Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-15

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 5.0)

It is often argued by some people that serious diseases can caused by smoking that should be made illegal. Although, some might disagree with this statement, but I completely agree with this. Not only because of that it cause serious illnesses and it should be banned, but also beacause of its passive effects on others.

There are multiple illnesses associated with the smoking. Firstly, the person who smokes think that he is just smoking for fun but also smoking kills him from inside and damaging his lungs. As the person who smokes can suffer from the T.B. Take an example, in 2015 in India people had suffered from T.B and asthma caused by smoking. Thus, this proved that smoking can cause serious illnesses.

Secondly, It should be made illegal because of smoking people are facing serious diease like cancer. As the people who smokes are also suffering from the lungs cancer. For instence, the health minister of Pakistan had stated in 2024 that people are suffering from lungs cancer due to smoking. Hence, this also proved that smoking causing serious dieases.

Finally, smoking also leaves effect on others like on non-smoker that called as passive smoking. As the person who is smoking that person using filter to inhale the smoke while the non-smoker is not using any kind of filter to inhale. It leaves a very bad effect on the childs, friends and colleages of the smoker.

To sum up, I believe that smoking can cause serious illnesses like lungs cancer, TB and also passive smoking can cause these dieases so it should be made illegal.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that smoking should be made illegal due to health risks and passive smoking. Ideas are presented, such as health issues like T.B. and cancer, but they tend to be repetitive and lack deep development. The use of specific examples, like the 2015 reference in India and the 2024 statement from Pakistan, attempts to support the arguments, although some medical claims lack precision. The response covers the main tasks, but the development of ideas stops short of a fully elaborated discussion, placing it at a Band 6 level where relevant ideas are presented but remain somewhat under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is divided into paragraphs with a discernible overall structure, including an introduction, body paragraphs addressing different points, and a conclusion. However, progression is sometimes hindered by mechanical transitions like 'Secondly' and 'Finally', and referencing is occasionally faulty, such as 'that called as passive smoking' and 'the person who is smoking that person using filter'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the internal logical flow within paragraphs is frequently disrupted by awkward phrasing and repetitive sentence structures. This aligns with Band 5, where there is some organization, but the overall progression lacks smoothness and cohesive devices are used inadequately or repetitively.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is relatively basic and repetitive, relying heavily on simple terms like 'serious illnesses', 'smoking', and 'people who smokes'. There are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word formations, such as 'diease' (spelled incorrectly as 'dieases' and 'diease'), 'colleages', and 'childs'. Attempts to use less common vocabulary are generally unsuccessful or inaccurate. However, the vocabulary is adequate to communicate the basic stance of the writer on the topic, which satisfies the requirements for Band 5, featuring a limited but minimally adequate range with noticeable errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The response exhibits a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying mostly on simple sentences and faulty attempts at complex clauses. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('serious diseases can caused', 'people who smokes'), missing articles, and awkward phrasing ('passive smoking can cause these dieases so it should be made illegal'). Punctuation and sentence boundaries are also problematic, as seen in run-on structures and incorrect conjunction use ('Although, some might disagree with this statement, but I completely agree'). These persistent errors frequently cause difficulty for the reader, placing the response at a Band 4 level.

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

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