Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-11

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)

Many people suggest that smoking can lead to severe diseases and should be banned and i completely agree with this suggestion because smoking is not just a threat to smokers themselves but also to people surrounding them and becomes a burden on healthcare systems.

The primary reason that why smoking should be banned by law is that it results in life threatening health problems.Tobacco contains highly toxic chemicals which increases the risk of lung cancer, heart diseases, many respiratory issues and addiction. For example many teenagers starts smoking at very young age and find it really difficult to quit due to addiction to nicotine. Hence banning would definitely tackle all these challenging threats.

Smoking is effecting the smokers as well as the individuals around them which is commonly known as passive smoking in which the cigarette smoke slowly starts affecting people in your circle. For instance , in a research on 1 family found that because of husband's cigeratte smoke, his wife got lung cancer and died because of it

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

Your position is clear from the opening: you completely agree that smoking should be banned, and you give relevant reasons involving illness, passive smoking and pressure on healthcare systems. However, the response addresses the task only partially because the reasons are briefly stated rather than fully explained. The point about teenagers becoming addicted is relevant, but its connection to why a legal ban would work is asserted rather than demonstrated. The passive-smoking example is also incomplete and difficult to assess. In addition, the response contains 170 words, below the required 250, so there is not enough development to support your position fully. Extend each reason with explanation and a clear, relevant example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall arrangement: an introduction states your view, followed by paragraphs on health risks and passive smoking. Linking expressions such as “The primary reason,” “For example” and “Hence” help show how some points relate. This coherent structure supports the reader, but progression is limited because the response ends during the second supporting point, without a concluding paragraph that reinforces your position. Some connections are also unclear: “Hence banning” does not explain precisely how prohibition would address addiction, and the final example is introduced but not fully connected to the argument. Develop each paragraph around one complete point, use clear references, and add a conclusion to make the overall progression more complete.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “life threatening health problems,” “toxic chemicals,” “respiratory issues,” “addiction” and “passive smoking.” These choices make the subject clear and show attempts to use more specific language than basic terms. However, some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, such as “people surrounding them,” “tackle all these challenging threats” and “smoking is effecting the smokers.” There are also spelling errors in “cigeratte” and “effecting” (where the intended meaning is impact). These slips do not prevent the main message from being understood, but they reduce precision. Aim for natural collocations and check spelling and word forms carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a reason clause with “because” and a relative clause beginning “in which.” The main ideas are generally understandable, but some grammatical errors remain. For example, “Tobacco contains … chemicals which increases” has a subject–verb agreement error, and “many teenagers starts” should use a plural verb. The final example also has an incomplete, awkwardly structured sentence, while punctuation and capitalisation are inconsistent, including the lowercase “i” and missing spaces after full stops. Work on agreement, sentence boundaries and punctuation, and revise complex sentences to ensure that each has a clear subject and complete structure.

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