To capitalize or not to capitalize Category Names in IELTS Writing Task 1? 📊

A great question from students!

If you have the task above, should you write:
- The salaries in Tourism were ...
- The salaries in tourism were ...
- The salaries in "Tourism" were ... ?

Personally, I see no reason to capitalize category names that are usual nouns.

But let's check with some resources.

1️⃣ The Pew Research website

Here are some random sentences about sectors of employment:

"Among the major service-industry sectors, the biggest was trade, transportation and utilities (27.8 million workers), followed by education and health services (24.3 million), professional and business services (21.5 million) and leisure and hospitality (16.7 million)."

(Source: Link 1)

"Last year, the two groups with the highest unionization levels were protective service occupations (such as police officers, firefighters and security guards) and education, training and library occupations, both at 35.3%. Not surprisingly, both groups are composed largely of public-sector workers."

(Source: Link 2)

2️⃣ The Little, Brown Handbook (H. Ramsey Fowler, Jane E. Aaron)

Capitalize only when a rule says you must.

❌ I am determined to take an Economics course before I graduate from College.

✅ I am determined to take an economics course before I graduate from college.

✅ I am determined to take Economics 101 before I graduate from Madison College.

It seems capitalization of category names that are common nouns is not necessary. The question is whether it it a mistake (along with quotation marks)... What do you think? ❓

#ieltswritingtask1