Describing Charts/Graphs

1. Writing Survey Reports
LL PI Unit 7.4

2. A survey report is a formal piece of writing based on a research.
You have to write about the facts and generalizations.
Facts are sentences where you use percentages and proportions like in
the following:
51 % of the people would not work longer hours even for more
money. (percentage)
Only 5 % of workers found their jobs boring and hated their work.
(percentage)
Over half of the people (64 %) who work in the ABC company said
that they the money they get is not enough for their living expenses.
(proportion)
Five out of ten of the people (50 %) working in the ABC company said
that the equipment they use is not modern enough to make them
perform faster in doing their jobs at the company. (proportion)

3. One in ten of the employees (10 %) said they are not
happy about the wages they get in their job.
(proportion)
A large proportion of the employees said there are not
enough opportunities of professional improvement in
the work place. ( 80 %) (proportion). This suggests
that the company should give in service training to
their employees to make them perform better and feel
satisfaction about their performance. (Generalization)
55% of young people go to the cinema at least twice a
month (fact – percentages) This shows that the cinema
is still quite a popular form of entertainment among
young people (generalization)

4. A little more than half of the young people prefer to go
to the cinema (55 %) (proportion) . On the other
hand, only 30 % said they would prefer to watch a
theatre performance rather than going to a movie. (one
in three would be interested in going to a theatre
performance)
This shows that theatre performances are a second
alternative for getting entertainment among teenagers.
(generalization)
Homework: The following survey shows the spending
patterns of the people in the U.S. between the years 1966
– 1996.
By looking at the chart one can easily see that the eating
pattern and the money spent on food has changed a lot

5. In 1966, 44 % of the family budget (a little less than
the half of the money the American made) was spent
on buying food and groceries, however in 1996 only a
little more than the one sixth of the family budget went
to buying food items and groceries. (14 %) On the
other hand, while American were spending only 7% of
their money at restaurant, the amount has risen to
14%. It has almost doubled. This shows that the
people in the U.S. preferred to eat out more than they
used to in the period of 30 years. Between 1966 -1996
there has been a great change in the use of technology
and computers in the life of the Americans. (The use of
computers has increased significantly among the
people in the U.S.) While only 1 % of the total income
was being spent on computers in 1966, this amount

6. Likewise, the reading habits of the people has changed also. In 1966,