Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Smoking can cause serious illnesses and should be made illegal. In my opinion, smoking can cause various illnesses in the human system such as lung cancer and should be made illegal. Smoking can cause various illnesses such as lung cancer, stroke, heart diseases.

Firstly, we are going to talk about one of the common illnesses that smoking cause which is lung cancer. Constant smoking of cigarrete can cause changes in the lung cells which will eventually lead to cancer of the lungs. This increases with the number of Cigarettes smoked, and the number of years the person has been smoking for. Symptoms of lung disease can include persistent coughing, shortness of breath and loss of appetite.

One of the various illnesses that smoking can cause also includes heart diseases, prolonged smoking can lead to an improper functioning of the heart. Smoking can lead to slowness in the rate at which blood is carried into the heart and also reduces the amount of oxygen going into the heart. This can lead to heart attack, heart failure and also irregular heartbeat.

Lastly, constant smoking can lead to stroke. Stroke can be cause from lung disease and heart diseases. Smoking damages the blood vessels supplying into the brain, this can eventually lead to stroke. Stroke if not taken care of medically can lead to death of the smoker.

In conclusion, these are just few of the illnesses that smoking causes. In my opinion, the government should have a regulation to put an end to selling of Cigarettes or other harmful substances that people smoke. This will reduce the rate of heart diseases, lung cancer, stroke and other illnesses caused by smoking.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task and takes a clear position that smoking should be made illegal, supported by relevant main points regarding lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Note that 10 words copied directly from the task prompt were excluded from the word count. While the central position is maintained throughout, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the introduction tends to repeat the opening statement in quick succession ('Smoking can cause serious illnesses and should be made illegal. In my opinion, smoking can cause...'), and the conclusion summarises points rather than fully extending the debate regarding the feasibility or consequences of making smoking entirely illegal. To reach a higher level, the ideas would need more comprehensive extension and depth, perhaps by discussing alternative economic or social impacts of prohibition rather than just listing health consequences.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear, logical progression of ideas from one paragraph to the next, moving neatly from an introduction to three distinct body paragraphs covering lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke, and finishing with a logical conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, with each body paragraph focusing on a single medical consequence. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or repetitive, relying heavily on formulas like 'Firstly', 'One of the various illnesses that smoking can cause also includes', and 'Lastly'. Additionally, referencing is occasionally imprecise, such as in the sentence 'Stroke can be cause from lung disease and heart diseases', where logical links between sentences could be smoother. To achieve a higher band, the writer would need to use a wider range of cohesive devices more flexibly and naturally without relying on rigid list-like structures.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating specific medical and health-related terms such as 'lung cancer', 'shortness of breath', 'blood vessels', and 'irregular heartbeat'. There are, however, some noticeable lexical inadequacies and word choice errors, such as 'cigarrete' (spelling), 'cause' instead of 'caused' in 'Stroke can be cause from', and the slightly unnatural phrasing 'slowness in the rate at which blood is carried into the heart'. These errors do not impede overall communication because the meaning remains clear throughout the response. To move to the next band, the writer must expand the range of less common lexical items, demonstrate better control over word forms and collocations, and eliminate spelling errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, successfully employing relative clauses and conditional structures such as 'which will eventually lead to cancer of the lungs' and 'if not taken care of medically'. There are, however, some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as missing prepositions or incorrect preposition usage in phrases like 'supplying into the brain' instead of 'supplying the brain', and minor punctuation slips like comma splices. Despite these errors, meaning is rarely impeded, and the majority of simple sentences are accurate. To reach the next band, the writer would need to produce a greater frequency of error-free complex sentences and exercise tighter control over prepositions and clausal structures.

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

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