ESL Writing Lesson: Summarizing Data

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This ESL writing lesson gives students a chance to practice an important writing skill: how to read data and summarize the main points into one or two paragraphs. First, here is a quick review of some great student writing.

ESL Student Writing

  1. The Smart phone makes people free from time and space.
  2. All people are addicted to Smart phones.
  3. The invention of the Internet has changed our life completely.
  4. Imagine the world without the Internet.
  5. If there is no eraser in the world, our life would be difficult.

A Few Comments

  1. What is difference between convenient and comfortable?
  2. Don’t use THE with non-countable nouns.  For example, the paper, the rock or the bark.
  3. Superlatives, like the most important invention need THE.

The Writing Lesson

This English writing skill takes time to learn. But, it is very important for English students who wants to work in the knowledge economy. This lesson has four parts. In the end, you will write two paragraphs.

Let’s start with data about vegetable consumption. That chart is here.

  1. Look at the table and understand what is being counted. What is the unit of measurement?
  2. Look for basic patterns. In this chart, we could start with the TOTAL column. (To make our work a little easier, let us look only at the first and last years of data.)
  3. Understand the details by looking at different vegetables.

Key point. When we look at data like these, try to find the important things. What is important? The things which are different!

Here is the fourth part. Write a two-paragraph summary about the changes in vegetable consumption in Korea. The first paragraph should describe the patterns in the data. This is descriptive writing. Describe what you see.

The second paragraph explains why these changes happened. The answer to WHY these changes happened is not in the table. Use your imagination and logical thinking. Write an explanation and give reasons, evidence and details to support your idea.

In both paragraphs, use a proper paragraph structure: topic sentence plus RED (reasons, evidence and details) plus a conclusion.

Now repeat the entire process for the fruit consumption chart.

BRAIN PUZZLE

Upstairs, there is a room with one light, one door and one chair. Downstairs, there are three light switches – A, B and C. One switch is connected to the light in the upstairs room.

How can you find out which switch is connected to the upstairs light?

You can enter the upstairs room one time. There are no windows and it is impossible to see inside the room unless you open the door. Turn the switches on and off as much as you like.