Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-21

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)

There is a opinion amonge people that smoking can cause daugerous health issues so that's why it should be illegal or banned.I belive it shoud not be made illegal but there should some ristrictions regarding smoking.

I understand that smoking is very dangeorus to helath and can cause dangerous diseases like cancer breathing problems etc. but if it is completely bannend than there will be some other problems for individuals. For example if it made illegal than there will be loss of different types of businesses. Like Paper industry and transport indusrty will be badly effected.

If smoking indutry will be closed than huge number of people will lost their jobs.If people lose their jobs they don't have money to pay there children school fee in that way there will be different probelms in education. Another disadvatage is for government, because government collect to much tax from smoking industry if it is banned than there will be zero revenue for government. In that way it's bad thing for economy of country.

I personaly think that if smoking is made illegal there will more problems. On the other side we also have to prevent from different illnesses that is caused by smoking. My thinking is that if we made some strict rules regarding to smoking like it should be banned near hospitals, educational institutes and made some compaigns for disadvatages of smoking.

In conclusion, If we do these tasks rather than of making illegal than we can prevent from different issues among different idustries like paper and transport. and also different huge issues like economy,education and lossing of jobs.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt directly, presenting a clear position that smoking should not be made outright illegal due to economic and job-loss consequences, but that strict regulations and campaigns should be implemented instead. The main ideas, such as the impact on related industries (paper, transport) and government tax revenues, are relevant and extended, though some points are slightly repetitive. The writer supports their arguments with reasonable explanations, touching upon both sides of the issue. This performance aligns well with the Band 6 descriptor, as all parts of the task are addressed and main ideas are relevant, even though some points lack deeper elaboration.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is divided into paragraphs, which helps structure the progression of ideas, moving from introduction to economic consequences, personal opinion, and conclusion. However, cohesive devices are often mechanical, repetitive, or missing, such as starting multiple sentences with 'In that way' or 'If'. Referencing is sometimes unclear, and transitions between paragraphs could be smoother. The overall arrangement is coherent enough to follow the writer's line of thought without significant confusion, placing the response solidly at Band 5.5 to 6.0. Given the basic mechanical flow, a Band 6.0 is appropriate.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for communicating the central ideas, but it is basic and repetitive ('dangerous', 'problems', 'issues'). There are numerous spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'amonge', 'daugerous', 'helath', 'bannend', 'indutry', 'lost' instead of 'lose', 'too much tax', and 'lossing'. While these errors are frequent, they rarely impede overall understanding. The writer attempts some less common terms like 'revenue', but the limited control and frequent slips restrict the score to a Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, frequently utilising conditional clauses like 'if it is banned than there will be...'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the text. There are constant issues with article usage, verb tense consistency, preposition selection (e.g., 'rules regarding to smoking'), and punctuation. Run-on sentences and comma splices also appear frequently. Because errors are frequent and sometimes cause difficulty for the reader, the writing fits the Band 5 descriptor well.

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