How to give a presentation in English - Session 5
By Viv Quarry (www.vivquarry.com)
Signposting the route through a presentation & using summaries
When describing performance you must be careful of the tense that you use.
In a longer presentation you should show where one part ends and a new one starts.
This helps to orientate the audience by making the structure of the presentation clearer to follow.
********************************USEFUL EXPRESSIONS*************************
I'll begin by....(+ verb in the 'ing' form)
Let's start with.... (+ noun)
If I could now turn to....
My next point is....
Now, turning to....
Now, what about....?
Let me now move on to....
Particularly in longer presentations, include summaries.
Give the summary at the end of the main parts of your presentation or after a key point.
Use summaries as check points to draw a conclusion before you move on to a new point.
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So that's the general picture for....and now let's look at....
That completes my overview of.... so now I'd like to move on to....
Rhetorical questions are useful devices. They give one-way communication the appearance of a dialogue with the audience. You can use them to:
Link the various points in your presentation.
Help keep the audience interested.
Involve the audience in your presentation.
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What's the explanations for this?
How can we explain this?
Sales are down on last year. What can we do about this?
How will this affect us?
What are the implications for the company?
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EXERCISES
Choose one of these topics:
Safety system - Transport - Energy - Advertising - Magazines - Business travel - Competition
Brainstorm the topic and make brief notes on what you are going to say.
Decide on the main points to be presented and the order of presentation.
Decide how to develop the main points and include expressions for signposting and summarizing.
Give the presentation, if possible recording yourself on tape or video - you can look briefly at your notes, but DO NOT read the presentation - imagine having to make eye contact with an audience.
CHECKLIST
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YES/NO |
EXAMPLE PHRASES |
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Did you: |
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State the purpose of the presentation? |
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Signpost the points to be developed? |
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Make it clear where the main points in the presentation start and end? |
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Use summaries to make the link between what has gone before and what is to follow? |
Make a copy of the chart above.
Listen to a model presentation and complete the chart above with the expressions used. (Listen)