The important thing to remember when plotting points on a grid is that the X axis goes east west, and the Y axis goes north and south. When you are writing the coordinates, the X coordinate is always first, just like it comes before Y in the alphabet.
The point where the two axes meet is the center of the graph, and the coordinates are (0,0) because it is at point 0 on both the X and the Y axis.
Another thing that is important to remember is that when we move to the right on the X axis or upward on the Y axis, we are moving in a positive direction. Conversely, when we move to the left on the X axis on downward on the Y axis, we are moving in a negative direction.
The intersection of the two axes creates four quadrants. On one quadrant, all coordinates are positive. In the quadrant that is diagonal to that one, all coordinates are negative.
The other two quadrants contain both positives and negatives. In the lower right quadrant, the first coordinate is positive because the first coordinate is always on the X axis, and we are moving to the right. In the upper left quadrant, the first coordinate is negative because, although we are still on the X axis, we are moving to the left.
Take a look at the grid to the left. We've plotted the coordinates (+3, 0). We've moved three places to the right on the X axis, so our X coordinate is positive. We are still at 0 on the Y axis because we haven't moved upward or downward.
Now take a look at the grid to the right. We've stayed at +3 on the X axis, but we've got downward 2 places on the Y axis. Our coordinates are now (+3, -2)
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