Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-07
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 6.0)
Several individuals believe that smoking can cause or increase the risk of some serious illness, while others argue that smoking should be prohibited by law. In my opinion, i agree to a great extent that smoking can lead to serious illness such as lung cancer and heart disease.
On the one hand, smoking is one of the major cause of life threatening diseases. Regular smokers have high chances of getting diseases like lung cancer and heart failure. As a result, this illness can significantly reduce people's quality to life and may require long-term medical treatment. For example, people who smoke heavily for many years may develop serious illness without knowing. therefore making smoking illegal could discourage people from smoking.
On the other hand, smoking dose not only affect smokers but can also harm people around them. Exposure to second-hand smoking can negatively affect children , pregnant women and non smokers. If smoking were prohibited in all public sectors, fewer people would face the risk. Moreover, government could spend less on money treating smoking related illness people.
In conclusion, i strongly believe that smoking should be made illegal because is cause serious diseases. although a complete ban may be challenging to enforce, strict laws and other preventive measures could significantly reduce the harmful effects of smoking on the environment and society.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 6.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 6.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position on the illegality of smoking. However, the essay is significantly under the 250-word minimum, which limits the depth of the arguments. While the main points regarding health risks and second-hand smoke are relevant, they are not fully developed. The conclusion introduces a slight contradiction by suggesting a 'complete ban may be challenging to enforce' after arguing strongly for it, which weakens the consistency of the position. To improve, you should expand on your supporting examples and ensure your arguments are fully explored to meet the length requirement.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. Cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand,' 'On the other hand,' and 'Moreover' are used to guide the reader. However, the flow is occasionally hindered by minor errors in referencing and sentence structure. For instance, the transition 'therefore making smoking illegal' lacks a comma after the introductory adverb. Paragraphing is used appropriately, but the overall progression could be smoother if the ideas within the paragraphs were more extensively linked to the central thesis.
Lexical Resource — Band 6.0
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but it lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. You use some relevant terms like 'life-threatening diseases' and 'preventive measures,' but there are repetitive phrases and minor inaccuracies, such as 'quality to life' instead of 'quality of life' and 'smoking related illness people' which is grammatically awkward. To achieve a higher score, try to incorporate more sophisticated collocations and avoid basic errors in word choice.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several recurring grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('smoking dose not' instead of 'does not', 'is cause' instead of 'it causes') and capitalization errors (e.g., 'i' instead of 'I'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Focusing on proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and capitalization would significantly improve your accuracy.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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