Data
is important in building paragraphs for describing the visual
information. Nevertheless, its function is only for supporting ‘the big
picture’ of visual information. Test taker must be careful in inserting
the data, especially if it is related to number. Sometimes, test taker
does not pay enough attention then makes a simple but fatal error such
as writing “480 people were failed to get the expected driving license
in USA in 2009”, when he or she should write “480 thousand people were
failed to get the expected driving license in USA in 2009”.
The
next thing to do with the data is looking at the biggest difference or
highest improvement shown in the visual information. After finding it,
test taker should present it first. This step gives a significant phase
in telling about the visual information as the reader is able to grab
what the paragraph tells by catching up ‘the major trend’.
Test
taker should be sharp in transferring the data from the visual
information into his or her writing. Some vocabularies might have
‘grammatical mistakes’ if it is roughly copied to the writing. For
example, in the graph, test taker finds the word ‘non-smoking’ which
refers to ‘non-smoking people’. Therefore, when test taker wants to
write in the paragraph, he or she may not write “the number of
non-smoking during the last ten years is increasing”. It should be
written “the number of non-smoker during the last ten years is
increasing”.
In
describing data, test taker should care about the use of correct noun
phrase. Sometimes, test taker finds it difficult to use the correct form
of noun phrase that finally leads them to make more grammatical
mistakes. Test taker could use the order for using noun phrase by
putting determiner-opinion-size-age-color-origin-material-noun into the
right order.
Reference: http://www.clearpointenglish.co.uk/describing%20graphs.htm
