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IELTS Essay, topic: Smoking in public places

Some businesses prohibit smoking in any of their offices. Some governments have banned smoking in all public places. Do you agree or disagree that this is the right course of action? Give reasons for your opinion.

, organization and companies as well as governments impose restrictions in work places and public amenities. It has become fashionable in the world today . I feel that smoking can be harmful, but I don’t think it should be forbidden completely. I would also argue that people should have the whether or not they should smoke.

Allow me to present the three positive sides of smoking. Firstly, smoking certainly helps many people to relax. For some, it even improves concentration. If someone is upset or they have , to smoke to reduce the pressure or tension. people like to smoke when they are relaxing with friends. Secondly, governments throughout the world make huge profits from taxes on cigarettes. The income obtained through taxes provides funds which are used for building and public places such as parks, gardens, sports ground and foot paths. Thirdly, tobacco industry also employs tens of thousands of people all over the world, particularly in poorer countries such as Zimbabwe or the Philippines. Without cigarettes, these people would have no jobs.

Despite these positive are lots of negative effects to smoking too. Initially, smoking has been proven to be very dangerous for health. cigarette contains more than 4000 chemical substances, therefore, it dangerous diseases such as heart attacks, asthma, bronchitis or lung cancer. According to a recent report in Britain close to 3,500 people are killed each year in road accidents and 120,000 are killed by smoking. Furthermore, smoking costs governments millions of dollars because of the large number of people who need treatment in hospitals for smoking-related problems. Moreover, passive smoking is also a major concern today. Recent research shows that non-smokers can suffer from health problems if they spend long periods of time among people who do smoke. In the UK children whose parents are are three times as likely to start smoking themselves .

In short, I think the world would be a better place without cigarettes. However, the decision of whether smoke or not to smoke should be for each individual to make. I suggest that people should not smoke in a room or a place where there are non smokers, however they should be free to smoke elsewhere.

This is a very good essay, you have made your arguments well and set out the paragraphs as required. However, pay attention to your use of assertive statements e.g. ‘Without cigarettes, these people would have no jobs’. Perhaps they would gain employment in another industry – we cannot be sure. Over all, well done!

Most firms. Do not use a definitive “the firms”
on smoking
You should explain the statement and say to blame smoking for many illnesses or something else
Overuse of linking words – use just one, However or Although
right to decide
about owing money
an exam
they may like
Many
schools, hospitals – use plural form
effects, there
One
may cause many
smokers
as those from non-smoking families
to

12 thoughts on “IELTS Essay, topic: Smoking in public places”

  1. Pingback: IELTS Essay Samples of Band 7 | IELTS-Blog

  2. Is comparison important in IELTS essay? My former tutor said you had to have comparison between two things related to the topic in each body paragraph; otherwise, the essay will go below band 6.
    please advise.Thank you

  3. Hi ccavute, my guess is that your tutor meant a balanced discussion. If the task asks whether you agree or disagree with a certain statement, you should discuss both sides of it – the one you do agree with and the one you don’t agree with. If you leave one of them out of your essay it won’t look objective and the task won’t be completely covered, which may affect the score.

  4. I am surprised the test taker can remember the approximate number of people killed by cigarettes and road accident, how if the number we mentioned just a guess or just a random number, could it make the writing looks unreliable? is it ok?

  5. Hi Yenni, you don’t have to mention any numbers at all for your essay to appear genuine and trustworthy. You can just say ‘hundreds’ or ‘thousands’ or ‘a large number’ and it will still be fine. Concentrate on your ideas and arguments, and how you express them. Numbers aren’t the only thing you can use to support your arguments – examples are good as well.

  6. Hi,
    Please correct me if I am wrong in the following points.
    1 ESSAY should not be personalised. Research or survey data should not mentioned.
    2. Directing the content on UK parents might be targetting a particular set of people.
    3 Aren’t we supposed to pick one side in suchlike questions? i.e. either agree or disagree.

  7. Hi Neetu, in this essay the mentions of data explain or support the writer’s claims, which makes them appropriate. UK data is no exception, it is used for the same purpose of substantiating the writer’s claim. You can agree or disagree, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have to consider the opposite side of the argument – in fact, when you write about both sides, your essay looks more balanced.

  8. The most important thing is to make your position clear, you should say whether you agree or disagree. If the essay question is “To what extent do you agree or disagree”, you can say that you partially or fully agree (or disagree). If you only partially agree, then make sure you discuss both sides. If you agree with just one side, you can write only about that, but if you are running out of ideas then you can discuss both sides. The added benefit of this is that it will make your essay more balanced. I hope this helps.

  9. But if we write on both sides sometimes we might contradict our own points like if we are writing more on positive side and then if we write less on negative we may contradict some of our positive points?
    Correct me if m wrong

  10. You don’t have to contradict yourself, there are arguments for and against, you support only one side, but you still are aware why people might support the other side and you are pointing it out in your essay. It’s absolutely fine.

  11. Smoking is banned in offices and public areas because it is harmful to the public. I agree with this on the ground that it is a really wise decision made by the authorities, I think it is because of reasons like an unhealthy environment for people and it can influence children to perform it.
    To begin, smoking is dangerous due to health issues it causes like lung cancer and asthma yet it is way more harmful to people who are near the smoking person. To explain, scientists have researched smoking and what problems it can cause to individuals who breathe the exhaled smoke of smokers. Research shows the person near the smoker has a higher chance of getting cancer than the performer itself and that is the reason governments banned smoking in public areas to keep citizens safe from its deadly consequences.
    Another reason for prohibiting smoking is its bad influence on children. To justify, children are always curiously seeing the world, to learn something new daily, and this is the nature of every juvenile. Therefore, if children see someone smoking, which mostly will be possible if people do it in public areas, that can influence them to try it and maybe get addicted to it if they do it multiple times. Hence, it will be better to not let them see this deed for their safety.
    To conclude, smoking is harmful and there is no denial to it so I believe it should stay banned and should performed in isolated places so no one can inhale the bad substances that get released while doing it, so everyone can be safe and children can also not get encouraged to do it.

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