You're listening to Business English Pop, the business English podcast for professionals on the move.
In the last episode, we learned how to present your visuals clearly and logically by signposting your points and highlighting key areas.
Now that you've gotten these basics, you need to get into the details and deal with the numbers.
So, in this episode, we'll be focusing on describing trends.
Remember, a trend is the general direction or tendency of a metric or measurement.
Upward, downward, flat, fluctuating, peaking, bottoming out, and so on.
So you'll be learning how to use these and many more terms for describing your charts and graphs in fluent, vivid sentences, so that you can present your data with maximum impact.
Today's listening continues on from last time.
Pat Ambient's new Central European Finance Director, has just finished talking about sales revenue and is now moving on to discuss market share, which he often just refers to as SHARE.
The visual he will be talking about is a line graph that compares the trends in market share over the last six quarters, from Q1 2006 to Q2 2007.
His discussion centers on the top three players in the mobile phone business his own company Ambient, and their two top competitors, Caltel and Cirrus.
You'll find the graph that Pat is actually referring to in the study notes for this episode.
As you listen, pay attention to the trend language that Pat uses to describe the recent changes in the market.
All right, let's leave sales there and move on to market share.
Now this graph shows us the trend in market share starting in the first quarter of 2006, moving up to the present.
The vertical axis represents billions of US dollars.
Looking at the figures for 2006, Cirrus had the biggest slice of the pie.
After remaining unchanged at around 30 for the first half, their share started fluctuating in Q3 and Q4.
Meanwhile, we were struggling to catch Kaltel as their budget models came online.
That said, we were still able to hold our ground thanks to some hard work on your part.
Things get interesting when we compare the latest IDG figures for spring 2007.
Recently, as you know, Cirrus has taken a hit on the release of their problematic G3 rollout.
Actually, their share has slipped back a couple of points to about 27%.
Meanwhile, Calltel has grown, largely at their expense.
Our own position has been further consolidated this year as we successfully fended off competition from Calltel on the bottom end and gained on Cirrus in the prime multimedia segment.
And let me just draw your attention here to the effects of the new Asian players entering our market, as we see their growth reflected in the 5 increase of the combined others group, which now accounts for over a quarter of the entire European market.
All things considered, the exec team is fairly pleased with the overall picture on market share and the underlying trends for 2007.
In very few words, Pat has called attention to all the key trends in his visual.
He hasn't gone into great detail.
After all, the graphs are right there in front of his audience for everyone to see.
Rather, he has used some strong, vivid language to briefly draw attention to the main points in his analysis.
The first thing he does, which you'll recognize from last time, is signpost the change from his first slide revenue to his second slide market share.
All right, let's leave sales there and move on to market share.
Next, he needs to tell us what we're looking at.
This is introducing the theme or main idea of a chart.
Now this graph shows us the trend in market share starting in the first quarter of 2006, moving up to the present.
The vertical axis represents billions of US dollars.
Vertical axis, of course, means the Y axis in the graph.
Pat doesn't say so, because it's so obvious.
But the X axis is called horizontal, and shows time.
In this case, starting in Q1 of 2006 and moving up to the present, which is Q2 of 2007.
Starting in and moving up to are useful for talking about a range of time.
Now, let's study some more ways we can introduce the basic theme of a chart.
This graph presents a general picture of recent developments in the high-strength steel market during the last five years.
This chart gives you a general overview of the organizational structure in our department.
Here we see a chart analyzing the relationship between investment and profitability.
Great.
Now that you've practiced those, let's move on to how Pat next focuses in on a specific part of the graph everyone is looking at.
Looking at the figures for 2006, Cirrus had the biggest slice of the pie.
The idiom slice of the pie comes from pie charts, which are round graphs that are traditionally used to represent market share as slices of the circle or pie.
In this case however, Pat is using a line graph because he's looking at change in market share over time.
But he can still refer idiomatically to Cirrus having the biggest slice of the pie.
Looking at the figures for 2006 draws our attention specifically to one part of the graph.
What are some other ways that we can use to do this?
Examining the developments at the beginning of the year, we can see an interesting trend.
As we break down the numbers in the automobile sector, a startling trend emerges.
Notice the strong relationship between price per unit and revenue.
So, after Pat focuses our attention in on one part of the graph Cirrus's share in 2006 what is the first trend he describes?
Let's listen again.
After remaining unchanged at around 30 for the first half, their share started fluctuating in Q3 and Q4.
There are actually two trends here, aren't there?
First, Cirrus's share remains unchanged for the first half, the first two quarters of 2006.
What are some other ways to say remain unchanged?
You can see that the stock price really flattened out in April and May.
The price of oil has stayed level for the past two weeks.
Trading volumes stagnated near the end of the day.
To stagnate means to show no movement.
The adjective stagnant describes water that has been still for too long.
You'll also remember from last time, we learned two other ways to describe remaining unchanged.
Flat, as in a fairly flat second half of the year, and plateau, as in facing a plateau in sales.
Around remain unchanged, three more trend verbs are important.
Level off, drop off, and pick up.
The first, level off, means a trend goes flat after rising.
The second, drop off, or sometimes fall off, means a trend goes down after being flat.
The third, pick up, means a trend increases again after a period of falling or being stagnant.
Let's listen to an example of some of this language.
Did you catch all that?
Let's review.
Think of a kind of N shape.
N as in Nancy.
First, the trend increased.
Next, it leveled off.
The top of the N is flat.
Then it dropped off or fell.
And finally, it picked up again or rose.
Note how plateau is actually used as a verb here.
All right.
After remaining unchanged at around 30, Pat says that Cirrus' share started seeing some fluctuations in Q3 and 4.
This is another trend.
In effect, kind of opposite to remaining unchanged.
To fluctuate means to move up and down, like a wave.
The noun is fluctuation.
Listen to some more ways to describe fluctuation.
The year 2000 was a period of intense fluctuation.
This is a period of flux.
Hits on our webpage have fluctuated a lot in March.
Over the last few weeks, our share price has been going up and down.
New orders have experienced serious fluctuations in the last few months, with the results ranging from a low of 15 in February to a high of 27 in June.
What happens next?
Pat talks about Ambient's performance in 2006.
Meanwhile, we were struggling to catch Caltel as their budget models came online.
That said, we were still able to hold our ground thanks to some hard work on your part.
Bring online is similar to roll out, which we covered last time.
It's another way to say launch or release onto the market.
Budget models refers to those new budget price points.
Pat mentioned last time low-end, inexpensive products.
Now, let's take a look for a moment at the language Pat uses here.
As is very common in business.
He describes competition between companies with sports and war metaphors.
We were struggling or fighting to catch call tail as in a race.
That said, or despite this fact, we were able to hold our ground as in a war.
We should study these war and sports metaphors to make our description of trends more vivid.
Note that Pat doesn't mention a single number here, but he manages to paint a very colorful picture and tell an interesting story in just a couple of sentences, thanks to these great metaphors.
Okay, let's move on to the next trend in Pat's description of this slide.
Things get interesting when we compare the latest IDG figures for spring 2007.
Recently, as you know, Cirrus has taken a hit on the release of their problematic G3 rollout.
Actually, their share has slipped back a couple of points to about 27%.
Things get interesting is another way to highlight a point, which is something we looked at in the first episode of this series.
To take a hit continues the war metaphor.
Cirrus is like a ship that got hit by a rocket or a missile, which causes their share to sink or slip back.
A couple of points.
To slip literally means to fall down when you step on something slick or wet.
So, to slip back vividly describes the trend of falling or going down.
Now, let's study more phrases we can use to describe a downward trend.
Overall, prices have decreased sharply over the last year.
Activity fell off dramatically in May from 3000 hits per day to 1900 hits per day by the end of the month.
After 2000, stock prices plummeted by 30%.
Calls per day have plunged recently.
Production capacity has contracted by 30%, hitting a low of 1 million units in March.
Share has shrunk 5.5% in the last six months, bottoming out in May at 18.5%.
Pay attention to how you can use the prepositions from and to to describe a range.
For example, activity fell off dramatically in May from 3,000 hits per day to 1,900 hits.
Plunge and plummet mean to fall rapidly.
A low just describes one low point. whereas bottom-out refers to the lowest point.
Also, take note of the following structure.
Production capacity has contracted, that means shrunk, hitting a low of 1 million units in March.
Hitting a low is a participial phrase.
This use of participial phrases is a great way to liven up and add variety to your trend descriptions.
By the way, shrink and contract are used specifically to describe capacity or share anything that you would use a pie chart for.
Now that we've dealt with shrinkage or falling, we need to study growth or rising.
Listen to Pat again.
Remember he has just talked about how Cirrus' share slipped back a couple of points in the second half of 2006.
Meanwhile, Coltel has grown, largely at their expense.
At their expense means in a way that Cirrus has paid for Coltel's growth.
In other words, the couple points that Cirrus has slipped, Coltel has picked up.
What are some other ways to talk about increase or growth?
Let's go through several examples.
Then, turnover went up a little in September.
Activity has increased dramatically in the last 30 days.
Sales posted strong growth throughout 2005, rising from 30 million in Q1 to 45 million in Q4.
Stock prices soared to a new high of $157 per share on news of the merger.
Customer satisfaction is on the increase.
Consumer confidence took off in 2005 on the news that lending rates would be lowered, reaching a peak of 69 in June.
Let's take a quick look at some of the vocabulary that was just used.
Stock prices soared... means that they flew high like a bird.
Continuing the flying metaphor.
Consumer confidence took off means that it launched like an airplane.
Before we go on, let's also take a moment to review some of the common adverbs we can use in trend descriptions.
Sharply or dramatically are often used to show rapid change, whereas slightly or moderately are used for slow change.
Now it's your turn to practice describing trends.
In a moment, you'll hear a series of hints or cues.
Based on these hints, make sentences.
For example, if you hear price of oil go up 2002 to 2005, You can say, starting in 2002 and moving on to 2005, the price of oil soared.
Or, the price of oil rose dramatically from 2002 to 2005.
Make up any details you like, but remember to put the verb into the correct tense.
Do your best to use a variety of language and structures.
Are you ready?
Let's give it a try.
Revenue remain unchanged in Q1 and Q2 of 2006.
Our competitors' stock price go up and down recently.
Customer satisfaction go up 15% May to June this year.
Costs go down 4% in 2006, rise 3% so far in 2007.
Now listen to some example phrases.
Remember, there are many possible correct answers for each question.
Recently, our competitor's stock price has been fluctuating.
Starting in May and going to June.
Customer satisfaction really took off, rising by 15 in just two months.
After dropping 4% in 2006, costs have picked up again.
So far in 2007, they have risen 3%.
So how did you do?
It's a good idea to go back and try the practice again, substituting different language and structures each time, to exercise your fluency.
Also you can listen to the phrase cast for this and the other episodes for focused practice on all the new phrases and expressions we've learned.
Okay, we've covered all the basic types of trends, flat and fluctuating, upward and downward.
Now let's turn to something Pat does at the end of today's listening.
Moving on to talk about his own company Ambient, Pat says that their position has consolidated, that is stabilized, after fending off or fighting away competition from Kaltel on the bottom end and Cirrus on the prime or high end.
Then he goes on to make a final point about this slide.
And let me just draw your attention here to the effects of the new Asian players entering our market, as we see their growth reflected in the 5 increase of the combined others group, which now accounts for over a quarter of the entire European market.
The combined others group that Pat is talking about refers to all other players in the market outside the three main competitors, which are Kaltel, Cirrus and Ambient.
Pat makes the point that this group now accounts for over a quarter of the entire European market.
Over a quarter is a way of using vague or unspecific language to maximize a point.
Pat chooses to emphasize the large size of the others group, but he could also have minimized its significance by saying something like only just over a third or well under a half.
Let's study more ways to use vague language in order to maximize or minimize a point.
This could mean as much as a 20% drop in sales.
Layoffs will result in no more than about a 20% drop in productivity.
I'm afraid that the new policy could result in employee turnover as high as 12% if we don't act now.
We're probably only looking at a 2 or 3% drop at the most, if not a lot less.
I'd expect at least a 20% increase in price or something in that neighborhood.
Great.
Well, that about covers today's show.
We've studied introducing the main point of a graph and we've learned all the basic language for describing trends, flat and fluctuating upward and downward.
In addition, we've seen how using vivid metaphors borrowed from sports and war gives your trend descriptions impact.
Finally, we've practiced a variety of language for maximizing or minimizing the significance of the data you are using, so you can skillfully control its impact on the audience.
During the last episode in this three-part series on charts and trends, we'll turn to another important aspect of describing change.
That is, talking about future trend lines and predicting change.
