Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-05

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)

It is undeniable that drugs had detrimental effects on the health of human being which causes massive effects on the upcoming generation too. Many people argue that smoking can induce various illness so it's need to be prohibited. I strongly agreed with the above statement and it should be eradicated.

To commence with, Smoking causes lungs damage and breathing issues. To simplify it, smoking contains weeds and addictive substance which causes hard breathing and trapped the carbon dioxide inside. As a result, people cannot easily access the oxygen and causes liver cancer. Moreover, Smoking industries had serious impacts on the environment.For instance, such drugs producing industries made substantially large non recyclable waste and byproducts that degrade the environment and its natural resources.

Furthermore, Smoking affects the adults and children. Many individual in the early age had start smoking which affects their career and education goals.Therefore, it made them addictive.They were not able to concentrate on their studies and jobs as they depend highly on the drugs to function properly which endangered their mental and financial stability. Additionally,It's poisonous air also affect the children's health which causes asthma and other serious issues.Therefore, the government should propose a law and order to mitigate this serious threat from the society.

In a conclusion, although smoking industries provides a great economical wealth but it's negative effects damaging the health of individual.

Hence, the government and right authorities should intervene and take right decisions to eliminate this threat from the society and policies should be made in favour of human well-being.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position agreeing that smoking should be made illegal. The writer introduces several relevant main ideas to support this view, such as health consequences like lung damage and environmental degradation caused by tobacco production. However, some ideas are under-developed or lack extension. For instance, the claim that smoking causes liver cancer is biologically inaccurate and unsupported by elaboration. Similarly, the point regarding the impact on children is introduced abruptly without sufficient explanation. To achieve a higher level, the writer needs to present fully developed ideas with more precise examples and well-supported arguments throughout the essay, avoiding unsupported medical claims and ensuring every main point is thoroughly explored from introduction to conclusion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance established in the introduction and reiterated in the conclusion. Paragraphing is used to group related ideas, with distinct sections covering health, environmental impacts, and broader social consequences. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and faulty. The writer relies heavily on basic transition phrases like 'To commence with', 'To simplify it', and 'Furthermore' rather than sophisticated semantic links. Additionally, referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the phrase 'such drugs producing industries', which disrupts the logical flow. To move up to the next band, the writer should ensure that cohesive devices are used more flexibly and unobtrusively, and that logical progression between sentences is smoother and more natural.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'detrimental effects', 'eradicated', and 'economical wealth'. However, there are noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and word form that cause some difficulty for the reader and reveal a limited degree of precision. Examples include 'drugs had detrimental effects', where 'drugs' is inappropriately used instead of tobacco or cigarettes, 'Smoking industries' instead of the tobacco industry, and 'non recyclable waste'. There are also awkward collocations like 'great economical wealth'. To reach a higher standard, the writer must expand their lexical repertoire and use less common vocabulary with greater accuracy regarding style, collocation, and word formation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a limited range of structures, utilizing a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though attempts at complexity frequently result in errors. There are frequent issues with verb forms, subject-verb agreement, and articles, such as 'it's need to be prohibited' instead of 'it needs to be prohibited', 'Many individual in the early age had start smoking', and 'its poisonous air also affect'. Punctuation errors are also present, including missing spaces after full stops. Although these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur regularly throughout the text. To attain a higher band, the writer needs to produce a greater variety of error-free complex sentences and exercise tighter control over basic grammatical rules, articles, and verb tenses.

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

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