Writing: composition
Writing an analytical paragraph
Turn a chart or a table into one paragraph that reports what it shows, without listing every figure on it.
An analytical paragraph is the answer to a question nobody asks out loud: what does this chart actually say? A reader can see the numbers for themselves. What they cannot see, until you write it, is the shape — where the figures rose, where they turned, and what the whole run adds up to.
Three parts, one paragraph
Open by saying what the chart shows and over what period. Then report the movement — the rises, the falls, the highest and lowest points — in the order they happened. Close with one sentence about the pattern as a whole. No headings, no bullet points: it is a paragraph.
Report the shape, not every number
Forty, then seventy, then ninety-five, then sixty is a list, and the chart already contains it. Rose sharply for two years, then fell back is analysis. Quote a figure only when it carries weight — the peak, the low point, the total.
Words for movement
Soared, climbed, edged up. Plunged, dropped, slipped. Held steady, remained unchanged. Fluctuated, for a line that will not settle. Choosing between edged up and soared is where the analysis actually happens, so choose deliberately.
Keep yourself out of it
No I think, no in my opinion, no the chart is interesting. The paragraph reports what the data does. A judgement is allowed only when the figures themselves make it — busier at the end than at the start is a reading, not an opinion.
Worked example
Write the opening and one body sentence for a chart of monthly rainfall that climbs from January to July and falls after that.
Open by naming the chart and its period: "The graph below records the monthly rainfall at the station over one year."
The reader needs to know what they are looking at before they are told anything about it.
Try it together
Let us build three sentences about one small table.
The table gives the number of books borrowed each term: Term 1 — 120, Term 2 — 180, Term 3 — 175. Each answer is a single word.
1.Opening sentence: "The table ____ the number of books borrowed in each of three terms." Write the verb.
Have a go
A line on a graph goes up, down, up and down again across four months. Which word describes it best?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.