Structuring your Part A assignment:
Your Part A assignment should have three clear sections: 1. Introduction 2. Description 3. Conclusions

1. Introduction (Information):
Introduce the graph. What is the graph about? What information does it present? When was it published? By whom is it published? Where is it situated? What time period does it cover? What does it indicate/measure? (what units of measure etc) .

2. Description (Observation):
Describe the graph in relative detail (see example below), using business English vocabulary and terminology.
What do we mean by relative detail? As a rule thumb, if you were to read your description to someone on the phone they would be able to visualize your graph quite clearly!

Tip: Be sure to quantify!
When describing data expressed in graphs, your reference points are the actual changes in the graph behaviour or the ‘trends’. In other words, your focus is the duration and quantity of a particular movement in the graph line, until that movement changes, either increasing or decreasing in degree.

Hence, each movement or trend is best described by means of concise sentences, commencing with the ‘WHEN’ first followed by the “HOW MUCH’ and the ‘FOR HOW LONG’. This, however, is where the graph jargon comes into it for without the appropriate descriptive terminology we cannot describe graph behaviour, or indeed any trends, in a clear professional manner.

Graph A: Hotel X Occupancy Rate (OR) 201- 100 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 90 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 80 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 70 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 60 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 50 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 40 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 30 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 20 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 10 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

On Jan. 1 the OR was 30% from which point it rose steadily to reach 40% on Feb.1.

During the ensuing 10 weeks the OR fluctuated between 30-40% until mid-April when the hotel experienced a surge in occupancy reaching 60% on Jun. 1.

At that point the OR levelled out and remained constant till mid-July when occupancy began to fall significantly, dropping to a third quarter low of 30% in late August.

In September however, occupancy picked up again, increasing dramatically for three consecutive months to reach a peak of 90% in early December, to be immediately followed by a sharp decline to 70% as the year ended.

3. Conclusions (Interpretation):
Interpret the data, albeit briefly. Try to draw some conclusions (max. 3x) regarding the graph behaviour (possible causal factors) and if appropriate, mention some possible implications for the future.

Tip: Drawing conclusions based on the evidence in the graph is NOT: * Sharing your personal opinions about the subject! * Summarizing the main observations!

Graph language

Graph language cont.:

Adjectives and adverbs in graphs: | To signify: | short, fast or sudden changes: small changes: important, large changes: changes that are slow and long: changes that last a short time: | * dramatic/ally; sudden/ly; sharp/ly abrupt/ly; significant/ly; marked/ly * slight/ly; noticeable/noticeably; barely * substantial/ly; steep/ly * gradual/ly; general/ly; steady/steadily; sustained (adjective only) * shortlived (adjective only); brief/ly | Nouns and verbs in graphs: | These often need adjectives/adverbs for further description (e.g. to fall dramatically, a steady increase, etc) | NOUN | VERB | Describing increase: | an increasean expansiona risea climb | * to increase * to expand * to rise * to climb | Describing decrease: | a decreasea dropa falla decline | * to decrease * to drop * to fall * to decline | Describing strong, sudden increases: | a leap | * to leap | Describing strong, sudden decreases: | a collapsea plunge | * to collapse * to (take a) plunge | | | Describing absence of change: | stabilityno changelevelling out | * to remain stable * not to change * to level out | Describing a short fall: | a dip | * to dip | Describing irregular changes: | fluctuations (usually plural)recoverya peak | * to fluctuate * to recover * to reach a peak | Describing an upward/downward trend: | to show an upward downward trend | * erratic movements / to move erratically | General tips: | Incorrect | Correct | This graph describes the fluctuations of ... | This graph presents the occupancy level (OL) of Hotel X for the years 2009 and 2010. |

Useful expressions | Expressing possibility: | * It may/might have a future in ... * There is some possibility of (sales falling/that sales will fall). * It is possible that . . . | Expressing probability: | * There may well be a market for . .. * We see a strong possibility of (sales falling that sales will fall) .. . * This is likely to involve ... * Demand will probably (increase) when ... | Expressing certainty: | * This adjustment is bound to add to ... * Demand is going to (rise). * This will certainly affect ... | Expressing improbability or impossibility: | * There is little prospect/possibility of using . . * It is impossible/improbable that we can .. . * (Prices) are highly unlikely to fall when . . | Expressing views/opinions/conclusions: | (Use non-personal style / the passive tense. Eg.” I have estimated “ becomes “ It is estimated”) | * The following conclusion may be drawn... * It could be concluded / assumed that ... |

Drawing conclusions from the graph:
When drawing conclusions from a graph you basically do two things – identify causes and make predictions.

Identifying causes
This is the exercise of establishing cause and effect (or reason and result) by suggesting reasons why something might have happened they way it did.

Expressing cause and effect: | EFFECT | CAUSE | CAUSE | EFFECT | His success | was (possibly) due to hard workwas caused by hard workwas the result of hard workwas brought about by hard workresulted from hard work | Hard work | led to his successresulted in his successcaused his successbrought about his successwas the reason his success |

Making predictions:
This is the exercise of stating what, based on the graph behaviour, is likely to happen in the (near) future. In the business world making predictions is generally only required of consultants who, as specialists in their field of expertise (e.g. Market analysts), have been asked to give recommendations regarding policy and strategy based on their professional analysis of current trends and developments. When drawing conclusions from a graph in the BEC written exam, you probably should place more emphasis on identifying possible causes; although some scenarios may be suitable for making logical sound predictions as well. In this case you should use tentative predictive language such as:

Based on the performance of last year it seems * likely that ... * quite conceivable that ... * true to say that ... * there is reason to expect that ...