Language of trends

7. Fluctuated
1. Rose/increased steadily

2. Rose/increased 8. Fell/dropped dramatically / sharply

dramatically
3. Rose/increased gradually 9. Reach a trough
4. Plunged to … 10. Remained
constant/unchanged/stable at ….
5. Peaked at/reached a high 11.Leveled off/evened out at …
of

6. Stood at 12. Hit a low of …

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Stood at
This means ‘not moving’. So avoid using it
once you have begun

describing the graph, but use it to say where

the figures started
Plunged This is a very sudden and large drop down
The highest point that is reached on the graph
Peaked at / reached a high of

The lowest point that is reached on the graph

Hit a low of / Reached a trough of …

Remained constant/ unchanged /stable at …./ This is used if a ‘flat’ point arises where the

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Leveled off/evened out at … data is neither increasing nor decreasing for
a period of time
Fluctuated To rise and fall or vary irregularly

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In 1991, the number of arrests for illegal drug use stood at 55. However,
over the following two years, there was a sharp fall to 20 per year. The
number then rose significantly from 1995 to 1996 to 50 per year. 1996 to
1999 saw a fluctuation in the arrest rate, which was followed by a sudden
increase at the end of this period, with the rate reaching a peak of 80 in
2000. Next, the number of arrests plunged to a low of 15 in 2001. It
remained stable for the following year, but then increased gradually to 20,
leveling off at this rate for the remainder of the period.

Meaning Verb Noun Adjective Adverbs

Go down Decline Decline Sharp Sharply
Decrease Decrease Rapid Rapidly
Drop Drop quick quickly
Fall Fall Considerable Considerably
Go Go down significant significantly
down Plumet Steady Steadily
Plumet Plunge Gradual Gradually
Plunge Moderate Moderately
Slow Slowly
Slight Slightly
Go up Climb Climb
Go up Go up
Grow Growth
Increase Increase

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 Jump
Rise
Rise
Rocket

How to use numbers in a different way

A tenth A third Slightly more than a fifth Slightly less than a third Three quarters Nearly half
Just over three The vast
A half q quarter quarters A fifth majority/almost all Over half

a) 10% b) 20% c) 25% d) 22% e) 31% f) 33%

g) 48% h) 50% i) 57% J) 75% k) 77% l) 95%

Very important notes to remember >>

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 1. “plunge” and “plummet” do not take adverbs
because what they mean is a big decrease.
We can say “decreased
considerably/sharply/dramatically/significantly/substantially”
or “plunged”, or “plummeted”.
But, we must not say,
“plummeted
considerably/sharply/dramatically/significantly/substanti
ally” or “plunged
considerably/sharply/dramatically/significantly/substanti
ally”

2. Likewise, “rocket” does not take adverbs. So to

say increased significantly, rose sharply, they mean
the same thing as rocketed. A big/sharp increase, so
no adverbs for rocketed.
3. Steadily and gradually mean the same thing.
Steadily and gradually mean over a period of time.

4. Levelled off & stabilized

Don’t ever use stabilized and levelled off to start your
description.
levelled off and stabilized always happen after another trend.
You can say, for example, “the figure remained the same

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before increasing/ the figure remained stable before increasing/
the figure remained unchanged before increasing/ the figure
remained constant before increasing”. However, we cannot
use “stabilized or levelled off” in this case. Stabilized and
levelled off always happen after another trend.
For example, sales fluctuated before they levelled of / sales
fluctuated before they stabilized.
Fluctuation
You can say fluctuated significantly/ fluctuated wildly (big
changes) or fluctuated slightly (small changes).
The birthday fluctuated significantly/wildly
between 2000 and 2005.

5. Reached a low
“Reach” always happens after a movement.

“A high” is always behind a point of the diagram. We

shouldn’t say reached a high, instead we say started at a
high/ began at a high.
We can say reached a low/started at a low/ began at a low
Car sales reached a low of 15.000 in 2000.
6. Reached a peak
“A peak” is always up and down. A peak can be a high but
it doesn’t have to be. For example, reached two peaks
before reaching a high.

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The number of people who were unemployed reached a peak
of 2000 people in 2015. The number of tourists reached a
peak of 15 million in 1995.
7. Stood at
You can use “stood at” at anywhere on the graph you want (at the
beginning it stood at,
afterward it stood at, then it stood at”, then it stood at, then it stood
at something else). “Stood at” works for anything on the graph.
The number of sales stood at 4 million in 2010.
The number of people travelling to London stood at 26 million in
2005.

8. Started at/ began at

You can use “started at/ began at” at the beginning.
In 2000, the figure for Internet users started at approximately 50
million. The amount of meat consumed weekly began at about 150
grams.

9. Ended at/ finished at

You can use “ended at/ finished at” at the end.
The figure finished at over 50%.

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10. Dipped/decreased slightly
Expenditure on furniture dipped slightly from 9% to 7% between
2002 and 2005. Coffee sales decreased slightly between June and
August.
Examples:
Coffee sales began at 50 thousand dollars, then decreased slightly
to 48 thousand dollars. Subsequently, sales plunged and reached a
low of 40 thousand dollars between June and August. Afterwards,
coffee sales rocketed to a high of 70 thousand dollars. Sales
remained stable before decreasing and stabilizing at…

11. “Soared” really is the same as “rocketed”.

Increased slightly/increased gradually.
The number of people using the Internet increased slightly between
1995 and 2005. From 2002 to 2004, CD sales in the UK increased
gradually from 3 to 4 million - a rise of 30%.

Practice different structures

Experienced/witnessed/saw a decrease/a decline/a rise/an

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increase

Laptop prices experienced a decrease/a decline.

Laptop prices underwent a decrease/a decline.
The price of laptop saw a fall/decrease/a decline.
The price of laptop witnessed a fall/decrease/a decline.

A couple of examples for better clarifications

The purchase of Honda increased slightly from…..to….
Honda sales grew slightly from nearly…to…..
Honda sales decreased substantially, falling from…to…
Sales of Yamaha rocketed.
Sales of Yamaha soared.
Sales of Yamaha increased substantially.

Rewrite these sentences:

Example: The consumption of oil rose steadily in
2008.
There was a steady rise in the consumption of
oil in 2008. 2008 saw a steady rise in the
consumption of oil.

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1. Milk consumption fell sharply during June and July.

.……………………………………………….

2. There was a slight dip in food prices at the start of the year.

Food prices………………………………………

The start of the year witnessed……………………….

3. In January, weather conditions improved significantly.

January………………………………………………………

There…………………………………………………………

4. There will be a sudden increase in the birth rate next year.

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………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………

5. The use of public transport grew steadily in most cities

from 2001 to 2008.

……………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………….

6. March experienced a fluctuation in the number of people

going abroad.

……………………………………………………………….

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……………………………………………………………….

Other basic language:

A doubling means twice (10% >>20%)
A tripling means three times (10% >> 30%)
Double means
To become twice as big or twice as much
Or
To make something twice as big or twice as much

X doubled in size/ in number//value

You can use some expressions for your overview as

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below:
- The graph shows (information about) /indicates /illustrates
highlights (the data about)…
- As the graph shows
- It is clear from the graph (that)
- As shown by the graph
- It can be seen from the graph (that)
- As can be clearly seen from the graph,
- From the graph, it is clear (that)
- As illustrated by the graph,

USEFUL TIME EXPRESSIONS

- (In) the period from…..to……/ between……and ((in) the
period from January to April... between January and
April...) //Over the period from…….to……..
- During (during the first two years...)
- In the first/ last three months of the year

- Over the next...for the following... (for the following five

years... Over the next five years...)

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- Over a ten-year period
- After that/ then
- Until
- Throughout the year/ throughout the period/
each month of the year - Subsequently
- For the rest of the year
- In January/ at the beginning of the year/ at the beginning
of the period
- In December/ the end of the year

LANGUAGE OF ESTIMATION
· Just over
· Nearly
· About
· Around
· Almost
· Approximately
· Just about
· Very nearly
· Just over
· More than
· Less than
USEFUL LANGUAGE

USEFUL WORDS FOR PARAPHRASING A

SUMMARY Original sentence: The chart below
shows…
Paraphrased sentence: the line graph/ the line chart

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indicates/depicts/reveals/illustrates…
· Sales = income = revenue = turnover = how much money
was made.
· The income rate = the income level = the level of income =
the rate of income = the level of revenue = the revenue rate
= the revenue level
· New York City bookstore = bookstore in New York City
· Proportion = percentage = rate
· The proportion of = the percentage of = the figure for.
· From 2000 to 2005 = between 2000 and 2005 = Over
a period of (5) years. ·

The elderly = elderly people = senior citizens.

· Spending = expenditure.
· Information = data
· Levels of unemployment = Unemployment rate.
· Poverty rate = Level of poverty.
· Production = manufacture = be produced = be
made = be manufactured

Note:

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The figure for X
What is X? Whatever you are talking about.
For example: the figure for novel sales, the figure for action
films, the figure for whatever it said on the diagram.
Or you can use “X’s figure”. For example, romance film’s
figure

The contribution of X
“Contribution” means how much do you give to something,
how much do you give to the whole/ the total. “Contribution”
works when we talk about percentages because “percentage” is
looking at the whole (100%). So, here I can say:
The contribution of romance films stood at more than 50%
in 1990. Romance film’s contribution stood at more than
50% in 1990.
Romance films contributed more than 50% in 1990.

MOST COMMON MISTAKES STUDENTS MAKE IN

TASK 1 WRITING
1. Adverb vs adjective
A slight increase/decrease. (NOT a slightly increase/decrease).
2. Copy the summary

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This just means you do not paraphrase the summary enough.
That’s a big problem. Be sure you paraphrase the summary
as much as you can.
3. Question mark
4. Your main point lacks either comparison or trend
language, and you cannot get a 7.0+ in task achievement
without it.

5. Wrong verb tense use.

Pay your attention to the verb tense.
6. Don’t use figures in your introduction and overview (no
need to give numbers in your main point)
7. Capital letters and lowercase letters.
8. Redundant or needlessly repeat word phrases or
information. It creates extra words but it doesn’t give new
information. Therefore, you don’t need to keep saying a word
or a phrase over and over again. Instead, you can use “it”,
“this”, “this figure” to replace that word or phrase.
9. Collocation issues
You don’t put words together properly.

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