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    BADGE – Becoming a Digital Global Engineer

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    Intellectual Output

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    BADGE – Becoming a Digital Global Engineer
    Project 2019-1-FR01-KA203-063010 (167 512 512)

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    Objectives

    presentation

    • After studying this unit, you will be able to …

      1. describe data presented in a graphical form using appropriate language;
      2. use appropriate vocabulary to express a rising trend (verbs and nouns);
      3. use appropriate vocabulary to express a falling trend (verbs and nouns);
      4. use a glossary to show the intensity of changes (adjectives and adverbs);
      5. decide on the grammatical tense to best describe trends and changes.
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    Warm up questions

    questions

      1. Why are visuals used in books, presentations and documentation?

      2. What types of visuals are commonly used in your field of study? Why?

      3. How do you describe rising and falling trends on a graph?

      4. When describing a graph, why is it important to not only describe changes, but also their intensity?

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    Did you know?

    • To develop your language for graphical descriptions, you need to understand and use terminology relevant for that particular graphic. The language to describe graphs is related to many features (such as axes, fractions, areas, etc.). To describe data correctly involves reading and understanding the legend provided. Once you have considered, analyzed and understood the given information, the next step is to decide on appropriate vocabulary to describe and interpret the data.

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    Instructional material

    • As we know from the former units, graphical representation can take a wide variety of forms. However, there are common features that provide the ability to extract meaning from data. To analyse the graphical representation itself, it is enough to understand the language of the legend, the titles of the axes and labels in the graph. However, to describe and interpret the graphics, one needs to know the language of graphs.

      In general, inferring and deducing meaning from pictures is quicker than from text, but a precise description (text) is used in many branches to annotate data and to interpret it.

      One of the most important text elements in a graph is the title, which usually appears above the main graphics and provides a succinct description of what the data in the graph refers to. The title itself, however, is not sufficient to understand the content. All the data, along with any correlations, individual textual labels, dots, shapes, colour combinations and patterns, as well as the legend (also known as the key) need to be considered and described thoroughly. A typical legend contains a list of the variables appearing in the graphics and an example of their appearance. This information allows the data from each variable to be identified. Thus, describing a graph is a process of analysing the data, examining the content, choosing the form and finally, deciding on the right kind of language.

      To express trends, movement, inclinations, changes, etc., we should use appropriate verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs depending on the kind of action we need to describe.

      Examples of useful words, phrases and expressions are listed below:

      VERBS and NOUNS

      UP

      LEVEL

      DOWN

      VERB

      (present and past form)

      NOUN

      VERB

      (present and past form)

      NOUN

      VERB

      (present and past form)

      NOUN

      to improve (d)

      an improvement

      to remain (ed) stable/ steady/ consistent/ at a constant level/ value

      a constant level/ value

      to fall (fell)

      a fall

      to rise (rose)

      a rise

      to level (led) off

      ---

      to drop (ped)

      a drop



      to stand (stood) at


      ---

      to reach (ed) the lowest point / level / value

      the lowest point / level / value

      to go (went) up

      ---

      to fluctuate (d)

      fluctuactions

      to go (went) down

      ---

      to increase (d)

      an increase

      to oscillate (d)

      oscillation

      to decrease (d)

      a decrease

      to grow (grew)

      a growth

      not change (did not)

      no change

      to decline (d)

      a decline

      to climb (ed)

      a climb

      to stay (ed) constant

      ---

      to dip (ped)

      a dip

      to boom (ed)

      a boom

      to maintain (ed) the same level

      the same level

      to reduce (d)

      a reduction

      to peak (ed)

      a peak

      to undulate (d)

      ---

      to collapse (d)

      a collapse

      to level (led) up

      a level

      to stabilize (d)

      ---

      to plunge (d)

      a plunge

      to ascend (ed)

      an ascend



      to plummet (ed)

      ---

      to recover (ed)

      a recover



      to worsen (ed)

      ---

      to soar (ed)

      ---



      to deteriorate (d)

      a deterioration

      to double (d)

      ---



      to halve (d)

      a halving /

      a half

      to multiply (ied)

      ---



      to depreciate (d)

      a depreciation

      to exceed (ed)

      ---





      TOP



      BOTTOM

      to reach (ed) a peak/ maximum, the highest level/ value / point

      a peak/ maximum level/ value / point



      to have (had) the lowest point / level / value

      the lowest point / level / value





      to bottom(ed) out

      ---





      to sink (sank) to fall (fell) to a trough (of)

      ---


      A description of a graph quite often requires information about the intensity of the changes which are described. In such cases, adjectives and adverbs that describe the nature of the changes, trends and inclinations should be used.

      Adverbs are used to clarify the intensity of verbs, and we use adjectives to specify the intensity of nouns, e.g.:

      Sales rose sharply. (V + Adv)

      = There was a sharp rise in sales. (Adj + N)

      Examples of useful adjectives and adverbs are listed below:


      ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS

      ADJECTIVES

      ADVERBS

      considerable

      considerably

      dramatic

      dramatically

      gentle

      gently

      gradual

      gradually

      huge

      hugely

      massive

      massively

      minimal

      minimally

      quick

      quickly

      rapid

      rapidly

      sharp

      sharply

      significant

      significantly

      slight

      slightly

      slow

      slowly

      steady

      steadily

      steep

      steeply

      substantial

      substantially

      sudden

      suddenly

      swift

      swiftly

      Focusing on grammar should not the main focus when it comes to a graph description, but it is good to know which grammatical tenses can be used. This depends on what we want to say. However, there are tenses which are used extremely often, while others are used rather rarely. The Past Simple is the most common tense as most graphs show data from the past (e.g. Sales increased sharply in 2021). Present and Past Simple Passives are used quite often to show data from the past and the present, e.g. It can be seen that …, Furniture imports are/ were shown/ seen … . If the graph has predictions for the future, we can use phrases such as is/are forecast to, is/are projected to, is/are expected to, is/are predicted to (e.g. Furniture sales are expected to increase in 2022.). Present Perfect or Past Perfect can also be used sometimes (e.g. This decade, furniture sales have/ had increased sharply.)

      The choice of appropriate prepositions is yet another crucial part of graph descriptions. Improving accuracy in this area can make the graph description professional and correct. Knowing whole prepositional phrases, rather than single words, makes the process of description more automatized and faster?

      Samples of prepositional phrases are listed below:

      Sales rose by 5%.
      Food fell from 1000 units to 500 units.
      Inflation remained stable at 2 percent.
      There was a decrease in production.
      There is a fall of 5% in production.
      Prices increased by $10 per item.

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    Activities

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    Further practice

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    Bibliography and references