Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-02

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)

Smoking is considered as one of the most leading factor that causes the serious health problems like lungs cancer, heart failure etc. Some people believe that it should be made completely illegal due to its effects. While I totally disagree with it. Because banning it suddenly may not have effictive impacts upon the smokers.

First of all, there are certain reasons to reduce the usage of it. Like cigarette contains harmful chemicals that ultimately affects the respiratory system. Furthermore, massive smoking can also affect the people who do not smoke like children, adults etc. Government spend a lot of money on the healthcare departments and the numbers of smokers are increasing day by day. It is also a life-risking habit that directly causes to kidney failure.

On the other hand, banning smoking completely can create new problems such as tobacco industries pays tax to the government and its sudden failure can also cause unemployment because many individuals work with these industries. Furthermore, banning them throughly can enforce the smokers for illegal sale of these products and it would be difficult fior the government to catch them. Instead of doing this, they should educate people about the causes of these products and stop them to smoke in the public places.

In conclusion, altough smoking is dangerous to health. But I beleive that it should not be banned completely. A combination of education, practical and awaring people about its causes and effects can reduce its usage.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your response addresses the task partially. You present a clear position of disagreement with the statement that smoking should be made illegal, and you provide some relevant arguments regarding healthcare costs, taxation, and the risk of illegal sales. However, the development of your ideas is limited and under-developed, often lacking sufficient explanation or specific examples. For instance, while you mention that tobacco industries pay tax, you do not elaborate on the broader economic implications. Furthermore, please note that the response is slightly under the word count requirement, falling six words short of the minimum twenty-five word limit, which impacts the overall completeness of your response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your essay demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression of ideas. You divide your response into appropriate paragraphs, starting with an introduction that states your position, followed by body paragraphs discussing arguments for and against banning smoking, and ending with a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. For example, starting sentences with connectors like 'Because banning it suddenly...' creates sentence fragments and weak links between your ideas. Referencing and cohesive devices such as 'Furthermore' and 'In conclusion' are used, but they are sometimes repetitive or awkwardly placed, preventing a smoother flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use a limited but minimally adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'respiratory system' and 'unemployment'. However, there are noticeable errors in word choice, word form, and spelling that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. Examples include 'effictive impacts', 'throughly' instead of 'thoroughly', 'fior' instead of 'for', and 'awaring' instead of 'raising awareness'. Additionally, expressions like 'massive smoking' and 'causes to kidney failure' show weaknesses in collocation and phrasing that place your vocabulary in the limited range category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

Your writing displays a limited range of structures, relying mostly on simple sentences alongside a few attempts at complex forms that are frequently faulty. There are frequent grammatical errors in sentence structure, verb forms, and punctuation. For example, writing 'While I totally disagree with it. Because banning it suddenly...' results in a fragmented sentence structure. Other errors include subject-verb agreement issues such as 'industries pays tax' and prepositions within grammatical patterns like 'impacts upon'. These frequent errors require the reader to occasionally pause and decipher your intended meaning.

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