Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

In recent years, smoking has become a serious cause behind a number of diseases. I completely agree with the statement, because it is the major cause of diseases as well as pollution in the society.

First and foremost, smoking leads to the diseases such as hypertension, ling cancer and asthma etc. not only in the smokers but also in the non-smokers. For instance, a person who smokes all the day in his home is actually a threat to his family. Likewise, those who never smoke are blesssing for their families. As a result, by the time they realise this it is too late to recover most of the time. This habit transform them from healthy to severly ill, never able to work better than those who never smoke.

Further, I believe that smoking shoud be made illegal. The implementation on this ban are difficult, but outputs are more comforting than expectations. The declaration of smoking as illegal act will help the governments to cut their expenditures on rehabilitation centers and hospitals. For example, If a government set rules and punishments for smoking, they will be able to het more motivated and healthy youth in the future. Scuh laws means that by the time they are more healthy, more ethical abd able to contribute much in the economy of their country.

In conclusion, I firmly believe that smoking is dangerous and declaring it legal is highly beneficial for both the governments and people.

The improvement in health, economy and ethics

gained by these bans will ultimately transform a developing nation into a developed nation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by clearly stating a position agreeing that smoking should be made illegal. The writer provides relevant ideas, such as the health impacts on non-smokers (e.g., 'a person who smokes all the day in his home is actually a threat to his family') and economic benefits for governments (e.g., cutting expenditures on rehabilitation centers). However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or generalized, and the final conclusion contains a contradictory slip where the writer accidentally writes 'declaring it legal' instead of illegal. Despite this minor slip, all parts of the task are addressed with a clear position, placing the performance comfortably within Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion appropriately. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions, such as 'First and foremost' and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen in awkward transitions like 'The implementation on this ban are difficult' and minor organizational friction. Paragraphs generally progress logically from health arguments to economic outcomes, supporting a clear progression throughout the text, which aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'hypertension', 'rehabilitation', and 'expenditures'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'ling cancer' instead of lung cancer, 'blesssing', 'severly', and 'Scuh' for such. Additionally, there is a major lexical slip in the conclusion where the writer writes 'declaring it legal' instead of illegal. These inaccuracies demonstrate an adequate range with some limitation in precision, fitting the Band 5.5 to 6.0 profile, and is best rounded to 5.5 due to the frequency of lexical and spelling errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating conditional structures (e.g., 'If a government set rules...') and relative clauses. However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors that occasionally impede fluency, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('The implementation on this ban are difficult'), tense inconsistencies, and word-form errors ('they are more healthy, more ethical abd able'). While complex structures are attempted, they are often faulty, and errors in basic grammar persist. This corresponds directly to the Band 5.0 descriptors.

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

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