Episode 1

【Writing-Wise Series】

[Standardized English exams]

Hello everyone! 👋  In this new series, the writing genres and styles which you will come across in standardized English exams such as IELTS (雅思) and BESTEP (培力英檢).  You will be expected to have a skillful grasp of diction and appropriateness in diverse contexts, in fact, not only in exams 🤓, but also in your academic research 👨‍🎓, workplace and business communication 👨‍💻 and daily life 😎.

In this very first issue, let me start with the presentation of statistical information 📶 in English, in written or verbal form.

Before introducing you to the important concepts on how to present statistical details intelligently and intelligibly, I have to let you have a basic understanding of the common forms of such information: bar charts 📊, pie charts broken-line charts 📈 (aka “curve charts”) and tables of figures.

Various forms of such information bear different characteristics in exhibiting statistics:

1️⃣ Sizes of various components – how do you present proportions besides merely listing the exact numbers, without any summary and interpretation at all?

2️⃣ Trend(s) of statistics over a period of time – how can you describe the changes in numbers apart from simply repetitive “increase” and “decrease”?

3️⃣ Comparisons between two or more (sets) of numbers – this might somewhat pose a challenge to Chinese-speaking learners of English owing to the discrepancy in logic and sentence patterns between the two languages when making comparisons.

In the forthcoming few issues, you will be exposed to these aspects one by one, and you are bound to become a skillful presenter of statistical information!  Stay tuned!