In many subject areas, you may need to refer to numbers, statistics and other data during the course of your studies. This is likely to be data collected by other people which you will use to support your written work, but it may be data that you have collected yourself as part of your studies. Data is generally presented in the form of tables, charts and graphs, which makes it easier for readers to understand. However, it is often necessary to reproduce and refer to this type of information in words, as part of a report or written assignment. If you include a graph, chart or table in your writing, you must explain very clearly what the data in it means, and why it is relevant to your report or assignment.

In the following activities, you will consider how data should be presented within your writing, and you will examine and practise the language used to describe and refer to data in a graph. Much of the vocabulary is similar, whether you are referring to a graph, table or chart.