When must candidates use capitals?

One of my students, Mam, recently asked me the following about the listening test in Ielts (International English Language Testing System):

"I've been told that I should write listening test answers in capital letters on the answer sheet to avoid losing marks if I don't capitalise words correctly. For example, I was told that I should write 'BANGKOK' instead of 'Bangkok' or 'bangkok'. Is this advice right?"

Below is my reply.

The advice you received is out of date. Normally, proper nouns (like surnames, street names or place names) begin with a capital letter no matter where they occur in a sentence.

Therefore, capital letters were required some years ago at the beginning of proper nouns in listening module answers.

However, this grammar rule is now ignored for scoring purposes. The book Official Ielts Practice Materials (Cambridge Esol; Cambridge University Press) states that answers may be written in either upper or lower case on the listening test answer sheet. The rule is construed to include all proper nouns.

The relaxation in the marking rule also means that you may have a mix of capitalised and non-capitalised letters in the same word.

As an example, any of the answers in the list below are acceptable. None of the answers would be marked as wrong for having unusual or incorrect capitalisation.

Options for the use of capital letters can be as varied as:

Bangkok Post,

bangkok post,

bangkok POST,

BANGKOK post,

BANGKOK POST,

BaNgKoK pOsT, or even

bAnGkOk pOsT.!

The same situation applies to your answers for the reading module. There's no need to worry about using, or not using, capital letters properly on proper nouns.

On the other hand, it's very important to capitalise words correctly in the writing module.

If you do not capitalise words correctly in the writing module, you could receive a marking penalty for "Grammatical Range and Accuracy", one of the four sub-skills scored by the examiner when assessing your writing.

American or British English?

Boonjong, a university student in Bangkok, wants to do further studies in the United States. He asks what variety of English he should use during the examination.

He asks:"I'm very confused about American English and British English and find it very difficult to tell them apart. Ielts is based on British English while the Toefl test uses American English. Can I use both American English and British English when sitting for the International English Language Testing System?"

Below is my reply.

Don't worry about the differences between the varieties. Unlike the Toefl test, the Ielts exam uses International English, not just one variety of English.

For instance, you may come across American English, British English, Australian English or New Zealand English in the listening module answers and reading tests.

More importantly, it also means your written answers for the listening, reading and writing modules, plus your spoken responses in the speaking module, may be in any combination of the several English varieties.

As well, you can use a mix of varieties in the same module.

For example, you can write and say the American English (AE) "nearsighted" or the British English (BE) "short-sighted" to say you can't see objects clearly when they're far away. To describe training, you can write the verb "practice" (AE) or "practise" (BE). Finally, the letter "a" in "can't" can be either pronounced like the "a" in "cat" (AE) or the "a" in "arm" (BE).

Write to david.park@idp.com for help preparing for Ielts.

David Park designs and teaches Ielts courses, and is involved with Ielts testing at IDP. To register for Ielts, contact www.thailand.idp.com . Ielts is owned by Cambridge Esol, the British Council and IDP: Ielts Australia.