English · Graph & Chart Writing
How to Describe a Table
Turning a data table into prose, with the selection rule and a model answer.
A table holds more numbers than a paragraph can carry, so the skill is selection: describe the highest and lowest values, one or two clear patterns across rows or columns, and anything that breaks the pattern. A description that walks through every cell scores badly, because choosing what matters is the task.
The format
A table holds too much to describe fully
This is the chart type where selection matters most. A table of five rows and four columns holds twenty values, and a 120-word paragraph cannot carry them. The question is therefore not what does the table say but what are the four or five things worth saying about it.
Read across and down before writing
Look along each row and down each column and ask what changes. A pattern that runs consistently along a row, or a column where one value is out of line with the rest, is the kind of observation that earns marks. Reading only the individual cells produces a list.
- The highest and lowest values in the whole table.
- Any row or column with a consistent pattern — rising, falling, flat.
- Any value that breaks the pattern.
- The overall relationship between the rows and the columns.
Language for a table
Phrasings that suit tabular data
| Purpose | Phrasing |
|---|---|
| naming the extremes | the highest figure in the table · the lowest of any category |
| a consistent pattern | rises consistently across · falls steadily from left to right |
| an exception | the one exception is · this pattern does not hold for |
| comparing rows | in every category, X exceeds Y |
| summarising | taken together, the table shows |
Close on the relationship, not a value
The final sentence should say what the table shows as a whole — which variable dominates, or whether one pattern holds across all categories. Ending on an individual figure leaves the paragraph without a conclusion.
Model answer
Model paragraph (about 125 words)
The table
A table showing pass rates in four subjects — Bengali, English, Mathematics and Science — across three school years.
Description
The table compares pass rates in four subjects over three consecutive school years.
Bengali records the highest pass rate in every year, and its figure rises slightly across the period. English is consistently the weakest of the four, and it is the only subject whose pass rate falls in each successive year. Mathematics and Science sit between the two, with Science improving steadily while Mathematics fluctuates, dropping in the middle year before recovering.
Taken together, the table shows a stable picture in three subjects and a steady decline in one: in every year, the gap between the strongest and weakest subject widens.
What earns and loses marks
- Read along the rows and down the columns before writing a word — the patterns are in the directions, not in the individual cells.
- Say “in every year” or “in every category” when a pattern holds throughout. It is a strong observation and takes three words.
- Name the exception. A table where one value breaks the pattern is a table with something worth reporting.
- Close on the relationship between the variables, not on a single number.
- 🚨 Do not attempt to mention every cell. A table description that runs out of words halfway through the grid has chosen wrongly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Four or five observations: the highest and lowest values, any consistent pattern along a row or column, any value that breaks it, and the overall relationship. That is what a paragraph will hold, and selecting those five is the skill being marked.
Both, before you write. Rows and columns usually represent different variables, and the interesting observations come from noticing how one changes while the other is held constant. Which you describe first depends on which produces the clearer pattern.
The amount of selection required. A bar chart is designed to be read at a glance and has one variable; a table is dense and usually has two, so it needs the writer to find the patterns rather than simply report what is visible. Everything else — impersonal register, no explanation of causes — is the same.
Keep going
Model answers, formats and grammar rules for every SSC and HSC writing question.