Let’s look at this sentence from a candidate’s Academic Writing Task 1 report:
“The graph indicates the proportion of students who attended university between 2000 and 2005.”
This candidate would lose marks because they are not familiar with what the word “indicate” really means, AND how it should be used. “Indicate” means to show something in a less obvious or in an indirect way!
So, what word could you use? You can simply use the word “show”! Alternatively, use “illustrate” which means to show something through an image, in this case via the graph.
