Vocabulary for Analytical Paragraph!

1st paragraph Vocabulary

The given line graph shows… The given diagram outlines… The given table lists… The given
pie chart represents… The given bar graph depicts…

Verbs:
To go up: rise, increase, grow, go up to, climb, boom, peak, soar, rocket, surge
To go down: fall, decline, decrease, drop, dip, go down, reduce, plunge, crash, collapse, plunge,
plummet
No change: level up, remain stable, no change, remain steady, stay constant, stay, maintain the
same level, stabilized
Indicating a change of direction: level out/off, stand at, stop falling/rising, stop falling and start
rising, stop rising and start falling, change
Frequent change: Fluctuate, fluctuation
At the top: Reach a peak, peak, reach its/their highest point
At the bottom: Reach/hit a low (point), hit/reach its/their lowest point

Adjectives:
sharp, rapid, huge, dramatic, substantial, considerable, significant, slight, small, minimal,
massive, steady, consistent, modest, marginal
Adverbs:
rapidly, hugely, massive, sharply, steeply, considerably, substantially, significantly, slightly,
minimally, abruptly

Comparison:
to compare, compared to, as opposed to, versus, more than, the majority of, greater than, less
than, a small fraction, a small number, a large portion, a significant majority, almost 10%

Prepositions:
Between 1995 and 2000
From 1995 to 2000
Sales rose from 200 to 250
Sales fell to 150 in March
Sales fell by 50%

Conclusion Vocabulary:
To summarise, the most marked change is….
Overall, it is clear….
Overall, the majority/minority….
In sum, the most noticeable trend is….

Useful phrases when describing differ charts and graphs:

 The slices of the pie chart…compare the
 The chart is divided into ...parts.
 It highlights ...
 ... has the largest (number of) ...
 ... has the second largest (number of) ...
 ... is as big as ...
 ... is twice as big as ...
 ... is bigger than ...
 more than ... per cent ...
 only one third ...
 less than half ...
 The number ...
 increases/goes up/grows by ...
 The number ... decreases/goes down/sinks by ...
 The number ... does not change/remains stable
 So we can say…
 The graph shows / indicates / depicts / illustrates
 From the graph it is clear
 It can be seen from the graph
 As can be seen from the graph
 As is shown / illustrated by the graph
 Terms Meanings

A sharp increase describes something that goes up very fast

A steep drop describes something that comes down very fast

A massive describes something that comes down by a large amount

reduction

A gradual rise describes something that goes up slowly over a (long) period of time

A slight decline describes something that goes down a little bit

A peak The highest point – usually describes the time when something stops
going up (reaches its highest point) and starts going down or levels off

A slow-down describes something that is still going up but less and less quickly

A spike describes a time when something goes up rapidly but for a very short
time.

A steady recovery describes something that stops going down and then goes up at the same
speed for a (long) period of time.

Fluctuations describes a time when something goes up and down many times.
 Sample Question

remain (-ed, -ed) unchanged, steady, stable, constant, plateau, fixed/static

 From January to March the percentage of children using supplements remained fairly static at
approximately 10%.
 The percentage of children taking dietary supplements was relatively stable during the first
two months of the year.
 During the first two months, supplement use remained fairly unchanged.

fall (fell, fallen), decrease (-ed, -ed), drop (dropped, dropped), plunge (-ed, -ed), decline (-
ed, -ed) slight (slightly), steady (steadily), gradual (gradually), gentle (gently), slow (slowly)
downward trend
 It then fell gradually in March.
 There was a slight decrease in the use of dietary supplements in March.
 The graph shows a slight decrease in March.
 Supplement use experienced a steady decrease in March.
 Supplement use decreased slightly in March.
fluctuate (-ed, -ed) wildly
 It went up and down widely over the next two months.
 It fluctuated for the following two months

rise (rose, risen), grow (grew, grown), climb (-ed, -ed), shoot up (shot up, shot up) dramatic
(dramatically), sharp (sharply), significant (significantly), rapid (rapidly) upward trend
 There was a significant increase in the percentage of children taking dietary supplements
between June and August.
 The period between June and August saw a dramatic growth in the use of dietary
supplements.
 Between June and August, the percentage of children taking dietary supplements shot up
dramatically.
 The greatest rise was from June to August when it rose by 22% for two consecutive months
from June to August.

peak (-ed, -ed), reach (-ed, -ed) its peak

 The percentage of children taking dietary supplements was at its highest level in April.
 Supplement use peaked at close to 25% in April. It reached a peak of 25% in April.

fall (fell, fallen), decrease (-ed, -ed), drop (-ed, -ed) dramatic (dramatically), sharp
(sharply), significant (significantly), rapid (rapidly) , decline (-ed, -ed), reach (-ed, -ed) its
lowest point slight (slightly), steady (steadily), gradual (gradually), gentle (gently), slow
(slowly) downward trend
 Between October and December, the decrease in the use of dietary supplements was at a
much slower pace than in the previous two months.
 Supplement use continued to fall steadily over the next two months until it reached its lowest
point in December.
 It fell to a low of only 5% in December.
 Practice Time
A. Exercise: match the graphs to the correct definition by using the numbers on
each graph: (X Axis – Jan – Dec)
1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8
1. Sales bottomed out in May. _____
2. Sales levelled off from July. _____
3. Sales rose steadily over the year. _____
4. Sales peaked in June. _____
5. Sales remained the same. _____
6. Sales increased sharply from June. _____
7. Sales rose gradually through the year. _____
8. Sales fell steadily through over the year. _____

B. Match the phrases below to the lines on the right.

A
B

D
E

1. remain steady ____

2. fluctuate ____
3. increase slightly ____
4. decrease sharply ____
5. decrease slightly____
6. increase sharply ____
7. drop sharply ____
8. stay the same ____
9. go up a little ____
10. go down slightly____