To describe a trend, state the direction, the size and any exception. A trend sentence with those three parts shows the examiner that you read the data carefully. This lesson sits inside economics data responses and works together with choosing the percentage base.
What makes a description good?
A good description has four parts, and you can check each one in your own sentence.
- Direction: rose, fell or stayed the same.
- Size: how much, in units and ideally as a percentage with the right base.
- Time frame: the years or periods you are describing.
- Qualification: the exception, the peak, the dip or the change in pace.
How do you build the sentence, step by step?
- Find the start and end values and say whether the overall movement is up or down.
- Calculate the overall change as a percentage of the starting value.
- Scan the periods in between. Look for any year that moves against the overall direction, or any year with an unusually large or small change.
- Write one sentence with the overall movement first and the exception second, joined by “although”, “but” or “except”.
- Check the figures against the table once more.
Worked example
The fictional economy of Zandria had an output index (2019 = 100) as follows.
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Output index | 100 | 104 | 109 | 107 | 112 |
Step 1. The index starts at 100 and ends at 112, so the overall direction is up.
Step 2. Overall change = 112 − 100 = 12, and 12 ÷ 100 × 100 = 12%.
Step 3. Year by year: 2020 is +4 (4 ÷ 100 = 4%), 2021 is +5 (5 ÷ 104 = 4.8%), 2022 is −2 (2 ÷ 109 = 1.8% fall) and 2023 is +5 (5 ÷ 107 = 4.7%). The 2022 figure is the exception.
Step 4, the description:
“Zandria’s output index rose by 12% between 2019 and 2023, from 100 to 112, although it fell by about 1.8% in 2022.”
That sentence gives direction, size, time frame and a qualification in one line.
The mistake to watch for
Mistaken answer: “Output increased steadily from 100 in 2019 to 112 in 2023.”
The word “steadily” hides the fall in 2022, and no size or percentage is given.
The correction is to replace “steadily” with “overall” and to add the dip. A description that misses an obvious exception loses accuracy even if the first and last figures are right. Another slip is listing the table in words: “In 2019 it was 100, in 2020 it was 104…” That repeats data without describing a pattern.
Check yourself
1. A fictional unemployment rate (%) over five years was 6.0, 5.5, 5.1, 5.3, 4.8. Write a one-sentence description.
Show answer
“The rate fell overall from 6.0% to 4.8%, a fall of 1.2 percentage points, although it rose slightly in the fourth year, from 5.1% to 5.3%.” Check: 6.0 − 4.8 = 1.2 and 5.3 − 5.1 = 0.2.
2. Sales of a fictional firm over four years were RM50,000, RM55,000, RM66,000 and RM60,000. Which year had the largest percentage rise?
Show answer
Year 2: 5,000 ÷ 50,000 = 10%. Year 3: 11,000 ÷ 55,000 = 20%. Year 4: −6,000 ÷ 66,000 ≈ −9.1% (a fall). The largest rise was in Year 3, at 20%.
3. A student writes: “Exports increased steadily” for the data 10, 14, 13, 18 (in RM million). Explain what is wrong and rewrite it.
Show answer
The second change is a fall (14 to 13), so “steadily” is inaccurate. A better version: “Exports rose overall from RM10 million to RM18 million, an increase of 80%, although they fell slightly in the third year.” Check: 8 ÷ 10 = 0.8.
Where this leads next
Once your descriptions include the exception, move on to building a chain from evidence to a model, where the pattern you described gets an economic explanation. Try the mixed practice set afterwards. The ratios tool with interpretation limits shows when a comparison of figures can mislead.
If your sentences still read as a list of figures, a short session with a teacher who reads them aloud with you can fix it quickly. Our team offers this in online one-to-one Economics tuition.