Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-03
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)
Smoking is a major problem that is seem to be the cause of many health issues in many parts pf the world. There must be some serious action taken out to make this activity illegal.
smoking is a common habit of many youngsters and even old age people as they have seen people smoking around from their childhood. Some people are mostly attracted to the negative things as they are curious about trying the negative things. Some people smoke just to look cool. And some people get addicted to smoking through the passive smoking people doing around them. But this thing should be made illegal so that no one could have access to such bad thing.
Smoking causes serious health issues such as cough cold in winters problem to breath. It can get sware if it is continued for a long time, it could cause lungs failiure, stomach disturbness, mouth cancer and even it could cause a sudden death in the form of hearth attack. Smoking is the the thing that does not just create health issues but it also affects the people in surroundings such as family freinds or collegues. But still there is no serious action taken by any health organizations or UON.
As my personal opinion I am a son of smoker I have seen my father died of smoking and that affected me and my family very harsh. There must be some serious action taken to stop the production of smoking devices, cigrates or any mean to smoke.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
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 limited. While you provide reasons such as health risks and the impact on others, the arguments are somewhat repetitive and lack depth. For instance, the discussion on why people start smoking is quite simplistic. To reach a higher band, you should expand on your arguments with more sophisticated reasoning or counter-arguments. The personal anecdote is relevant but could be integrated more smoothly into a formal academic structure to support your position more effectively.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organised into paragraphs, which is a positive step. However, the flow between and within paragraphs is often mechanical. You rely on basic transitions like 'But' and 'And' to start sentences, which limits the logical progression of your ideas. Cohesive devices are used sparingly and sometimes inaccurately. For example, the transition between the health consequences and the personal anecdote is abrupt. Improving the use of linking words such as 'consequently', 'furthermore', or 'in addition' would help create a more cohesive and professional argument.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and range required for higher bands. There are several instances of awkward phrasing and incorrect word choices, such as 'problem to breath', 'sware' (severe), 'stomach disturbness', and 'hearth attack'. These errors occasionally make the meaning slightly unclear. To improve, focus on learning accurate collocations related to health and social issues. You should also aim to use more academic vocabulary rather than informal or repetitive language like 'bad thing' or 'the thing that'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a high frequency of grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('Smoking is a major problem that is seem to be'), article misuse, and spelling mistakes ('cigrates', 'failiure'). Sentence structures are mostly simple or contain errors when you attempt more complex constructions. Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage. While the meaning is generally understandable, the frequent errors distract the reader and indicate a lack of control over complex grammatical structures. Focusing on basic sentence construction and proofreading for common errors would be highly beneficial.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.