Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-14

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)

I completly agree with the statement that smoking is harmful for health and it can cause many dengerours dieases. The government must introduce stricter rules agiants manufacturer and made smoking illegal. Citization's awareness about smoking and what are the causes is one of the most important thing.

Smoking is very harmful habit, everyone must avoid it because it can affect people's private and professtional lives. Although many people enjoy smoking as they thik it will help them to reduce stress, they are not aware of the causes which may harm their life. For instance, If a person had cancer beacuse of smoking and cancer is one of the dengarours dieases. This can affect person's private life as well as professtional life such as, this can affect negatively on their children's and other members of family. Cancer required expensive treatment so family have to pay because of that they may suffer from financial problems too. As a outcome, people must avoid such harmful habits.

There are several steps the government should take to made smoking illegal such as introduce stricter rules againts who are making this harmful products. People awareness is most important step so local authorities should organise some awareness campaing and teach them how smoking will cost their life.

In conclusion, smoking can demage people's whole life. Everyone must avoid such harmful products and save them and their family's life because it will affect their family members future life. The governemnt should made it illegal by awareness and stricter rules.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear from the opening: you completely agree that smoking is harmful and should be made illegal, and the conclusion returns to this view. You give relevant support by explaining possible effects on family life and finances, and you mention government rules and public-awareness campaigns. However, the response only partly develops the central question of making smoking illegal. Most of the discussion explains why smoking is harmful, while the case for prohibition itself—such as how a ban could work or what difficulties it might create—is not explored. The example about cancer is relevant but remains general. Develop both the health argument and the reasons for or against a legal ban with more specific explanation.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs and a conclusion. The ideas generally relate to the topic, and linking expressions such as “For instance,” “As a outcome,” and “In conclusion” help signal examples and stages in the argument. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear: the first body paragraph moves from stress to cancer, family effects and treatment costs without fully connecting each point. Some references, such as “this” in “this can affect negatively,” are not precise, and repeated references to avoiding smoking and its harmful effects make the argument feel circular. Organise each paragraph around one main claim, then explain and illustrate it before moving to the next point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some topic-relevant vocabulary, including “stricter rules,” “awareness,” “expensive treatment,” and “financial problems,” so the reader can understand the main ideas. However, the range is limited and several word-choice, collocation and spelling errors are noticeable, sometimes making the message harder to follow. Examples include “dengerours dieases,” “people awareness,” and “smoking will cost their life.” Repetition of “harmful” and “affect” also limits precision. Aim to learn accurate topic phrases and check spelling carefully; more natural expressions such as “raise public awareness” and “smoking-related illnesses” would help you express your points more clearly and appropriately.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt some complex sentences, for example the sentence beginning “Although many people enjoy smoking,” and you use a range of simple statements to communicate your position. However, the range is limited, and errors occur frequently in sentence construction, verb forms, agreement and articles. For example, “The government must introduce stricter rules … and made smoking illegal” does not maintain a consistent verb form, while “Cancer required expensive treatment so family have to pay” shifts tense and omits necessary articles. The sentence beginning “For instance, If a person had cancer” is also awkwardly formed and punctuated. Practise building accurate sentences with one clear main clause, then add subordinate clauses while checking agreement and tense consistency.

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.