HOW TO TALK ABOUT A VISUAL AID

1. Choosing the right visual aid

A flow chart is a diagram A pie chart displays the size A (vertical or horizontal) bar
showing the progress of of each part as a percentage chart is used to compare unlike
material through the steps of a of a whole. (different) items
manufacturing process or the
succession of operations in a
complex activity

A line chart depicts changes A table is a convenient way A diagram is a drawing showing
over a period of time, showing to show large amount of arrangements and situations,
data and trends data in a small space such as networks, distribution,
fluctuation ...

2. Presenting a graph

Introduction Topic Circumstances

This graph shows ...
The diagram outlines ...
This table lists ...
This pie chart represents
This line chart depicts ...
This chart breaks down (ventile) ...
the results of our products ...
rates of economic growth ...
the top ten agencies ...
the company's turnover ...
the changes in sales ...
the sales of each salesman ...
over 10 years.
between 1990 and 1996.
in the industrial world.
for this year in our sector.
over the past year.
during the past ten weeks.

3. The four basic trends (tendences) are :

● upward movement : 🡽

● downward movement : 🡾

● no movement : 🡺

● change in direction :  or 
4. Indicating upward movement : 🡽

Verbs Nouns
Transitive Intransitive
(to) increase (to) increase (an) increase
(to) raise (to) rise (rose, risen) (a) raise (US), a rise (UK)
(to) push/put/step up (to) go/be up (an) upswing
(to) grow (a) growth
(to) extend, (to) expand (to) extend, (to) expand (an) extension, expansion
(to) progress (a) progression
(to) boom/soar/climb (a) boom
(to) jump, (to) skyrocket (a) jump
(to) reach a peak, (to) peak (a) peak
(to) reach an all-time high

5. Indicating downward movement : 🡾

Verbs Nouns
Transitive Intransitive
(to) decrease (to) decrease (a) decrease
(to) cut, (to) reduce (a) cut, (a) reduction
(to) fall (off) (fall, fell, fallen) (a) fall
(to) plunge, to plummet (a) plunge
(to) drop (off) (a) drop
(to) go down (a) downswing
(to) decline (a) decline
(to) collapse (a) collapse (dramatic fall)
(to) slump, (to) go bust (a) slump
(to) bottom out

6. Indicating no movement : 🡺

Verbs Nouns
Transitive Intransitive
(to) keep ... stable (to) remain stable
(to) hold ... constant (to) stay constant
(to) stabilize (to) stabilize stability

7. Indicating a change of direction :  or  ...

Verbs Nouns
Transitive Intransitive
(to) level off (to) level off/out, to flatten out (a) levelling-off
(to) stop falling/rising (a) change
(to) stand at (to) remain steady
(to) stop falling and start rising
(to) stop rising and start falling
8. Indicating the degree or the speed of change

9. Describing the elements of a graph

The X axis shows the ……….. X axis = abscissa axis

the Yaxis shows the ………. Y axis= ordinate axis

9.1 Look at the graph and write the appropriate letters in front of each definition :

 : the horizontal axis ( or the x axis)  : a solid line

 : the vertical axis (or the y axis)  : a broken line
 : the scale  : a dotted line

10. Analyzing an example

The x axis of this graph shows the twelve
months of the past year while our sales in
millions of dollars appear on the y axis. It may
be seen clearly that sales rose steadily in the
first half of the year (from January to May) and
reached their peak in June. Then they
dropped off in July and leveled out in August.
After rising sharply during September, they
suffered a dramatic (spectaculaire) fall in
October but then made a significant
(sensible) recovery (redressement) in
November. However, the year ended with a
slight downturn.
 DESCRIBING GRAPHS AND TRENDS (EXERCISES 1)
NAME : FORM : DATE :

1.Match each sentence below with one of the following graphs

1. E The investment level rose suddenly.e

1 The sales of our products fell slightly in the final quarter. B
2 The Research and Development budget has stabilized over the past few years. d
3 At the end of the first year, sales stood at 50 per cent of the present level.f
4 The price reached a peak before falling a little and then maintaining the same level. A
5 There has been a steady increase in costs over several years.H
6 The sudden collapse in share prices has surprised everyone.G
7 The value of the shares has shown a steady decline.C

2. Look at the graph below, then complete the sentences.

1. The ........................ compares three products : A, B and C.

2. The ............. shows time over ten years while the ............ shows sales in number of units.
3. As you can see, product A is represented by the ...............................................
4. The performance of Product B is shown by the ..............................................
5. And a …………………………………. has been used to show the results of Product C.
6. Clearly, ................................... is the most successful product ....................................
7. Sales of Product B .......................... in recent years while sales of Product C ......................
8. On the contrary, product A has shown a ..................................................
 DESCRIBING GRAPHS AND TRENDS (EXERCISES 2)
NAME : FORM : DATE :

3. Read the following text and draw the corresponding graph on the right.

The graph opposite covers

the years 1976 to 1995. It
shows that the number of
television viewing hours rose
steadily and steeply during
that period in the US,
starting at just under 5 hours
a day to reach more than 7
hours in 1995. There was a
slight increase in 1982 and
sharper falls in 1986 and
1991. The next decrease, in
1994, is hardly significant.
Though we do not have the
latest figures, it is unlikely
that the trend will have
reversed.
1976
1995
4. Comment on the graph below using and organizing the following expressions :

Sales rose / went up /

increased / climbed ...
+ adverb (slowly / steadily /
rapidly / gradually ...)
Sales stood at ...
Sales peaked / peaked out
Sales leveled out / flattened out
Sales bottomed out
This was due to ...
This was the result of ...
This caused ...
This led to ...

Avoid repetitions !

Conclude by saying whether

this graph is typical or not;
Justify your answer.

ESO 3 A
GROUP 1:
It is a graph that shows the monthly ice cream sales. The x axis shows
the months of the year and in the y axis it shows the units sold from 1 to
7. And the data was taken from January to december. In january, it
started with 1 unit, in February it climbed to 2 units, in march it
maintained at the same number of units.
In april the number of sales grow to 4 units and in may it decreased 1
unit, in june, it rises again to 4 units and it maintains the same until
august, in september improved 1 unit and in october rapidly decreased
to 2 units, in november soared to 3 units and finally in december it felt
off to 1 unit.

GROUP 2
The graph shows the number of ice cream sales per month, from
January to December. It uses a solid line, the x axis shows the
months of the sales and the y axis shows the number of sales. With
the graph we can see that:
The first 2 months (January and February) solds rose, then they
stood till April, in April solds went up until May, and then increased
again till August, where the number of sales stood and peaked in
september.
Then, it bottomed out in October, climbed in November and rapidly
decreased till the end of the year.

GROUP 3:
The x axis of the graph shows the twelve months of the year, while the
units of ice-cream sold appear on the y axis. The ice-cream sales are
represented with a solid line.
In the graph, it is seen clearly that the sales rose steadily in the first two
months of the year. Then, they levelled out from February to April. After
rising rapidly during April, they led to an insignificant fall in May but
then they went up in June. Next, sales stood at 4 during the next month,
and reached their peak in September. Although, this caused a very
dramatic decrease in sales that stopped in October. Finally they made
an important recovery in November. The year ended with the sales
bottomed out.

GROUP 4:
This graph is a representation of sells that at first rises up,
then from February to April it stays steadily and then from
April to May it rapidly rises up. Then it climbed rapidly
From May to June.From June to July sales flattened out.
From July to August reached the highest peak of the graph.
Then from August to September it goes down with a big
decrease to October then rises again and finally another
decrease.

GROUP 5:

This is a graph that shows us the monthly ice-cream sales.

from January to February, sales rose quickly, then from
February to March sales stood at 2000, From March to April
Sales peaked and then peaked out from April to may. Then it
climbed rapidly from May to June, From June to July sales
flattened. Later, from July to August reached the highest
peak, And from August to September peaked out. From
September to October went up steadily and finally from
October to December sales bottomed out.
ESO 3 E VERSIONS

group 1: (Radioactiv)
Sales went up rapidly from January to February, then
sales stabilized in 2000 between February and
March, to continue sales increased greatly from April
to May, from May to June sales had an slightly
decrease. From June to July sales increased up to
4000, to continue with between July to August sales
leveled out and from August to September the pick
of sales was reached. Then from September to
October the sales decreased dramatically, to
continue between October and November sales
increased up rapidly and finally sales decreased
between November and December sales decreased
greatly until the starting point of 1000.

GROUP 2: (Puma´s)
We can see that from January to March they rose steadily. It was followed by a flattening
out from march to mid april. Then, the sales proceeded to rise sharply which was followed
by a sharp decrease. This caused sales to climb up and then leveled out until mid august.
Sales peaked in September after they went up, but this also led to the biggest decrease in
sales, going down to the same number as when it leveled out in march, followed by a small
increase and a fall which bottomed out the sales.
GROUP 3 (GIRLS POWER)

In january to february increased a little bit, then in march doesn’t change anything but form
april to may increased rapidly, in june decreased some points, when it was july it climbed
again but no so much, august was a month when nothing change, instead in september was
the highest point in all the year, in october decrease it was a very bi fall, but in november
increased very slowly.
Finally December again decreased and it was at the same point as in the beginning. The
result is steadily changing a lot.

GROUP 4 (SPANISH PEOPLE)

The sales start in one sale in January but then increase in february and remained
stable from march to April in which the level of sales started increasing vastly until
may, and decreased between may and June motherately, then in july the sales went
up and stay stabled until August then climbed up until September and rapidly
decreased until October, increased until November and rapidly the sales bottomed
out in December
ESO 3 c VERSIONS
 group 1:The line chart proposed to
comment describes the monthly ice-
cream sales throughout one year. The x
axis represents the months of the year
while the y axis shows the units sold in
000s.

Sales rose considerably from February

to March. They leveled off until April,
when they climbed sharply. They
dropped moderately from May to June
and in June they stopped going down
and started rising. From July to August,
sales remained steady. The sales
reached their peak in September, and
then they plummeted dramatically. They recovered slightly and fell from
November to December.

In conclusion, the figures were irregular most of the time, sometimes

reaching peaks and other times bottoming out. As we can observe,
during the summer season sales were higher than in the winter period
as summer is the hottest time of the year and ice-creams have a higher
demand. In the winter months (november, december, january…) sales
were much lower because the weather in those months is really cold
and doesn’t help sales. These kinds of graphs are seen very often
because they’re very useful in businesses and other institutions, where
sales can vary hugely from one month to the next one.

group 2: The massachusetts doctors

The graph proposed to comment is a line chart that represents the units
sold of ice creams in thousands (y axis), during a natural year (x axis).
The source of the information is “Business Contacts, Pergamon Press”.

Firstly we can observe that the sales

are very scarce in January, this can
be due to the cold of winter. During
the next months we can see a
fluctuation that stabilizes at a high
point during the month of July. Then
in August the sales peaked out at
5200 sales because it is the hottest
time of the year. Incredibly, we had a
dramatic drop of sales in September,
this could happen because of the
end of summer and the start of
school, as kids are a very important
number of buyers. Finally the sales
increased rapidly in October, but
bottomed out with a gradual decrease of sales caused due to the cold of
winter.

In conclusion, we can observe that during the months of summer and

spring there are more sales than in the other months of the year due to
the high temperatures, but we can deduce that this company doesn’t
have a good year of sales.

group 3:
The graph suggested to comment is a line graph.
We can observe that from January to February sales increased
rapidly but during March sales flattened out. The sales peaked
out rapidly in April followed by a quick drop. During June, July
and August the sales rapidly
increased, leveled out and peaked
quickly, followed by a dramatic
decrease in sales in September. Ice
Cream sales recovered slightly in
October but significantly fell in
November and December.

Overload, we can see a clear

upward trend in the months of the
summer season when it is hotter and
the percentage of ice cream
consumption is higher than in
winter. Probably this happens
because in summer months it is
usually warmer. Sales bottomed in
the winter months doubtless because of the cold temperature.In
conclusion, ice cream consumption changed according to the
season.

group 4: The graph that we are going to comment on is a line graph

and it represents the ice-cream
sales per month. The x axis
represents the months and the y
axis shows the number of sold ice
cream in the 2000s.

First, the ice-cream sales went up

steadily from January to
February. Later, it leveled off
from February to March. Then,
eventually it soared faster due to
the mild weather in March and
April. After that, there was a
decline in the ice-cream sales,
this led the company to improve
in the way they attended to their customers. From the months June to
July the sales rose significantly and they were in one of the best
months of this ice-cream sales. Then, the sales stood at the same
position as they were in the month of April. After that, it leveled up
rapidly due to the warmth of the summer so many people wanted a
freezing and tasty ice-cream. Then, there was a surprisingly dramatic
drop from August to September that almost cost the company to close.
Suddenly, there was a gradual increase as a result of the effort of the
company making the ice creams. Finally, it dropped rapidly because
the winter starts and it is too cold to have an ice-cream.

In conclusion, we can see that the best PERIOD by far is from July to
August where there were many ice-cream sales EVEN WHEN This
company had many ups and downs during the year.