General orientation: Figure 1 shows the volume of carbonated soft drink consumed by Australian men and women across different ages in 2011.
General overall trend: Overall, the data demonstrates a continuous downward trend in soft drink consumption for both genders with age. (… as Australians become older, they tend to consume less soft drink)
Most significant feature: It is clear that young men aged 19-24 are the largest consumers of soft drink, peaking at 700mL per day.
Detail about most significant feature: This level of consumption decreases significantly from 700mL to under 400mL for men aged 25-30, and continues to fall to 100mL for men over 65.
Less significant feature/s: Although the level of soft drink consumption for women is notably less than for men, the data shows a similar downward trend.
Details: The consumption of soft drink peaks at 200mL per day for young women (aged 19-24). This figure halves to 100mL per day for women aged 25-30 before levelling off until the age of 50. Women older than 65 consume the least amount of soft drink.

Task:
· This task involves planning and writing responses to specific questions in relation to different data sets. It requires candidates to:
1. write a data commentary describing trends presented in a line graph (150 words)
2. write a conclusion style section to a report which summarises and evaluates the data presented in a set of bar and pie graphs (300 words).
· Candidates are to use the graphs provided to inform their responses. The second writing task in this assessment requires evidence of appropriate evaluation and critical analysis. This section does not require detailed data commentary; rather, it should demonstrate a candidate’s ability to use data as evidence for the basis of suggestions and recommendations.
· Candidates will have 120 minutes to interpret the data and write their responses (approximately 450 words in total).
· Marks will be deducted for responses that are less than 90% of the prescribed length.
· The responses must be written in a suitable academic style and demonstrate appropriate academic writing conventions. Tested learning objectives:
· Planning and writing a data commentary in response to a specific question and in relation to a given data set: o logical paragraph development o suitable lexical resources including cohesive devices, reporting structures and compare / contrast structures o suitable grammatical range and accuracy o suitable academic style.
· Describing trends, drawing conclusions and making generalisations.
· Presenting an opinion and supporting it with evidence: o argument development o making recommendations.
· Critical thinking and analysis.

Examples:
See Assessment Details p.22-24
In class this week we also wrote the following examples:
Fig 2.jpg
Task 1: Figure 1 shows the volume of carbonated soft drink consumed by Australian men and women across different ages in 2011. Overall, the data demonstrates a continuous downward trend in soft drink consumption for both genders with age. (… as Australians become older, they tend to consume less soft drink). It is clear that young men aged 19-24 are the largest consumers of soft drink, peaking at 700mL per day. This level of consumption decreases significantly from 700mL to under 400mL for men aged 25-30, and continues to fall to 100mL for men over 65. Although the level of consumption for women is notably less than for men, the data shows a similar downward trend. The consumption of soft drink peaks at 200mL per day for young women (aged 19-24). This figure halves to 100mL per day for women aged 25-30 before levelling off until the age of 50. Women older than 65 consume the least amount of soft drink. Task 2: The two graphs provide information about consumption of