Visual displays like charts, graphs etc... form an important part of business presentations. They are very useful for displaying data in an understandable form for the audience. But simply showing charts or graphs in powerpoint in a business presentation isn't enough, you need to be able to describe them and explain their significance to the audience.

In this online exercise on presentations, you will learn and remember useful English words and phrases that are used to both explain and describe charts and graphs professionally in a presentation. In addition, you will learn phrases to emphasize points and examples in English.

To improve your vocabulary for explaining data, trends and statistics, do some of our online exercises on talking about numbers and figures.

Click here to see more of our online exercises on presentations and presentation vocabulary

Exercise: Describing data and a chart

Read the following part of a business presentation (on improving staff performance) where the person doing the presentation is describing a chart.

From the context, try to guess what the meaning of the words/phrases in bold are and why they are being said. Then do the quiz at the end to check if you are right.

Speaker:'Let me start the first part of the presentation, with an overview of current employee under-performance. But what does employee under-performance mean? Basically, employees don't do what they are capable of, with the time and resources available.

Allow me to demonstrate this by showing you a Bar Chart. This is a bar chart from a well-known multinational retail company. It shows that over a ten-year period, between 1998 and 2008, that their relative labour cost for each product they sold increased every year. Over the ten years, that meant a 15% increase.

Now, lets ask ourselves why this happened? Did the number of staff increase? Yes, it did up to 2006! Did wages increase higher than inflation? No they didn't! Did other costs fall? Yes they did. So while there were efficiency savings in other areas of the business, like in Information Technology etc..., labour was becoming relatively more expensive.

This isn't a one-off case. This next graph demonstrates that this is a trend affecting all companies. It shows the average staff costs as a percentage of total costs over the last 5 years for the top 100 companies in the UK. The average staff costs is represented by the red line, while the dotted blue line shows overall costs excluding staff costs.

As you can see, whilst overall costs excluding staff costs fell by roughly 4% over the last 5 years, the actual average staff costs as a percentage of overall costs increased by over 10% over the same period. And this is just an average, in some cases it increased by almost 15%.

I think that you can agree that this is unsustainable. Companies cannot be competitive in the long-term whilst their staff are becoming increasing inefficient and relatively more expensive.

Let me illustrate this with an example. You all remember the American company Samson & Heat? They went bankrupt this July. What do you think the fundamental reason was? Falling sales? Maybe it contributed, but other companies faced similar problems and are still here today! Their fundamental problem was that their overall relative staff costs had risen by just under 30% in the last 10 years, over inflation. To put it is simply, they were out-priced by their competitors.'


Quiz:

Below is a definition/description of each of the words/phrases in bold from the above text. Now choose the word/phrase from the question's selection box which you believe answers each question. Only use one word/phrase once. Click on the "Check" button at the bottom of the quiz to check your answers.

When the answer is correct, two icons will appear next to the answer. The icon contains extra information on the word/phrase. In the icon, you can listen to the pronunciation of the word/phrase.

1. A line on a chart that is made up of small circles, is called

         

Dotted:
(adjective) Very small circles are commonly called 'dots' and a line made up of them is called a 'dotted line'. In Spanish: "linea de puntos".

Close

Dotted:
Close

2. A polite way to say this next example 'confirms what I've just said', is

         

Let me illustrate this with:
(phrase) This phrase is used to introduce an example, graph etc... that proves a point or opinion you have just made, so to make what you are saying sound more convincing. In this context 'illustrate' has the same meaning as 'demonstrate' or 'show'(which is a little informal). 'Let me' is very polite and sounds like you are asking permission to do something, even though you're not. It is very similar to 'allow me to'. In Spanish: "Déjenme ilustrarlo con".

Close

Let me illustrate this with:
Close

3. A different way to say that something (e.g. some data) 'proves' or 'confirms' an idea/theory you have expressed, is

         

Demonstrates:
(verb) When you express an idea or a theory why something is happening, or that something is happening, you want back it up with some evidence (e.g. data). The verb 'to demonstrate' is used do this when you are showing people this evidence. In this context 'demonstrate' means 'prove' or 'confirm', e.g. 'the fall in sales demonstrates that our products are not what people want'. 'show' can also be used with the same meaning, but sounds less professional. In Spanish: "demuestra".

Close

Demonstrates:
Close

4. A phrase which means 'by nearly' which is used to make a statistic sound more positive, is

         

By almost:
(adverb) This phrase is used to make statistics or figures sound better. For example, 'sales increased by almost 7% last year'. You use it (or 'by nearly') when you round up a decimal number (e.g. '8.57') to its next whole number (e.g.'9'). You only use it for decimal numbers over '.5'. I would only use it (or round up a decimal number) when a higher number is better for you (your sales figures for example) or supports something you are saying. If it isn't, don't round up and don't use this phrase, just say the decimal number. In Spanish: "en casi".

Close

By almost:
Close

5. A phrase that says the 'quantity of time' a trend shown on a graph/chart has been occuring, is

         

Shows that over a ten-year period:
(phrase) Charts and graphs are often used to visually display to people trends which have been occuring during a period of time. When you want explain to people a particular trend that a chart or graph indicates, you can start by using a modified version of the phrase 'shows that over a ten-year period', followed by what the trend is. 'Over' in this context doesn't mean 'more than', it means 'during'. For example, 'shows that over the last three years profits have fallen by nearly 4%'. In Spanish: "muestra que en un período de diez años".

Close

Shows that over a ten-year period:
Close

6. A way to focus people's attention on a chart or graph, is

         

As you can see:
(phrase) This phrase is used to draw the attention of audience to some form of visual display (e.g. a chart, graph, photo etc...) which you are going to talk about in the presentation. With charts or graphs in presentations, it is commonly used when you start to describe data contained in a graph or chart. It is followed by a description of what happens in the chart or graph etc..., e.g. 'as you can see, profits fell in May'. In Spanish: "como pueden ver".

Close

As you can see:
Close

7. Another way to say 'by about' when saying the quantity of a relatively less important statistic, is

         

By roughly:
(adverb) It is used when it isn't necessary or important to say what the actual figure or quantity of a statistic or you are not exactly sure what the actual figure or quantity is. For example, 'costs increased by roughly 2%'. It has the same meaning as 'by approximately' or 'by around'. In Spanish: "en aproximadamente".

Close

By roughly:
Close

8. A different way to say that a situation/event 'has happened before', is

         

Isn't a one-off case:
(phrase) It means that an event/situation or a type of behaviour has happened before (maybe frequently). It is used when you want to reinforce a point that you are making (e.g. there is a problem with customer service). It is normally followed by a sentence which gives examples of other similar cases or situations. The opposite of this is 'an exception'. In Spanish: "no es un caso aislado".

Close

Isn't a one-off case:
Close

9. A way to inform people what the different lines, bars etc... on a chart/graph are for, is

         

Is represented by:
(verb) This is used to describe the content of a visual. It is used to tell people what each line, bar, segment of a chart or graph refer to. The subject of the data (i.e. profit, sales, income etc...) always goes before the phrase. And the line, bar, pie chart segment always goes after the phrase. For example, 'average sales is represented by the yellow line'. In Spanish: "está representado por".

Close

Is represented by:
Close

10. A phrase which means 'by above' which is used to make a statistic sound more positive, is

         

By over:
(adverb) This phrase is used to make statistics or figures sound better. For example, 'unemployment fell by over 35,000 in May'. You use it (or 'by above') when you round down a decimal number (e.g. '8.05') to its preceding whole number (e.g.'8'). I would only use when the decimal number is a little over the whole number (e.g '.25' or below), otherwise I would just say the decimal number (e.g. '8.34'). In addition, I would only use this phrase when a higher number is better for you (your sales figures for example) or supports something you are saying. If it isn't, don't use this phrase, just say the decimal number. In Spanish: "más de".

Close

By over:
Close





Practice

Now that you understand the meaning of the words/phrases and when to use them, practise using them by creating your own sentences with them in English. Also click on the icon next to each correct answer and listen how each is pronounced correctly.