Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-12

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)

Smoking is one of the major causes of health problems around the world. Smoking can cause many diseases like effect on lungs, blood pressure and headache without smoking and also smoking should be ban in any case. I strongly agree that due to smooking many severe illnesses and also should be ban and illegal.

Firstly, smoking can cause several serious illness like lungs cancer, hearth diseases, breathing problem and blood pressure. Moreover, treating that type diseases should burden on families member so that should ban. Also due to smoking in public places the non smoker also effect due to that like if childern in the park playing games if on that place any smoker smoking cigarette through that non smoker childern also effect. So, thats why we should need to ban smooking specially on public places.

Secondly, some people argue that smoking is the personal choice and adults should have freedom to decide whether to smoke or not. But again that adults should affected through passive smoking. So, i think smoking should be ban from public places like in the parks, on bus stops etc.

In my personal experience, during my university time i have a friend that do smoking (cigarette). we were live in same hostel room when my friend smoking i also effect but i will ignore that thing. After some time around one year i feel ill. when i go for percaution to doctor. Doctor ask me you do smoking? I will say absolutely not but my friend do smoking in my room. Doctor say due to passive smoking your lungs will be effected.

in conclusion, i strongly agree that smoking should be banned, particularyin public places beacuse it cause illnesses both smoker and non smoker.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you strongly agree that smoking should be banned, and you give relevant reasons involving illness and passive smoking. The discussion of effects on children in public places and your hostel-room experience helps address the task with examples. However, the response focuses mainly on banning smoking in public places, while the prompt asks whether smoking itself should be made illegal. You briefly mention adults’ freedom of choice, but do not fully explain how this affects your view or distinguish a public-place ban from a complete prohibition. Some points, such as the burden of treatment on families, are introduced but not developed. Clarifying the scope of the proposed ban and extending these ideas would make the response more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs, a personal example and a conclusion. Sequencing words such as “Firstly,” “Secondly” and “In conclusion” help readers follow the main stages, and the passive-smoking example is placed in a relevant paragraph. However, connections between some ideas are mechanical or unclear. For instance, “Moreover, treating that type diseases should burden on families member so that should ban” does not clearly show how the treatment cost supports the proposed policy. The second body paragraph also repeats the public-place argument rather than developing a distinct point, and references such as “that adults” and “that thing” are imprecise. Use clearer links between claims and explanations, and organise each paragraph around one developed reason.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “passive smoking,” “serious illnesses,” “personal choice” and “public places,” which allows you to communicate the main argument. However, the range is limited and several word-choice, collocation and spelling errors make parts difficult to understand. Examples include “effect on lungs,” “hearth diseases,” “smooking,” “childern” and “precaution.” Phrases such as “adults should affected” and “treating that type diseases” also show difficulty selecting natural expressions. Aim to learn accurate word partnerships and check spelling, especially for repeated topic words. More precise terms such as “lung cancer,” “cardiovascular disease” and “medical costs” would help express your ideas clearly without relying on repeated forms of “effect” and “ban.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a contrast introduced by “But” and a conditional example about children in a park. The main message is generally understandable, but errors in verb forms, agreement, articles and sentence construction are frequent enough to make some sentences difficult to follow. For example, “smoking should be ban” needs a passive form, while “I have a friend that do smoking” has problems with tense and subject–verb agreement. The account of your doctor visit shifts between past and present forms, as in “I feel ill” and “Doctor ask me.” Some sentences also run together without clear punctuation. Practise accurate past-tense narration and passive constructions, and divide long sentences into complete, clearly punctuated clauses.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.