Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-19

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)

There is a disagreement on whether smoking should be made illegal because of it's dangerous effects. While smoking causes serious illness in all living things, it also helps provide a distraction for people facing hardships in life and bad mental health.

On one hand, smoking does help people process mental situations. Although it's harmful and should be discouraged, banning it completely effects some smokers worse than smoking in the first place. Even my friends who have been, or are addicted to smoking explain that smoking helps them deal with hard parts of life and helps them stay away from more dangerous actions, such as suicide. Moreover, making smoking illegal would only lead to more illegal activities such as smuggling and illegal businesses.

On the other hand, smoking can lead to extremely dangerous illnesses such as heart failure or in long term, even death. Most smokers admit that the guilt of smoking sometimes overtakes their mind, eventually making their mental health worse too. More dangerously, smoking even causes quick addiction leading to difficulty in quitting. In addition, smoking in public places also effects the mindset of the public as well as people's health caused by the smoke. In my personal opinion, I don't appreciate seeing smokers in the public because the smoke ends up effecting my throat.

In conclusion, smoking can be really harmful. A significant amount of deaths are caused because of smoking every year. A good solution to that is to ban smoking in essential public areas, as well as openly providing help to quit, without making it illegal completely.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear: you oppose a complete ban and favour restrictions in public places alongside support for quitting. You address both the health risks and reasons some people smoke, using personal examples such as friends who say smoking helps them cope. This is relevant and gives the response a clear basis. However, some points need fuller explanation to make the argument more convincing: the claim that smoking prevents “more dangerous actions, such as suicide” is significant but is not supported or qualified, and the point about smuggling is asserted rather than developed. Explain how your proposed measures would reduce harm while respecting your position against prohibition. The response covers the task, but its ideas are not yet consistently extended and supported.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay has a clear overall structure: an introduction, two contrasting body paragraphs, and a conclusion that restates your position and proposes a compromise. “On one hand” and “On the other hand” help signal the shift between arguments, and the reader can follow the main line of reasoning. To make the progression more controlled, ensure each paragraph develops one central point rather than moving quickly between several claims. For example, the first body paragraph moves from coping with hardship to suicide and then smuggling; these ideas would benefit from clearer links or separate explanation. Some transitions, such as “Moreover” and “In addition,” feel mechanical because they add points without showing their precise relationship. Use clearer referencing and links between claims and your final recommendation.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary to discuss health, addiction, and policy, including “serious illnesses,” “smuggling,” “addiction,” and “public places.” These choices make your main ideas understandable, and you attempt some more specific expressions, such as “the guilt of smoking.” However, several word-choice and collocation errors reduce precision: “effects” is used where “affects” is needed, and “process mental situations” is not a natural way to describe coping with difficulties. “In essential public areas” is also unclear as a description of where restrictions should apply. Aim for more precise, natural phrases and avoid repeating “smoking” and “harmful” when alternatives such as tobacco use, health risks, or exposure to smoke would fit. These refinements would make the argument more flexible and accurate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including subordinate clauses beginning “Although” and “because,” and most sentences communicate their meaning clearly. The contrast between the two body paragraphs is also expressed in complete sentences. Some grammatical errors remain, but they rarely prevent understanding. For example, “because of it's dangerous effects” needs the possessive “its,” while “banning it completely effects some smokers worse” has an incorrect verb form and an awkward comparative construction. In “smoking in public places also effects the mindset of the public as well as people's health caused by the smoke,” the sentence structure makes the relationship between the ideas unclear. Review possessives, verb forms, and sentence construction, and check punctuation around longer clauses to improve control.

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