the third is a bit abrupt. The paragraphing is appropriate, and the progression of ideas is easy to follow, even if the logical links between sentences could be more sophisticated to achieve a higher band.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. There is some repetition of basic terms like 'smoking', 'cigarettes', and 'serious'. Phrases such as 'at a large rate' and 'added up in it' are slightly unnatural. While the student attempts to use more complex vocabulary like 'intentionally' and 'eventually', the overall range is limited. To improve, the student should focus on using more precise collocations and academic vocabulary to express ideas more fluently and with greater sophistication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'everyone who smokes cigarettes believe and accepts' (subject-verb agreement), 'the substance from it is made up of' (redundant preposition), and 'one of the example' (pluralization error). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage and run-on sentences. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the message, they are frequent enough to limit the score. A greater focus on proofreading for basic agreement and sentence boundary errors is recommended.

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

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