Theory MIXED GRAPHS

MIXED GRAPHSI, Introduction 1, Definition of mixed graphs Mixed graphs are the combination of two or more charts/ graphs/ table.. Mixed 2 graphs The given line graph illustrates informa

MIXED GRAPHS

I, Introduction

1, Definition of mixed graphs

Mixed graphs are the combination of two or more charts/ graphs/ table

2, Type of mixed graphs

Name Visual aids and features

1 Mixed 2

graphs

The given line graph illustrates information on the number of overseas visitors traveling to Australia in millions of people while the second table gives statistics showing the countries whose residents went to Australia between 1975 and 2005

2 Mixed 3

or more

graphs

The diagrams show data for a flu epidemic which hit a large country town in

1996 Figure 1 gives the number of persons who died; Figure 2 shows the percentage breakdown of females who received a new flu vaccine; and Figure 3

1, Objectives / Aims of mixed charts:

Mixed charts: combination of two or more charts / graphs/ table

Mixed charts are used to give different kinds of information (E.g.: pie chart and line chart show the percentage and also the trend.)

Mixed charts are mainly used in research and data analysis because they show the complicated relationship of the problems which are studied

Example:

The pie chart shows the worldwide distribution of sales of Coca-Cola in the year 2000 and the graph shows the change in share prices between 1996 and 2001

In the year 2000, Coca-Cola sold a total of 17.1 billion cases of their fizzy drink product worldwide The largest consumer was North America, where 30.4 per cent of the total volume was purchased The second largest consumer was Latin America Europe and Asia purchased 20.5 and 16.4 per cent of the total volume respectively, while Africa and the Middle East remained fairly small consumers at 7 per cent of the total volume of sales

Since 1996, share prices for Coca-Cola have fluctuated In that year, shares were valued at approximately $35 Between 1996 and 1997, however, prices rose significantly to $70 per share They dipped a little in mid-1997 and then peaked at $80 per share in mid-98 From then until

2000 their value fell consistently but there was a slight rise in mid-2000

2, Organization / Structure of mixed charts:

Charts/ graphs/table title

The titles (top of the charts) give an overview of the information displayed in the charts

Structure of each kind: please look at the previous lessons

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III Guideline to mixed graph description

The process of describing an individual chart in a mixed chart is the same as describing a line chart, a bar chart, a pie chart and so on

1 Introductory sentence:

 You should explain how many and which kinds of charts you are going to describe

 You can use one more sentence to sum up the overall trend the chart

For example:

The bar chart shows CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre for variuos methods of transport in the European Union while the pie chart shows European Union spending on transport.

2 Body paragraphs:

There are two ways to organize the body:

 You separate each chart to describe

For example:

The given line graph illustrates information on the number of overseas visitors traveling to

Australia in millions of people Overall, one notable trend seems to be that Australia has steadily become more popular as a destination spot For example, there were 20 million more visitors to Australia in 2005 than in 1975 That's a jump from 10 million to 30 million in 20 years

The second table gives statistics showing the countries whose residents went to Australia

between 1975 and 2005 In both years, the largest number of visitors came from Japan, followed

by South Korea and Europe Britain, the United States and China also had many people traveling

only 3.2 million in 1975.

 You describe charts together

That means you will discuss the data presented in the task, identify significant trends of each chart at the same time

For example:

Grams of CO2 per passenger - Km

European Union spending on transport

à Flying by air produces by far the greatest CO2 emissions, approximately three times as much

as passenger cars which are the next largest producers Very little is spent by the EU on air travel while roads make up more than half of the EU transport budget.

3 Concluding sentence:

 You might draw a conclusion to show the relation after analyzing all the charts in the mixed graph

For example:

In conclusion, people in the UAE are living longer and healthier lives because of the

government's spending on education and medical facilities

 You also put some significant comments or some potential solutions

 If you do not have enough time, you can omit this part, or you can write, “This ends my report”

IV Useful tips and useful language:

1 Useful tips:

 Do not copy any part of the question in your answer This is not your own work and therefore will be disregarded by the examiner and deducted from the word count You can use individual words but be careful of using long "chunks" of the question text

 Don't repeat yourself or the same ideas This gives a bad impression and the examiner realizes that it isn't adding to the content of your report

 If you are weak at English grammar, try to use short sentences This allows you to control the grammar and the meaning of your writing much more easily and contributes to a better cohesion and coherence mark It's much easier to make things clear in a foreign language if you keep your sentences short!

 Think about the tenses of your verbs If you're writing about something that happened in the past, your verbs will need to be in the past tenses If you're describing the future, you will need to use the future tenses If it's a habitual action, you'll need the present simple tense and so on If you have time, a quick check of your verbs at the end of the exam can help you find errors For describing graphs, you will probably need past tenses whereas, for describing a process, you will probably need the present simple Think about the verbs while practicing and then it will become easier when you do the exam

 Don't be irrelevant Although you can use your imagination to expand on your answer, if any part of your report is totally unrelated to the question and put in to just put up the word count, then the examiner will not take it into account and deduct it from the word count

2 Useful language:

a Some words and phrases to describe trend:

an increase

a fall

a drop

a decline

a peak/dip

considerable(ly) steady(ily) slight(ly) / gentle(ly) gradual(ly)

relative(ly)

reach a plateau remain stable remain/stay constant reach a peak

hit/fall to the lowest point

b Comparing data:

While/Whilst More…than

Whereas Different from

However Differ(ence)

On the other hand Although

Even so In contrast to

Nevertheless Conversely

Less…than Unlike

Likewise To reflect Similarly To mirror As…as Just as Like Alike

To have in common

In the same way

c Some useful prepositions:

in [month / year / morning, afternoon etc]

at [9 o’clock, 10.30 am etc]

from [a point in time] to… [another point]

between…[a point in time] and… [another point]

during [a period of time]

before [a point in time or a period of time]

after [a point in time or a period of time]

by [a point of time arrived at]

until [a point of time reached]

since [from a point in the past until now]

Remember also that not all words for describing rise and fall will take a preposition, and the preposition will depend on whether you are using the word as a verb or a noun See the table below for more details:

Verbs that take a

preposition

Verbs that don’t take

a preposition

Nouns that take a preposition

rise to/by

increase to/by

fall to/by

drop to/by

shoot up to/by

an increase of

a fall of

a decrease of

plunge to/by

stay at

remain at

fluctuate between/around

d Some useful phrases to interpret the graph:

The graph illustrates / shows the rise in

The graph illustrates / shows that

It is estimated that

Compare the data in the bar graph / chart

The trend was flat

The present trend is maintained