English Listening Practice: How to Accurately Describe Charts and Visuals

Next, we're going to discuss one of the biggest challenges in describing visuals: how to be specific about who or what is changing or represented in the chart. Sometimes, people look at the title of the chart and try to use those words to describe what the chart shows. The title can be helpful when giving an overview, but it's important to focus more directly on the data. For example, the title of this graph is Who draws inspiration from social media? So ask yourself, what does that really mean? You can use that to introduce the chart. This graph, from the text 100 digital media, shows which age group gets ideas from social media for their travel plans. That could serve as the overview.

But to highlight the key points, you must be specific and focus on the information shown by the different lines on the graph. The yellow line is described in the key as 18 to 34. So you have to use people between 18 and 34 as your subject. As shown by this yellow line, people between 18 and 34 are the most influenced by social media. The yellow line, according to the key, represents people over 55. So you could say people over 55 are the least likely to consider social media when planning travel. Keep asking yourself: who or what does the chart really show? Which group is being discussed?

Here's another example. The heading for the chart is a question: What portion of annual expenditures is spent on travel? But all the information in the chart is represented by nouns like expenditures, transportation, etc. So ask yourself: what does this chart really show? On average, only 3% of people's expenditures are for travel. And of their travel expenses, 44% is for transportation. Or you could say, transportation accounts for 44% of travel expenditures. The key point is to choose the subject of your sentence carefully.

Is it related to people? The most important observation is that people between 18 and 34 are the most likely to be inspired by social media. Older people spend 44% of their travel money on transportation. Or, you could focus on percentages and start with that: 3% of people's expenditures are for travel. 80% of travelers begin their plans two months in advance. The subject could be a category like transportation or international sales. We often use verbs like account for or represent when commenting on a chart, especially pie charts. Whatever your subject is, ensure your verb agrees with it.

Look at this chart. How would you introduce it? How would you describe the specific information in the presentation? Fill in the missing words. After explaining a visual, return to your main point. How does the visual support your main point? Explain its importance. This is essential because we need to increase sales among younger people. This explains why we need to adopt mobile technology. Make predictions. This indicates that we will need more training in this area to remain competitive. If this trend continues, we will lose significant market share. Based on this information, we need to redesign our plans.

Draw a conclusion. It's clear from the chart that mobile apps are the wave of the future. Therefore, mobile apps are essential for our success. Based on this data, I recommend investing in new technology. This clearly shows the need for new investment in technology.