How to Write Overviews for Trend Graphs

In this video I’m going to show you how to write the overviews for the trend graphs.

So here’s a practice question which is a line graph so you’ve seen this question before.

When we wrote our introduction.

So now that we’ve already written the introduction for this question we’re now going to write the overview

if you want to refresh your memory.

You can post the video and read the question prompt right here.

Now the first thing that you need to do whenever you’re writing the overview is that you have to look

at the starting data points and the ending data points and you have to look at the highest and the lowest

data points at the start of the graph and the highest and the lowest data points at the end of the graph.

So our line graph start at the year nineteen eighty and it ends in the year 2030.

So these two points are our beginning and our ending data points.

Now let’s take a look at what are the highest and the lowest data points so here we can see that for

the year nineteen eighty This is our lowest data point this lowest data point belongs to these three

energy sources.

On the other hand this is the highest data point for the start of the graph and this data point belongs

to patrol and oil.

Now let’s take a look at the highest and the lowest data points for the end of the graph.

So here we can see that this point right here is the lowest data point for the year 2030.

It belongs to hydropower on the other hand.

This data point is the highest data point for the year 2030 and it belongs to patrol and oil.

So in our overview These are all the points that we’re going to be talking about and highlighting.

I want to remind you that in the overview we do not mention any numeric details.

This means that you should never mention the numbers 5 quadrillion units or thirty five quadrillion

units in your overview.

These numeric details should only be discussed in paragraph number three and number four in the overview.

We’re just giving some basic information.

So now let’s go ahead and write our overview paragraph.

We’re going to start our overview by talking about the year 1980 and we’re going to first talk about

the highest and the lowest data points for the year nineteen eighty so here’s our first sentence it

reads generally in nineteen eighty patrol and oil were the dominant energy sources while nuclear solar

wind and hydropower were the least utilized fuels so in this sentence we’re saying that in the year

1980 patrol and oil were the most dominant energy sources while these three energy sources were the

least utilized.

So now that we’ve talked about the highest and the lowest data points for the year 1980 we’re now going

to be talking about the highest and the lowest data points for the year 2030.

So here’s our next sentence.

Additionally in 2030 gasoline and oil are forecasted to remain the leading sources of energy whereas

hydropower is predicted to take to bottom most position so in this sentence we’re saying that in the

year 2030 gasoline and oil are predicted to remain the leading sources of energy.

Note that instead of using the word petrol we’ve used a synonym for patrol which is gasoline so we’re

saying that patrol and oil are forecasted to remain the leading sources of energy whereas hydropower

is predicted to take the bottom most position by the year 2030.

So that’s all you have to do for the overview our overview is now complete.

It only needs to be two or three sentences long.

So we’ve covered all the main features of our graph.

We’ve talked about the highest and the lowest data points at the start of our graph and the highest

and the lowest data points at the end of our graph.

And that’s all you have to do for the overview.

Now let’s take a look at our next example this time we have a bar graph you’ve seen this example before.

When we wrote the introduction for this bar graph if you’d like you can pass the video and read the

question prompt here.

But since we’ve already discussed it I’ll just move on to the overview so similar to our previous example

in which we had the line graph in this paragraph we’re going to do the same thing we’re going to look

at the highest and the lowest data points at the start and at the end of our graph.

So here we have the starting and ending data point.

This bar graph starts in the year nineteen ninety five and it ends in the year 2002.

Now we have to look at the highest and the lowest data points.

So in the year nineteen ninety five we can see that this is our highest data point and it belongs to

local fixed line calls whereas our low wage data point belongs to the mobile calls for the year 2002

the highest data point is right here.

It belongs to the local fixed line calls and our lowest data point is here.

Belonging to the mobile calls.

So now that we know exactly what to include in our overview let us go ahead and write a paragraph.

We’re going to start with the highest and the lowest data point in the year nineteen ninety five.

So here’s our first sentence.

It reads in general it is evident that in nineteen ninety five local fixed line calls were the most

prominent choice whereas mobiles were the least popular so this sentence is saying that in the year

nineteen ninety five local fixed line calls were the most popular and mobile calls were the least popular

now for our second sentence.

We’re going to move on to the year 2002 here’s our sentence by the year 2002.

Although mobile calls grew in popularity there remained the least popular choice while local fixed line

calls maintained their top position so in this sentence we’re saying that by the year 2002 mobile calls

had grown in popularity.

As you can see here however they still remained the least popular out of all the three call types and

the local fixed line calls remained the most popular.

So now that we’ve talked about the highest and the lowest data points at the start and the end of our

graph our overview is now complete.

That’s all we have to do let’s look at our next example.

This time we have a table’s question.

Again you’ve seen this table’s question before.

When we did the introduction.

So this time we’re going to just write the overview for this question so the first thing that we’re

going to do is we’re going to look at the highest and the lowest data points at the start and the end

of the table so we can see that the table starts in the year 1999 and it ends in the year 2004 so here

are our data points Switzerland has the highest data point in nineteen ninety nine and Sweden has the

lowest data point in nineteen ninety nine.

On the other hand in the year 2004 The UK has the highest data point on Sweden.

Once again has the lowest data point so this here is for coffee.

Our next table is for bananas.

So let’s take a look at the highest and the lowest data points for bananas so here we can see that the

highest data point in 1999 belongs to Switzerland and the lowest data point belongs to Belgium moving

on to 2004 the highest data point belongs to Switzerland and the lowest belongs to Denmark.

So now we know exactly what to talk about in our overview.

Basically you just have to describe all of these highest and lowest data points that are circled in

the red color now you can describe this information in any way that you want.

Whichever way is comfortable for you.

Works fine.

So for example if you want to talk about all the data points in the year 1999 forest and talk about

all the data points in the year 2004.

Next you can do that.

On the other hand if you want to first describe the data points for a coffee and then describe the data

points for bananas next you can do that as well.

You can describe this data in any way that you see fit.

It doesn’t matter how you describe it.

The important thing is that you describe all the data points that we’ve discussed so as long as you

discuss the highest and the lowest data points you’ll do a good job in the overview paragraph now in

my example I want to describe these data points by starting with the country Switzerland.

The reason I want to start with Switzerland in my example is because I notice that Switzerland has the

highest data point in 1999 and it also has the highest data points for the year 1999 and 2004 so I’m

going to start there.

So here’s my first sentence.

It reads overall Switzerland had the highest coffee sales in 1999 and dominated banana sales in both

1999 and 2004.

So in this one sentence I’ve described three different data points.

Now I’m going to move on to my next sentence and I’m going to talk about the next set of data points.

This time I’m going to start off with talking about Sweden because Sweden has the lowest data points

for the year 1999 and 2004 when it comes to coffee.

So here’s my sentence.

Sweden sold the least coffee in both 1999 and 2004.

Now I’ve decided that I’m not going to stop the sentence here.

I want to continue this sentence and I want to form a complex sentence.

So here’s what I’m going to do.

I’m going to add the data for these two data points as well in the same sentence.

So I can do that by using the subordinating conjunction whereas so here’s the second part of our sentence

whereas Belgium and Denmark sold the least bananas in 1999 and 2004 respectively.

So what I’m saying here in the second part of the sentence is that Belgium sold the least bananas in

1999 and Denmark sold the least bananas in 2004 notice that whenever we use the word respectively it

means that the information that comes before in the sentence and the information that comes later in

the sentence directly corresponds to each other so if I say Belgium and Denmark sold the least bananas

in 1999 and 2004 This means that the year 1999 is talking about Belgium whereas the year 2004 is talking

about Denmark.

So Belgium corresponds to 1999 and Denmark corresponds to 2004.

So that’s how we use the word respectively so for this question this is all that we’re going to write

for the overview.

You may have noticed that we have not talked about this data point in our overview.

Now if you want you can include this data point in your overview.

You actually should if you can.

However I decided to not include this data point because I did not want my overview to become too long

remember you only have three to five minutes to write the overview paragraph.

Also you don’t have to talk about every single key information in your info graphic when you’re writing

the overview.

You only have to discuss the most important data points.

Now all these data points that are circled in the red color are important.

So since I’ve talked about almost all of them I decided that leaving this data point out is not going

to make much of a difference.

So I’ve decided to leave it out for two reasons.

The first reason is that I don’t want the overview to become too long because you only have three to

five minutes to write the overview.

And the second reason is that I’ve covered almost all of the important features of this table.

So that’s all we’re going to write for our overview for this question.

Now let’s take a look at our final example.

This time we have a pie chart question so the first thing we do as you may know by now is if we look

at the highest and the lowest data points at the start and at the end of our infographics so in this

case we’re going to start off by looking at Yemen.

So our data for Yemen starts in 2000 and it ends in the year 2050 so let’s look at the highest and the

lowest data points so here we have our lowest data point for 2000.

And here we have the highest data point for the year 2050.

This is our highest data point.

And this is the lowest data point let’s move on to Italy now.

So here’s our lowest data point.

And here’s the highest for 2000 and for 2050.

This is the lowest and this is the highest.

Now once again you’re free to write this information in any way that you want if you want to talk about

the year 2000 first and then talk about the year 2050 next.

You can do that on the other hand if you want to first talk about the data set from Yemen and then talk

about the data set from Italy.

You can do that as well for this example.

I’m going to talk about the year 2000 first.

So first I’m going to talk about the highest data points in the year 2000 and then I’m going to talk

about the lowest data points for the year 2000 and then I’m going to move on to the year 2050.

So let’s begin.

Here’s our first sentence overall.

In 2000 02 14 year olds and 15 to 59 year old composed the majority of Yemen and Italy respectively.

So what we’re saying in this sentence is that in the year 2000 02 14 year olds composed the majority

in Yemen and 15 to 59 year old composed the majority in Italy so you may remember from our previous

discussion whenever we have the word respectively it means that the part that comes before in the sentence

and the part that comes after in the sentence directly correspond to each other.

So this means that when we’re talking about 0 to 14 year olds we’re talking about Yemen.

And when we’re talking about 15 to 59 year old we’re talking about Italy so that’s how we use the word

respectively.

Now let’s add on some additional information to this sentence we’re now going to be talking about the

lowest data points in the year 2000 for both Yemen and Italy so we’re going to extend the same sentence

by using the semicolon and using a conjunction so the second part of our sentence reads whereas residents

over 60 years of age and between 0 to 14 years of age comprised the minority in Yemen and Italy respectively

so in the second part of our sentence we’re saying that residents over 60 years of age comprised the

minority in Yemen and residents between the ages of 0 to 14 comprised the minority in Italy.

So now that we’ve talked about the year 2000 we’re now going to talk about the year 2050 so here are

the data points for the year 2050.

But you know what we actually have a bit of a problem.

The problem is that we only have three to five minutes to write the overview.

And talking about all of these data points it’s going to take too long of a time.

So what we can do is instead of talking about each individual key feature on its own as we’ve done here

for the year 2000 we can simply write the following calculations reveal that both nations will experience

significant changes in their demographics by 2050.

So by doing this you’ve highlighted that by the year 2050 significant changes are going to take place

in the demographics.

And you’ve done this while saving yourself precious time.

I would like to remind you that you don’t have to talk about every single key information in the info

graphic.

You just have to talk about the most important key features.

And if you think that there are too many key features that are important.

Well then just describe some of them so that’s what we’ve done here.

We’ve talked about all the key features that we could talk about in the given time so this right here

is our complete overview and that’s all that we need to write so that my friends is the end of this

video in the next video.

I’m going to show you how to write the overviews for comparative graphs.