This document provides guidance on word choices for describing trends in data. It includes lists of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to describe upward and downward movements strongly or gradually. Key terms to increase include "rocketed", "surged", and "sharply". Key terms to decrease include "plummeted", "plunged", and "steeply". Care should be taken to use adjectives with nouns and adverbs with verbs correctly.

1. Notes
Up verbs
Notes:
 “Soar “and “rocket” are both verystrongwordsthat describe large rises.“Rocket”ismore
sudden.Youprobablydonot needtoqualifythese verbswithadverbs.
 “Leap” showsa large and suddenrise.Again,youprobablydonotneed toqualifyitwithan
adverb.
 “Climb”isa relativelyneutral verbthatcanbe usedwiththe adverbsbelow.
Down verbs
Notes:
 “Plummet”isthe strongestwordhere.Itmeansto fall veryquicklyandalongway.
 “Drop” and“drop” are normallyusedforfairlysmall decreases
 “Slipback” isusedfor fallsthatcome afterrises
 “Drop” and “Dip” are also frequentlyusedasnouns:eg“a slightdip”“a suddendrop”

2. Adjectivesand adverbs
Thisis a selectionof some of the mostcommonadjectivesandadverbsusedfortrendlanguage.
Please be careful.Thisisanarea where itispossible tomake low-levelmistakes.Make sure thatyou
use adjectiveswithnounsandadverbswithverbs:
 a significantrise –correct (adjective/noun)
 rose significantly–correct(adverb/verb)
 a significantlyrise –wrongwrongwrong
Please alsonote the spellingof the adverbs.There isaparticularproblemwiththe word
“dramatically:
 dramatically –correct
 dramaticly – wrong
 dramaticaly – wrong
Adjectivesofdegree
notes
 “sudden”and“sharp” can be usedof relativelyminorchangesthathappenquickly
 “spectacular”and “dramatic”are verystrong wordsonlytousedto big,big,bigchanges

3. Steady adjectives
Small adjectives
notes
 “marginal”isa particularlyuseful wordfor describingverysmall changes
Other useful adjectives
These adjectivescanbe usedto describesmore general trends
notes
 “overall”canbe usedtodescribe changesintrendoverthe whole period:veryuseful in
introductionsandconclusions
 “upward”and “downward”are adjectives:the adverbsare “upwards”and“downwards”

4. Movement(Verbs):Up
 Rose
 Wentup
 Increased
 Grew
 Shotup
 Surged
 Rocketed
Movement(Verbs):Down
 Fell
 Declined
 Dropped
 Decreased
 Sank
 Wentdown
 Plunged
 Plummeted
Prepositions
 Between 1995 and 2000
 From 1995 to 2000
 Salesrose from200 to 250
 Salesfell to150 inMarch
 Salesfell by50%
Adverbsand intensifiers
 slightly

5.  a little
 a lot
 sharply
 suddenly
 steeply
 gradually
 gently
 steadily
No Movement:(VerbswithAdjectives,Verbs)
 remainedsteady
 were unchanged
 didnot change
 remainedconstant
 remainedstable
 stabilized
Tops and Bottoms
 reacheda peak
 peaked
 reachedtheirhighestlevel
 fell toa low
 sankto a trough
 reacheda bottom