Graph and Chart Writing Rules for HSC

Describe a graph in three moves: say what the chart shows and where the data comes from, give the most striking figures with comparisons, and end with the overall trend. Use the language of change and comparison — rose, fell, doubled, the highest, twice as many — and never explain why the figures are what they are.

The format

The three moves

Every graph description does the same three things, in the same order. Learn the order and the only decision left is which figures to select.

• Introduce — say what the chart shows, of what, over what period, and where the data comes from. One sentence, and never a copy of the chart title word for word.
• Describe — give the striking figures, with comparisons. Two or three sentences.
• Conclude — state the overall trend or the main contrast in one sentence.

🚨 Describe, never explain

This is the rule that separates a good answer from a poor one. You are asked what the chart shows, not why. Writing that literacy rose "because the government built more schools" is an invention — the chart contains no such information, and boards treat it as an error rather than as extra credit.

• ✓ Literacy rose from 45% to 74% between 2000 and 2022.
• ✗ Literacy rose because of government initiatives and public awareness.
• The only exception is where the chart itself is labelled with a cause.

Select; do not list

A chart usually holds more numbers than a paragraph can carry, and reciting all of them is the commonest structural failure. Describe the highest, the lowest, anything that breaks the pattern, and the overall movement — that is four facts, and four is usually enough.

Register and tense

Impersonal and factual: no I, no we, no address to the reader. Use the tense the data implies — past for figures up to a past year, present for a snapshot with no time dimension, and future forms only where the chart itself projects forward.

Length

About 100 to 130 words for a single chart at HSC level. It is a paragraph, not an essay, and the marks are for accuracy and selection rather than for volume.

Model answer

Model paragraph (about 120 words)

The chart

A bar chart showing the literacy rate of Bangladesh in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2022.

Description

The bar chart shows how the literacy rate in Bangladesh changed over three decades, from 1990 to 2022.

The rate rose steadily throughout the period. In 1990 it stood at about a third of the population, and by 2000 it had climbed to just under half. The sharpest increase came in the following decade, when the figure passed sixty per cent, and by 2022 roughly three quarters of the population were literate. The gain over the whole period was therefore more than double the starting figure.

Overall, the chart shows a continuous rise across all four points, with the fastest growth between 2000 and 2010.

What earns and loses marks

• 🚨 Never explain why the figures moved. The chart does not say, and inventing a cause is the single most heavily penalised error in this question.
• Open by saying what the chart shows — but do not copy its title word for word.
• Select four facts: highest, lowest, anything anomalous, and the overall movement.
• Use approximations where exact values are hard to read: “just under half”, “roughly three quarters”.
• Close with one sentence naming the overall trend. An answer that stops after the figures feels unfinished.

Mistakes to avoid

• ✗ Literacy increased because the government took many steps and people became aware. ✓ Literacy rose steadily throughout the period, passing sixty per cent by 2010. — describe, never explain
• ✗ I can see from the chart that… ✓ The chart shows that… — a description is impersonal