Aim:
This exercise is to help you to avoid common mistakes in the use of the language of approximation that students make in report writing assignments.
(This page is also available as a MS
Word document.)
Introduction:
In report writing it is good style to use 'approximation' in the Findings,
Conclusions and Recommendations. Approximation means describing numbers or
statistics by using a fraction that is similar to the exact number; e.g. using
'about one-third' instead of 34.76%, or an easy-to-remember number such as 'just under one million' instead of
'997,652'.
There are a number of reasons for doing this. Firstly, it is easier for people to understand and remember. Secondly, the numbers or statistics may be more detailed than necessary.
Here are some examples:
65% | about two-thirds of | 1,043 | over a thousand | |
28% | just over a quarter of | 115 | over a hundred | |
21% | about a fifth | 9 | fewer than ten | |
49% | just under a half of | 2 | a small number | |
74% | almost three-quarters of | 4 | a few | |
33.3333% | a third of | 6 | several | |
92% | most of | 749,982 | about three-quarters of a million | |
98.5% | almost all | 1,256,890,534 | over 1.2 billion |
Tips:
Instructions:
Correct the errors in the following sentences. There may be more than one error
in each sentence.
hits since 10 April 2003.
If you have any suggestions or questions, please e-mail us at .