In a previous lesson, I talked about how we should practise describing numbers.
However, in a graph or chart, there are always a lot of different numbers. Therefore, apart from describing these numbers, we also need to compare them with each other (Note that the topic always says: “make comparisons where relevant”).
The good news is, comparing numbers is super easy! You will need to use several linking words, and that’s it!
Some linking words are: respectively, compared to/compared with, while/whereas, By contrast/In contrast…
Let’s look at some examples:
- The numbers of Italian and French car users were 2 million and 5 million respectively.
- The amount of pizza consumed in Vietnam stood at 2,000 tonnes, compared to 10,000 tonnes in China.
- The percentage of Internet users in the UK was 70%, while the figure for the US stood at 80%.
- 10 million foreign visitors travelled to the UK in 2000. By contrast, only 2 million went to Denmark.
So, try to use some simple linking words, and you have already made great comparisons in your Task 1 essays.