The x-coordinate represents the horizontal shift, starting from the origin, and the y-coordinate represents the vertical shift.
Practice makes perfect
An ( x, y) ordered pair is plotted in a coordinate plane by finding the x-coordinate on the horizontal axis and the y-coordinate on the vertical axis. For the given point, ( - 2, 4), this means tracing two units in the negative horizontal direction, then four units in the positive vertical direction.
