2015-08-12
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Step 1: Identify trends. A trend is the overall idea of the graph
- what is happening/what happened
- the main change over time
- the most noticeable thing about the graph
- the pattern over time
- the pattern for different places or groups or people.
Step 2: Follow the layout
Introduction
1. First sentence: Describe the graph. Start "The graph shows"
2. Second sentence: This gives the trend or trends.
Main body
Start with a sentence with no number. For example, “City size increased sharply over the period.” “The most obvious trend in the graph is that women are having fewer babies.” “Oil production has increased slightly in all the countries in the graph”. Follow this sentence with an example (sentence with number) and perhaps another example (another sentence with number). Keep alternating.
Conclusion
· Finish by repeating the main trends, or identify a second trend. Use different vocabulary.
· Don't have any numbers in the conclusion (you could use words like "most", "the majority" "a minority", "a small number").
· Don’t give an opinion.
While You Write: Some Don’ts
· Don’t describe the X and Y axis. Give the information.
· Don’t write about everything on the graph. Pick the biggest, the smallest, the main points, the main trends. Group similar things together
· Don’t write about the line or the bar: “The line went up,” “The bar went down.” Instead, write about the idea. “The number of people going to work by train increased gradually.” “Oil production shot up in 1965”
· Make sure you write about the idea. Don’t use shorthand: “Men went up.” “Women went down.” Instead, write about the real data: “The number of men at university fell dramatically,” “The percentage of female students getting a degree rose suddenly.”
· Don’t use “I feel”, “as I have written,” “as you can see,” etc. Keep it academic.
Don’t start sentences with But, So, Also, And, For, Since, Because, Although
Part I Review of Circle Graphs
