Hi my name is Jenny.
Today we'll learn about using vocabulary for describing data.
So why is it important to describe data?
It's useful because it's a common task at university and
you might need this skill later on in your working life.
Here's a piece of data.
Let's look at this graph about the sales of cars in 2019.
What happened to the sales of cars?
We can use verbs to help us with this.
Can you think of some verbs to describe what happened over the year?
Because the line is going up and up and up,
you can use verbs like
increased,
rose, went up
and grew. So even though all these words have the same meaning, you
need to think of many ways of describing the same thing so that your writing is
interesting.
Do you think it's enough to say that there was a rise in sales in 2019?
Probably not. It doesn't say much. And it makes for a boring description.
We can make this more interesting by adding information to this.
What sort of rise was it? We could use the
help of adjectives.
These are describing words to give more information to make our
description more interesting.
Can you think of some adjectives to describe this action?
How would you describe the rise in sales?
You could use adjectives like dramatic,
sharp,
significant,
substantial
and considerable. So if we go back to our sentence,
there was a rise in car sales in 2019,
and we add an adjective, our sentence would tell us more.
There was a dramatic rise in car sales.
There was a sharp rise in car sales.
There was a substantial rise in car sales.
In this section let's look at how we can use adverbs to describe data.
Here.
I have a subject and a choice of verbs to describe the
data but what word form can I put after the verb?
Can I put an adjective here?
Sales of cars grew
dramatic? That does not sound right.
So no. To describe the action of the verb,
what do we need to use? We need to put an adverb here.
Let's change these adjectives into adverbs.
What are the adverbs for these adjectives? Take a moment to think about that.
Here are the adverb forms of these adjectives.
Dramatically. Sharp, sharply.
Significant,
significantly. Substantial,
substantially. Considerable,
considerably.
What did the adverbs have in common?
You probably noticed that they all end in -ly.
When you're composing a sentence, one combination to remember is:
subject verb, adverb. Say it with me: subject, verb,
adverb. That's a mini chant for you to help you construct your sentence.
There's also another combination that you can use.
There was plus adjective plus noun.
You could start your sentence with the phrase:
There was a and then add an adjective and then add a noun.
There was a, adjective, noun. Say it with me. There was a, adjective,
noun. That's another mini chat for you there.
Can you change some of the verbs that we thought of before into nouns?
Did you come up with the same as me? Increased,
an increase. Rose, a rise.
Grew,
growth and went up can't be changed into a noun.
So now you can combine these words to make a variety of
sentences about what happened to the sales of cars in 2019.
Sales
of cars increased dramatically.
This sentence uses the subject plus verb plus adverb structure.
There was a sharp rise in car sales.
This sentence uses the,
there was a plus adjective plus noun structure.
OK, so now it's your turn. You might want to use a pen and paper. Let's look at
what happened to the sales of cars in 2020.
How many verbs can you think of to describe what happened to the sales of cars
in 2020? I've got five here.
They are fell, decreased, declined,
dropped and went down. How many did you think of? OK
now, can you think of some adverbs to describe this fall?
Here's what I thought of. Gradually,
steadily and somewhat. What about you?
Maybe you have some others.
Remember it's important to be accurate when you look at the data. The
angle of this fall is quite different to the angle
for 2019. Can you see that?
So we have gradually rather than
dramatically. What about this fall?
It's different to the other one, isn't it?
What do you think might be different about it? And
what adverbs can you think of to describe it?
I thought of slightly, marginally, gradually,
steadily and somewhat. What about you?
Let's bring back our verb list.
We now need to change these verbs into nouns so
that we have even more ways to describe what happened to the data.
Do you know what the nouns are for these verbs? Did you think of these?
A full, a decrease, a decline,
a drop? There isn't a noun for went down.
What about changing these adverbs into adjectives? Have a go.
Did you get: gradual, steady,
slight and marginal? But take note,
you can't change somewhat.
Now you can make even more sentences by combining these words,
which is excellent. Don't forget to recall our mini chants.
What sentences did you come up with? Here's what I came up with.
Sales of cars declined steadily.
This sentence uses the subject, verb, adverb combination.
There was a gradual fall in car sales.
This sentence uses the, there was a, adjective, noun structure.
You now have learnt the different ways to describe data. Great
job.
This will help you to avoid repetition and your writing will stay interesting
and not bore your reader or you. Just
remember to look closely at the graph and be accurate in your description of it.
Also remember that there's a difference between a slight rise,
a gradual rise and a dramatic rise.
So make sure you choose the correct adjective or adverb to describe
what is happening to the data.
Thanks for joining me today.
I hope you enjoyed learning how to be descriptive when looking at data and don't
forget your mini chants.
They're going to help you communicate your ideas in a clear and interesting way.
Bye!