unit - 6 - Report - Writing( - Charts - Interpreting - - ) - v - [1]

UNIT SIX REPORT WRITING

UNIT SIX REPORT WRITING

By the end of this unit, students should be able to: select a chart to suit the data needs. control paragraphs and sentence linking skillfully. rephrase basic information on charts. recognize major trends or features of data and group similar information do comparison and identify whole-to-whole VS point-to-point comparison patterns. use approximations to present numerals. use hedging or cautious language. control tenses in chart interpreting. use vague statement + additional information pattern. make a questionnaire, do an online survey and create charts on Excel or Microsoft Word.

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UNIT SIX REPORT WRITING

Lead-in Charts and the Basic Concepts

1 Give a report on your pre-course research in groups, stating how you collected the data, how you presented them in 2 Report writing in this unit refers to a brief report of the data presented on charts. Charts are widely used in

academic essays, business plans, business reports and others to support points of views and decisions. They are

great in visualizing a set of complex, specific facts or figures for analyzing and recognizing decision making problems. Now study the following charts and see how one chart is different from another or in what situation you prefer to use one rather than another.

graphs and what was induced from the data. We will see how your data are different from each other and what might be the problem.

3 According to your knowledge of charts, choose one chart to present the data in the following and tell why.

The weekly weather in London. _______________________________________. 1. 2. The types of dictionaries used for English learning．____________________________________. 3. Expenditure on campus. _______________________________________________. 4. The major sources of income in your family．__________________________________________. 5. The monthly sales of cars.＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿. 2

UNIT SIX REPORT WRITING

4 Read the following and fill in the blanks in the following with curve charts, bar charts or pie charts

__________are used to compare different groups. But the items do not need to affect each other.

100806040200第一季度第三季度东部西部北部 ________time.

___________ are used to show relations of parts to whole.

___are dynamic, showing how one thing changes over

5 Work together with your partner. Use the

words given to describe the movements and then go on to brainstorm more words you may use to describe the movements of the following chart.

A. Make a curve chart with varied movements in the following grids. Remember to caption the graph and label both the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) axes first. When ready, keep it to yourself without showing it to your partner.

B. Describe the chart. When one student describes his/her chart, the other student will listen and draw according to what is heard. Then reverse roles and repeat the same steps.

(The words in the left hand side will help you. Keep practice until you are familiar with words.)

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UNIT SIX REPORT WRITING

There be a Adj. Nouns Prep. (value) Prep. (time) slow slight gentle 1) There was a… gradual stable 2)…, followed by moderate dramatic a… sudden quick sharp significant considerable consistent decline decrease drop fall increase rise climb soar peak level-off at to from until between by through until during between from… to… over in at on since e.g. There was a gradual decline to 20% in 1990, followed by a level-off at 30% until 1993. Useful Expressions Y - Axis 1. stood at 13.5 2. peaked at 90 Subjects 3. reached a plateau of 70 Verbs Adv. 4. dropped to 10.5 5. rose by 70% 6. climbed up to 11.0 declined slowly 7. fluctuated between 20% and 30% decreased slightly 8. increased to 20% from 10 % 1)The figure dropped gently 9. an increase of 10 per cent 2)The grade fell gradually 10. remained at 30 % 3)The percentage increased stably X-4)Sales of Axiscars rose moderately 11. leveled off until 1999 climbed dramatically 12. grew up to 1999 soared by 1992 suddenly 13. had soared to 50 peaked quickly 14. went up from that year forward 15. rose to 50 since 1990 leveled off sharply 16. was stable as of 1990 significantly 17. increased from 1997 to 1999 considerably 18. bottomed out in 1992 consistently 19. over the course of the year 20. through the 2-month period 21. leveled off between 1990 and 1996 e.g. The consumption of milk declined gradually to 20% in 1990. Prep. (value) Prep. (time) at to from until between by through until during between from to over in at on

6 Some words can both be verbs and nouns as listed below. Now describe the above chart again using the words as

nouns and verbs alternatively to achieve variety.

7 When describing a chart orally, you may not notice the

repetition in your sentences. However, when written down,

this cannot be disregarded. Think over possible ways to improve the sentence linking.

following list some strategies for saying ―then‖ in varied ways. You will find one strategy is repeatedly used for your better observation. Now work with your partner to find out the rules and then try to balance all the six strategies in one paragraph to achieve variety of sentences.

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