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H o w to w rite a factual te x t
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You write fiction texts for information / statistics without an opinion or feelings on the subject matter. Keep your text short. Divide your text into three parts: a brief introduction, a ‘main part’, and a conclusion. Think of the sentences with words but, and, because, so that, if to make sure they are connected properly. Topic of survey: Free time and holidays Survey group: 9th Grade, high school, California What’s your favorite kind of vacation? summer camp 14.5% beach 72% What’s your favorite place (in US)? California 45% Hawaii 26% What’s your favorite place (outside US)? Mexico 55% Canada 19%
Number: 200 city trip 9% other 4.5% Las Vegas 2% other 27% Europe 7% other 19%
This was a survey about free time and holidays. The survey group were 200 9th Grade students at a Californian high school. First of all, the grid shows that most of the students liked beach holidays. Very few of the young people chose summer camp. Only nine per cent wanted to go on city trips. Almost no students wanted a different type of vacation. Secondly, the grid shows that in the US California was more popular than Hawaii. And almost no students chose Las Vegas. But outside the US, Mexico was the most popular country because over half the class chose it. Canada was the second most popular country. Very few students chose a holiday in Europe. So the results show that a beach holiday was the most popular type of vacation in this survey group and that Mexico was the most popular place.
1 From numbers to words Look at the statistics and read the text. Then answer the questions. 1. What is the students’ favourite kind of holiday? 2. What are the most popular and second most popular places in the US? 3. Which country do they like better – Canada or Mexico?
2 Your survey a) Do a holiday survey in your class and collect statistics like this: favourite kind of holiday
skiing
favourite place (in Ukraine)
… …%
… …%
…
favourite country (in Europe)
… …%
… …%
…
b) Write a short text on the topic. The tips and the phrases can help you.
140
…%
beach
First of all … . / Secondly … . The results show that … . The most/second most popular
…%
…
more popular than very few/less than … % over half
