Skills for Study Level 2 Teacher's Book - Cambridge University Press

3g Student discussionSuggested answers1 Men earn more money in full-time work than women do. Full-time wagesare higher for both male and female workers than part-time wages. Men’spart-time earnings are lowest of all. As larger numbers of men tend to beemployed in full-time jobs, and larger numbers of women are employed inpart-time jobs, men tend to have higher average earnings overall.2 To an extent, this may help to explain the difference in earnings over thecourse of a career. On average, more women are employed part-time, andmore men are employed full-time; part-time salaries for women are muchlower than full-time salaries for men, therefore, on average, female earningstend to be lower. However, this alone is unlikely to be a sufficient explanationfor the earnings gap.3h Students write a paragraph explaining what the data in the graphics shows aboutthe earnings gap.Suggested answersThe two figures present information from the Office for National Statistics 2009Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Figure 11 presents the mean hourly earningsfor men and women in both full-time and part-time employment. Figure 12 focuseson the way the different genders are represented in the workforce. The graphicsboth illustrate the way in which males dominate full-time work both in numbersand in average earnings per hour. On the other hand, despite the fact that womenoutnumber men by more than three to one in part-time roles, pay in these rolesappears almost identical between the sexes.4 Incorporating graphic data into writing4aAnswers1 The reference to the source appears below the data.2 Titles appear above tables and below figures.4bAnswersPassage 1 is more effective for the following reasons:It gives explicit reference to the table “(See Table 3)”, where Passage 2 refersonly to the table.Passage 1 gives general summaries of the key trends, and allows the reader tolook to the table for specific figures, while Passage 2 unnecessarily repeats thefigures which the reader can see for themselves in the table.4c Students review the paragraph they wrote in 3h, to check that they have includedaccurate citations to any graphics that they mentioned.Unit 1 Part B ∙ Understanding written information 19