text: i wonder....? on a coordinate grid where do you start on the left or right....how do you find a specific point?help! to plot points on a coordinate grid, know that the first number in the point is the value left or right.  the second number is the value up or down.   if each vertical and horizontal mark on the grid is an interval of 1 and the the point is (-7,4)  you would make a dot at the point where you went left 7 marks and up 4 marks, starting where the axes intersect.  if the point is (5,-2) go right 5, down 2, and make a dot.  on a full coordinate plane, the two perpendicular intersecting lines are called axes and are labeled x and y.  the verticle line y, (the y-axis), represents the points at which x=0, and the horizontal line x, (the x-axis), represents the points at which y=0. a point, or coordinate, is defined by (x,y) where x and y are all possible values.  if x=3 when y=4 that is shown (3,4).  if x=5 when y= -4 that is shown by (5,-4).  all points left of the y-axis have negative values for x.  all points below the x-axis have negative values for y.  the four squares formed by the axes are called quadrants.  the top right square is the first quadrant, the top left is the second quadrant, the bottom left is the third quadrant, and the bottom right is the fourth quadrant.  these are usually depicted using roman numerals, for example qi would be written in the top right corner of the coordinate plane, qii on the top left, qiii on the bottom left and qiv on the bottom right corner.  in qi both x and y values are positive.  in qii x values are negative and y values are positive.  in qiii both x and y values are negative.  in qiv x values are positive and y values are negative.  for example the point (2,-9) is in qiv, the point (-9,-20) is in qiii, the point (-5,7) is in qii, and the point (1,8) is in qi.   more in depth explaination is available at  http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/discussions/introductiontothecoo/