Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-09

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)

Life is a gift and one must handle it with care is a famous proverb. Anything that impacts the life in a harmful way should be avoided and smoking is one of them. Most the people start smoking for the sake of fashion or experience and soon it becomes an addiction. It not only harm the somker but also leaves harmful impacts on the surrounding and people nearer to the smoker. WHO reports , for instances, explicitly highlight that the person who is surrounded by smoker's company is at a high risk of developing lung cancer; sometimes the chances are more higher than the smoker itself. This impact is due to the passive smoking phenomena, the smoker takes in the puff through the filtered end, on the other hand, the person standing nearer to him is taking in smoke directly. In case of childern this becomes even more dangerous as their immune system is developing stages. This underscores that the impact of smoking are so hazardous that it should be banned and its consumers should be fined because they are not only putting their lives on stake but also taking many others to the verge of various diseases that would cause them unnecessary harm. In most common cases, smoking usually end up in TB or cancer and both o them are uncurable smoking is a painful attempt to die. Resultantly, the need arises that serious actions should be taken in order to eradicate this illness. As, smoking deteriotes the standard of life of many they should be banned.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your response takes a clear position that smoking should be banned and gives relevant reasons, especially the risks of passive smoking and the danger to children. The explanation of how non-smokers inhale smoke also supports your argument. However, some points are asserted rather than sufficiently developed: for example, the claim that smoking commonly leads to TB or cancer is not explained or supported, and the comparison that passive smokers face greater risks than smokers needs clarification. The task asks how far you agree, and your position is strongly in favour of prohibition, but you could address the policy more fully by considering enforcement or a counterargument, such as personal freedom, before explaining why health protection outweighs it.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is an identifiable line of argument: you introduce smoking as harmful, discuss passive smoking and children, then conclude that it should be prohibited. However, the response is presented as one long paragraph, so the stages of the argument are not clearly separated and the overall progression is difficult to follow. Several ideas are crowded together, particularly the discussion of passive smoking, disease, fines and eradication. Linking expressions such as “on the other hand” and “Resultantly” are attempted, but some connections are awkward or do not clearly show the relationship between ideas. Use separate paragraphs for the introduction, supporting reasons and conclusion, and make each paragraph develop one main point with clear references.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You attempt a range of topic-related vocabulary, including “passive smoking,” “immune system,” “hazardous” and “eradicate,” which helps communicate the health argument. However, noticeable spelling and word-choice errors sometimes make the reader pause: “somker,” “childern,” “uncurable” and “deteriotes” are examples. Some combinations are also unnatural, such as “smoking phenomena,” “smoker’s company” and “taking many others to the verge of various diseases.” “More higher” is an inaccurate expression, while “painful attempt to die” is dramatic rather than precise for an academic essay. Aim for accurate, natural collocations such as “exposure to second-hand smoke” and “increase the risk of serious illness,” and proofread spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a cause-and-effect explanation of passive smoking and a conditional point about children. The main ideas are generally understandable, but some grammatical errors recur and occasionally make relationships unclear. For example, “It not only harm” needs subject–verb agreement, and “the impact of smoking are” has a singular/plural mismatch. The opening sentence also joins two independent ideas without a clear grammatical connection, while the long sentence beginning “This underscores” contains several clauses that are difficult to control. There are errors with articles, plurals and punctuation as well. Build accuracy by checking agreement and sentence boundaries, and divide long sentences into shorter, complete units.

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