Section Two - Describing and Comparing Data
Section 2 / Lesson 3 - Tense Choice
In this lesson, we'll work on improving your grammatical accuracy by looking at tense choice for writing task one answers. We'll do this by looking at simple present and past tense forms of all the language we have covered so far. This is very simple grammar, but it is often overlooked and can dramatically lower your score if mistakes are made. As a result, I recommend firstly focussing on the accuracy of this simple grammar, and then in section 3, we'll look at how we can accurately use multiple complex tenses to increase the grammatical complexity of our answers.
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Please note that this is not a lesson in how to form the past tense. If you struggle with this, have a look at this lesson from realgrammar.com.
Past Tense
We only use past tense if the table, chart or diagram gives us a time in the past. In the example pie chart to the right, it provides us with a single set of data from 2018. We cannot say this data is still true today, so we must use the past tense.
Present Tense
However, in this second pie chart, no time or date is given. This means that the data is still applicable today and that we should use present tense. Any generally true information, or still relevant information requires the use of the present tense.
Review so far, using two tense choices
In this section, we will review everything we have looked at so far using the course. However, I'll show you how it would differ for this two pie charts. If you are unsure about any this, i recommend going back and reviewing that section.
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Sentence 1 - Paraphrase the question
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1. “The pie chart details the United Kingdom's government's state expenditure in 2018"
2. “The pie chart details how land is utilised in San Diego."
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In this first sentence, we always use present tense as this graph is still showing us this information now. Do not change our main verb in this sentence even if the graph is in the past.
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Section 2 - Summarise all the information
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1. Overall, more than half of outlay was for welfare and healthcare while the other expenses each accounted for a far smaller proportion.
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2. Overall, parkland and housing accounts for more than half of all land in San Diego, while more than quarter of it is used for mobility infrastructure and institutional buildings and the remaining land is for other uses.
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The overview for the first pie chart uses two main verbs ('was' and 'accounted for'), each in past tense.
The second overview has three main verbs. The first and third ('accounts for' and 'is') are the same verbs but in present tense. The second verb (is used for) is to use for in passive voice, and is also in present tense.
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Comparisons
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I used the ten ways of comparing data from our previous lesson below. I have switched between the two pie charts so you can see how the main verb has been changed. ​
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San Diego has a sizeable amount of parkland.
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Welfare was more expensive than healthcare.
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The amount of land used for transportation is around three times bigger than the land used for industry.
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There was more spending on the military than on public security
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Around 300% more land is used for institutions than for shopping.
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Around 100% more money was used for education than for defence.
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Parkland is the most common use of land in San Diego.
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Most of the government spending in the UK was spent on welfare
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The majority of the land in San Diego is used for recreation.
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Not as much money was spent on industry as on transportation.
Writing Percentages
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1. Although a fifth of the UK's GDP was spent on healthcare, they spent more on social welfare at almost a third.
2. Not much land in San Diego is vacant with approximately 4% of its land not being used.
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Again, in the first we use past tense form of verbs (was), and the second we use present tense (is).
However, be when adding a percentage with '... with percentage + of the whole verbing the divided part', the verb is always in the .ing form, no matter which tense the sentence is in.
e.g. "Far less money was spent on industry with approximately 3% of the UK's GDP being spent on this."
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Now practice this language by answering the questions here: