Band 7.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.5 · 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 7.5)

Smoking is one of the major causes of serious health problems, and some people believe that it should be completely banned. I largely agree with this view, as smoking not only harms smokers themselves but also affects the health of people around them. However, a complete ban may be difficult to enforce.

Firstly, smoking has several harmful effects on human health. Regular smokers have a higher risk of developing diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease and respiratory problems. In addition, passive smoking can also affect non-smokers who are exposed to cigarette smoke in public places or at home. For example, children who regularly breathe second-hand smoke may develop breathing problems. Therefore, restricting smoking can help create a healthier environment for society.

Secondly, making smoking illegal could reduce the number of people who start smoking, particularly young people. If cigarettes were not easily available, teenagers would have fewer opportunities to develop this harmful habit. Governments could also introduce stricter penalties for selling tobacco to minors and increase public awareness about the dangers of smoking.

However, completely banning cigarettes could create difficulties. Some adults are addicted to nicotine, and suddenly making tobacco illegal could lead to an illegal market. Instead, governments could gradually increase restrictions, raise taxes on tobacco products and provide support programmes to help smokers quit.

In conclusion, I agree that smoking should be strongly restricted because of its serious effects on individuals and society. Nevertheless, a gradual approach involving stricter regulations and quitting support may be more practical than an immediate complete ban.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.5

Your response addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position throughout and supporting your arguments with relevant examples, such as mentioning how children may develop breathing problems from second-hand smoke. Your ideas are well extended, showing a strong ability to reason through both sides of the issue—acknowledging the health benefits of a ban while realistically addressing the practical difficulties of enforcement. To move even closer to the highest standards, you could further develop your discussion on the socioeconomic consequences of an illegal market or explore alternative regulatory frameworks in greater depth before arriving at your conclusion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.5

Your essay demonstrates a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. You make effective use of paragraphing, ensuring each paragraph has a distinct central topic, moving smoothly from health impacts to preventative measures, and finally to counter-arguments and conclusions. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', 'However', and 'In conclusion' are used flexibly to guide the reader through your line of reasoning. To push toward an even more sophisticated level of cohesion, you could experiment with more subtle, implicit referencing and advanced transitional phrases rather than relying primarily on sequential signposts.

Lexical Resource: Band 7.0

You demonstrate a sufficient range of vocabulary with some flexibility and precision, successfully employing less common items such as 'passive smoking', 'respiratory problems', 'nicotine', and 'stricter penalties'. Your word choice is generally appropriate for an academic context, and your spelling and word formation are accurate. Occasional minor slips or reliance on standard academic collocations prevent a higher rating. To elevate your lexical resource further, try incorporating more precise idiomatic language or advanced collocations related to public policy and health economics, such as 'deterrent effect' or 'public health hazard'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 7.5

You display a good variety of complex structures alongside frequent error-free sentences, showing solid control of grammar and punctuation. Your sentence forms are varied, combining conditional structures ('If cigarettes were not easily available...') with effective relative clauses and modal verbs. While minor errors occasionally persist, they do not impede communication. To reach the top band levels, aim for an even wider repertoire of sophisticated syntactical structures, such as inversion or participle clauses, while maintaining absolute precision across all complex sentence forms.

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