Identifying trends within specific time periods
Often you will be able to find more than one trend in a graph. Let's look at an example of this in the line graph below.
As we have already seen, the overall trend of this graph is that the number of people employed decreased between 1900 and 1990.
However, if we look closely we can see that there are other trends within specific time periods.
Click on the time periods below to see these trends:
By looking at the rates of increase and decrease over different time periods, we have been able to find five trends.
There are many ways of interpreting trends in a graph, and it may not always be necessary to write about every trend. When looking at a graph, ask yourself what the main points are. Remember that in your IELTS Task 1 answer, you only need to describe the main or interesting points.
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The x- and y-axis of a graph