Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-23

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)

In recent years, smoking has become a global problem. Smoking is causing various serious medical conditions such as lung cancer, heart diseases and respiratory disorders. Thats why some people think that smoking should be ban completely, but I think we should educate people regarding the negative impacts of smoking on health to overcome health issues.

On one hand, there are numerous chemicals in cigarettes that can affect both smokers and non smokers. Firstly, Passive smokers also expose to smoke directly which can cause illness in them. Secondly, the authorities should run different campaigns to create awareness among population about the negative impact of this habit. Furthermore, the governments should enforce strict rules to ban smoking at public place. In addition, instead of completely ban on smoke, stats should impose high tax and launch various awareness programs to overcome this issues.

On the other hand, increase smoking can also put financial burden on governments because state have to maintain high budget to treat serious illness among population. Moreover, completely ban on smoking can also enhance other issues such as crimes and black market. It is better to construct smoking area beside public places where addicted person can smoke with freedom.

In conclusion, I am not inclined with completely ban on smoking, but one thing that, I want to mention is that it is not solely responsibility of higher authorities to create awareness among the people. As a responsible members of community we should also participate in this activity to run different campaigns and awareness programs to educate people about the disaster affects of smoking.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether smoking should be made illegal and presents a clear personal position stating that education is preferable to a total ban. The introduction outlines the writer's stance, and the body paragraphs present supporting arguments, such as the financial burden on governments and the dangers of a black market. However, some ideas are slightly repetitive or under-developed, particularly regarding the nuances of public health policy. For instance, the transition between discussing a total ban and suggesting smoking areas feels somewhat abrupt. Despite these minor limitations in fully extending every argument, the writer successfully covers all parts of the task with a clear position throughout, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay is generally coherent with an overall logical arrangement, dividing arguments into clear introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs. The writer uses basic cohesive devices such as 'On one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion' to signal the structure of the essay. However, cohesion is at times faulty or mechanical. For example, referencing and logical transitions within paragraphs occasionally falter, as seen in the sentence 'Thats why some people think that smoking should be ban completely', which lacks smooth integration. Paragraphing is present and separates different main ideas, but the internal flow of sentences requires more precision to reach a higher band.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student displays an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using topic-specific terms such as 'respiratory disorders', 'passive smokers', and 'financial burden'. There are, however, noticeable word-choice and morphological errors throughout the text, such as 'should be ban completely' instead of 'banned', 'public place' instead of 'public places', and 'disaster affects' instead of 'disastrous effects'. While these lexical inaccuracies occasionally distract the reader, they do not impede overall communication. The writer attempts less common vocabulary, but control over word formation and collocation remains inconsistent, placing this response firmly in the Band 6 category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures such as 'instead of completely ban on smoke, stats should impose high tax'. However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the essay, including missing articles ('state have to maintain high budget', 'as a responsible members'), incorrect verb forms ('increase smoking can also put', 'stats should impose'), and spelling issues ('Thats'). Complex structures attempted by the student are often marred by grammatical inaccuracies. Although these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the main points, they occur frequently enough to prevent the score from rising to Band 6.5 or 7.

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.