Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-29

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)

In today's world, some people believe that smoking can cause serious illness and should be made illegal. I partially agree with this view because it prevents people from being affected by various diseases and helps in saving money that is spent on this dangerous activity. However, making smoking activity illegal may affect the overall economy and GDP of a country and also negatively affects various tobacco companies.

Firstly, smoking can cause various health problems such as heart attack, teeth problems, high blood pressure and so on. Making it illegal helps individual to remain healthy and prevents from causing these kinds of diseases. Therefore, it should be made illegal due to health problems. Secondly, it helps people to save a huge sum of money that are spent on this type of activity. This is because some individual spend a large amount of money on smoking, which may lead to a lack of saving.

On the other hand, if smoking is made illegal then it might affect the overall economy and GDP of the country. Smoking is done by a large number of people and making them illegal could affect the tax collection source of the government. Thus, the country's economy may decline due to this method. Additionally, this view even affect various tobacco companies as a large proportion of tobacco is used in smoking. Companies make a huge amount of profit by using tobacco in cigarettes and if this becomes illegal, they have to suffer from the huge losses.

In conclusion, I partially agree that smoking should be made illegal because it helps individuals to remain healthy and encourages them to save money. However, banning smoking activities might affect the country's economy and tobacco companies. I believe that government should be cautious about the smoking activity, but making it illegal completely may affect the country itself.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position on whether smoking should be made illegal, weighing health benefits against economic drawbacks. Ideas are extended and supported with relevant arguments, such as healthcare savings and tax revenue implications. For example, the writer notes that 'smoking can cause various health problems such as heart attack, teeth problems, high blood pressure and so on' and contrasts this with the economic impact on GDP and tobacco companies. Although some points tend to over-generalize slightly, the main position is maintained throughout. This performance satisfies the Band 7 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Each paragraph has a distinct central topic, beginning with a well-defined introduction, followed by distinct body paragraphs signalled by cohesive markers such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'On the other hand', and concluding with a summary. Cohesive devices are used appropriately, although referencing and linking can occasionally feel a little mechanical, as seen in repetitive phrasing like 'making them illegal' and 'smoking activity'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, contributing to overall coherence. This aligns well with the criteria for Band 6.5, rounded to 6.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'overall economy', 'tax collection source', and 'proportion of tobacco'. However, there are some word-choice and collocation errors that prevent a higher score, such as 'teeth problems' instead of 'dental issues', 'making them illegal' where the pronoun antecedent is imprecise, and 'cause these kinds of diseases' where 'preventing these kinds of diseases' was likely intended. Nevertheless, the vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main arguments clearly without impeding the reader. This corresponds to a Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at conditional structures and relative clauses, such as 'if smoking is made illegal then it might affect the overall economy'. However, there are noticeable grammatical errors and awkward agreements throughout the text, including 'helps individual to remain healthy' (missing article and pluralisation), 'money that are spent' (subject-verb agreement error), and 'this view even affect' (tense/agreement error). While these errors do not impede overall communication, they occur with enough frequency to prevent the essay from reaching Band 7. This performance fits comfortably into Band 6.

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.