Section Three / Lesson Three - The Language of Change
In this section, we will look at describing tables, charts, and graphs that show a change in data over time. Like in the previous section, the first three lessons will cover essential language that you can use in your answer, and the final two lessons will show you how to use this language in your IELTS writing task one essay.
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In this class, we are going to look at a series of verb phrases and noun phrases which you can use to describe changes in data both accurately and using a wide variety of language. As before, we'll start with simple grammar and then increase complexity as we go through the lesson. Make sure you take it slow, don't skip over things you think you know, make notes and practice each step.
Verb phrases
A
B
C
D
F
G
E
If we look at this simple line chart showing the changes in a student's school grades through the year, we can see many types of change that we may wish to describe. The simplistic way to do this is with a subject ("The student's grade") and a verb phrase. We'll add detail throughout the lesson.
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A. The student's grade rose.
B. The student's grade stabilised.
C. The student's grade dropped.
D. The student's grade increased.
E. The student's grade peaked.
F. The student's grade fell.
G. The student's grade fluctuated.
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The main problem here is that these sentences show no difference between the growth in A and D or the drops in C and F. We can use different verbs to show the type of fall or rise. ​
rose, grew, ascended, went up, increased
plummeted, plunged, slumped, crashed, tumbled, collapsed
rocketed, jumped, soared, surged
peaked, reached a high point
decreased, dropped, declined, shrank, fell, went down, reduced
fluctuated, oscillated
Your choice of verb is important, but we also want to show off our range of vocabulary by using an adverb to add more detail to our verb phrase. This adverb is simply put after or after the verb.
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These adverbs typically give more detail to the verb in two ways. They can describe the amount of time that the change took place in, or they can describe the amount of change that took place.
While the amount of change in these two graphs is very different, the time in which the change happened is the same. In this case, it happened in a short amount of time, so we can use:
suddenly, quickly, rapidly, sharply, steeply
Similarly, the size of the change is different, but the time it took is long for both. Therefore, we can use:
slowly, gradually, steadily, gently,
Oppositely, the size of the change is the same in each of these graphs, but the time that it took is different. In this case, they are both large changes. Therefore, we can use:
hugely, enormously, considerably, significantly, substantially
And again, here the size of the change is small in both of these graphs, while the time that the change took is different. Therefore, we can use:
slightly, marginally, a little
When we look at our original graph, we can now add more detail to our sentences.
A
B
C
D
F
G
E
A. The student's grade rose gradually.
B. The student's grade stabilised.
C. The student's grade suddenly dropped.
D. The student's grade increased significantly.
E. The student's grade peaked.
F. The student's grade slightly fell.
G. The student's grade fluctuated a little.
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As you can see, we cannot use these for 'peaked' or 'stabilised', as these verbs don't show change, but usually, we can add an adverb to our verb phrase. The adverb can do either before or after the verb. It doesn't matter in most cases. e.g. The student's grade rose gradually. and The student's grade gradually rose. both mean the same thing.
Noun phrases
As shown in the "How the essay is marked" section at the bottom of this lesson, you need to show that you can use "a wide range of structures" and that you can use "a wide range of vocabulary fluently and flexibly". As a result, you cannot only use verb phrases in your answer. However, we can easily change almost any verb phrase into a noun phrase and rewrite our sentence around that.
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For instance, if we take the first sentence from above. The student's grade rose gradually.
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The noun form of our verb 'to rise' is the same, a rise.
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The adjective form of our adverb 'gradually' is 'gradual'. The adjective must be placed before the noun.
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We start our sentence with "There was", then add the noun phrase, in this case, "a gradual rise".
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There was a gradual rise
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We still need to describe what the rise was in. In this case, "the student's grade". To do this, we use the preposition 'in' and then add what changed.
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There was a gradual rise in the student's grade.
(The student's grade rose gradually.)
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These two sentences mean exactly the same thing. As mentioned before, you cannot do this to add a verb. For instance, we cannot use this structure for "stabilised".
a rise, a growth, an increase
a plummet, a plunge, a slump, a crash, a tumble, a collapse
a rocket, a jump, a surge
a peak, a high point
a decrease, a drop, a decline, a fall, a reduction
some fluctuation, oscillattion
sudden, quick, rapid, sharp, steep
slow, gradual, steady, gentle
huge, enormous, considerable, significant, substantial
slight, marginal, a small
A
B
C
D
F
G
E
So again, when we look at our original graph, we can change the form of our sentences to add variety to our writing.
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A. There was a gradual rise in the student's grade.
B. Not possible to change.
C. There was a sudden drop in the student's grade.
D. There was a significant increase in the student's grade.
E. There was a peak in the student's grade.
F. There was a slight fall in the student's grade.
G. There was some fluctuation in the student's grade.
In the next class, we will add more detail to these sentences by using a range of prepositions to add numbers, dates, and percentages.