Presenting Data Visually — Unit 8, Upper-intermediate English
Collocations for describing charts, figures, and proportions in presentations and reports.
Reading: Board Notes — Q3 Channel Mix
**Speaker notes · Slide 3 — Q3 channel mix**
**The chart illustrates** weekly new users by channel for Q3. Paid campaigns **account for** thirty-eight percent of acquisitions, while organic search **constitutes** the largest source at forty-one percent. Partner referrals **represent** the remainder and **correspond to** the purple segment in the legend.
**As shown in** Figure 2, paid CAC **peaked at** €42 in July before **dipping marginally** in August. Organic installs **plateaued** in August; **in contrast**, referral volume rose as affiliates **gained traction**. Enterprise ARPU is **roughly twice as** high as self-serve, and **the data reveal** a **striking disparity** between user share and revenue share.
APAC and LATAM grew nine and four percent **respectively**, **in relative terms** a **modest gain** given spend levels. **The breakdown shows** that mobile web **account for** only twelve percent of sign-ups but **constitute** twenty percent of week-four retention. **I'd like to highlight** the **narrow gap** between paid and organic in September — the **overall trend** is healthier diversification, though **a notable exception** is enterprise inbound, which **correlate with** longer sales cycles.
**The figures suggest** paid efficiency improved after creative refresh, while **the prevailing pattern** in EMEA is **year-over-year growth** with seasonal noise. **The upward trajectory** for referrals **correspond to** partner enablement spend. **A significant proportion** of trials still convert in week three.
Before we declare victory, note **volatility** in October week one due to a tracking bug — **overall trend** lines should be read cautiously until analytics **sort out** attribution gaps.
**Speaker notes · Slide 4 — what this chart does not show**
I want to spend a minute on the limitations, because slide 3 is the one that will be screenshotted and forwarded, and it is more easily misread than it looks.
First, the channel attribution is last-touch. A user who reads three partner articles, follows an organic search result and then clicks a paid advertisement **is recorded entirely as paid**. **The chart illustrates** where the final click occurred, not where the demand originated. Our own survey work suggests partner content influences roughly twice as many acquisitions as it is credited with here.
Second, the percentages **are shares of a growing total**. Organic **constitutes** forty-one percent this quarter against forty-six last quarter, and several people have read that as a decline. Organic acquisitions **rose** in absolute terms; paid simply grew faster. **In relative terms** organic fell; **in absolute terms** it did not, and the falling line on this slide is the one I expect to be quoted incorrectly.
Third, the y-axis on Figure 2 begins at €30 rather than zero. That was my decision and it makes the July CAC peak look more dramatic than it is. I have left it because the variation is genuinely the point of the chart, but the board should read the axis before reading the slope.
Fourth, the October week-one tracking bug affects the referral series only. It has been excluded from the trend line but remains visible in the underlying bars, which is why the two appear to diverge at the right edge.
**I would rather** the board took three correct conclusions from this deck than eight confident ones. The three are: acquisition is diversifying, paid efficiency has genuinely improved since the creative refresh, and enterprise ARPU **correlates with** longer cycles that our current forecast does not model.
Everything else on slide 3 is context.
Vocabulary from this unit
| Frame | Example |
|---|---|
| the chart illustrates | The chart illustrates regional split. |
| as shown in | As shown in Table 2, margins flattened. |
| I'd like to highlight | I'd like to highlight the April spike. |
| the overall trend | The overall trend is positive. |
| Phrase | Example |
|---|---|
| account for | Paid users account for 38%. |
| constitute | Subscriptions constitute 70% of ARR. |
| represent | Bars represent weekly installs. |
| respectively | Costs fell 4% and 6% respectively. |
| roughly twice as | Trials are roughly twice as long. |
| in contrast | In contrast, referrals fell. |
| Phrase | Example |
|---|---|
| the data reveal | The data reveal a widening gap between channels. |
| a notable exception | France is a notable exception to the downward trend. |
| the figures suggest | The figures suggest early retention gains. |
| in relative terms | In relative terms, paid growth outpaced organic. |
| the breakdown shows | The breakdown shows enterprise at forty-two percent. |
| a significant proportion | A significant proportion of churn is voluntary. |
| year-over-year growth | We reported twelve percent year-over-year growth. |
| a striking disparity | There is a striking disparity between regions. |
| the upward trajectory | ARR remains on an upward trajectory. |
| dip marginally | Conversion dipped marginally after the price test. |
| correlate with | NPS gains correlate with faster onboarding. |
| the prevailing pattern | The prevailing pattern is slower SMB growth. |
This is the free sample from this unit. The full unit adds 1 more reading passage, comprehension questions with an answer key, the listening exercises, flashcards for the vocabulary above, and a speaking task — with your progress tracked so the next unit unlocks when you are ready for it.
Common questions
What level is this unit?
Upper-intermediate — roughly CEFR B2. If you are not sure of your level, the course places you with a short diagnostic before you start rather than making you guess.
Do I need to pay to use this?
The reading passage and vocabulary on this page are free to read. The rest of the unit — the remaining passages, the exercises, the listening, the answer key and the progress tracking — is part of the paid General English course.
Is this British or American English?
British English spelling and vocabulary, which is what most learners in Azerbaijan are taught and what IELTS expects, though both are accepted in the exam.