Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-16

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 6.5)

It is a widely held belief that smoking is injurious to health and should be banned. This essay explains the serious medical problems caused by smoking but does not agree with the statement that smoking should to be declared unlawful.

Smoking is one of the factors that are leading causes of chronic morbidity and mortality globally. Cigarette smoking contributes to the elevated levels of bad cholestrol, such as LDL, and triglycerides along with the reduced levels of good cholestrol, such as HDL, which result in the elevated incidents of metabolic and heart diseases. For instance, inhaling nicotine leads to the higher incidents of myocardial infarction and cardiac arrest compared with the non smoker population. In addition, puffing is a principal factor that triggers cancer cell growth and matastasis, especially lung carcinomas. Last but not least, smoking also stimulates the hormonal problems, which themselves culminates into multiple fatal morbidities.

Althought, smoking should not be prohibited due to the fact that this will substantially trigger the selling and purchase of cigarettes in black market and may effect a country economy significantly. Instead, the smoker population should be educated and make aware of the fatal affects of smoking. The best way to decrease the market of any product is to decrease its customers. Hence, there is a strong need to initiate a strong compaign against the harms and dangers of tobacco smoking, which will ultimately result in the reduction of smoking population and revenue generated to the cigarette producing companies. When these companies experience a significant loss, they will automatically move towards shutting down their cigarettes producing plants.

In conclusion, inhaling nicotine is a root cause of numerous health problems, including cancer and heart diseases. However, educating the smoker population could provide stronger benefits compared with declaring smoking illicit.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

Your position is clear from the introduction: you accept that smoking causes serious illness but oppose making it illegal. You address both parts of the question and support the health risks with examples such as heart disease and lung cancer. Your alternative—educating smokers and reducing demand—also gives the argument a relevant direction. To strengthen the response further, develop the case against prohibition more carefully: the claim that a ban would expand the black market and damage the economy is asserted rather than explained or illustrated. The proposed education campaign and the prediction that companies would close are also somewhat general. More precise reasoning or a concrete example would make the support more consistently convincing and fully developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction states your position, the second paragraph explains health harms, the third presents your objection to prohibition, and the conclusion restates your view. Ideas generally progress logically, and signposts such as “In addition,” “Hence,” and “In conclusion” help readers follow the argument. Some linking is a little mechanical, however, particularly the sequence “Last but not least” followed by “Although” and “Instead.” The relationship between the black-market concern and the education proposal could also be made more explicit. For example, explain directly why education is a more practical response than prohibition, then connect reduced demand to the likely effect on cigarette companies.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You use a broad range of topic-specific vocabulary, including “chronic morbidity and mortality,” “myocardial infarction,” “metastasis,” and “illicit,” showing an attempt to express complex ideas precisely. This range is appropriate to the subject, and the main meaning remains clear. However, some less common choices are inaccurate or unnatural, such as “elevated incidents,” “hormonal problems,” and “smoking population.” There are also spelling errors, including “cholestrol,” “matastasis,” “Althought,” and “compaign.” These slips keep the vocabulary from sounding consistently controlled. Aim for precise, natural collocations and check spelling; a few well-chosen terms are more effective than technical wording used imprecisely.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses with “which,” “compared with,” and “when,” and most sentences communicate the intended meaning. Some grammatical errors remain, but they rarely prevent understanding. For example, “should to be declared unlawful” has an incorrect verb pattern, while “the smoker population should be educated and make aware” needs parallel passive forms (“educated and made aware”). In “which themselves culminates,” the verb does not agree with its plural subject, and “Although” is incorrectly punctuated as a sentence opener in “Althought, smoking should not be prohibited.” Review verb patterns, subject–verb agreement, and sentence punctuation. More consistent accuracy in these areas would make your varied structures easier to read.

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