English language Seminars

Do’s

don’ts

tips, hints and so on

August 2009

How to prepare winning presentations

Introductions and closings

How to structure a presentation

Appropriate language

Dealing with questions

Evaluation sheet

Please leave questions to the end of the presentation

Introduction

“... Good jokes are hard to find, harder still to deliver, and quick to expire.” - don’t tell opening jokes

the 1st couple of minutes in a presentation are nearly always the worst

Opening question

“how can I get this dull talk started with something that will show my audience I’m really a fun person?”

X

“How can I best draw this particular audience into the subject I’m there to talk about?”

Five winning ways to start a presentation

tell a parable– consider underlying emotions – consider key decision point or dilemma

tell a personal anecdote about how you got engaged in the particular topic

ask a question that either surfaces the underlying emotion you wish to evoke or begins the overall story that you wish to tell

Five winning ways to start a presentation

tell a bit of a story from a classic movie or a popular TV show play a scenario game that contains the elements of your

broader story

1998 by the president and fellows of Harvard College

Use an effective opening

– Goals– alternative techniques

use humorrefer to the unusualrefer to the familiar

Hunter, Mary - Guide to Managerial Communication, 1992

Bravo: dare in the first slide – shake them

up in the first couple of minutes!

Not losing your audience

Not losing your audience

Straightforward: start by the end. Leave arguments for

later. Research shows that the first 30 seconds are key to call the attention

Not losing your audience

Graphics: use images to conduct thinking and

give rhythm to the presentation. People get the information faster and more easily.

Not losing your audience

Blocks: the average human being can only

hold their attention for 17 to 20 minutes. Use independent, self-sustained blocks

Not losing your audience

Fast: take as much fat from the presentation

as possible. The faster the better. After you write the presentation cut it back to 50%. If the content is not harmed, keep it like that.

Introductions

Introduce yourself and your subject outline what you are going to talk about say whether people should ask questions

during the talk or at the end

Introducing yourself and your subject

Greeting, name and position title and subject purpose/objective length outline/main parts questions reference to the audience

Outline

I’ve divided my presentation into four parts.They are...

The subject can be looked at under the following headings ...

We can break this area down into the following fields: 1st ..., then..., next..., and then we come to..., finally..., lastly ..., last of all...

Let me briefly take you through what we’ll be looking at today

Intro language

The subject of my presentation is ... What I’m going to talk about tonight is ... I’d like to give you a brief overview of ... The reason I am here today is to talk

about ...

Structuring a presentation

give a previewstate your main points clearly

follow your previewlimit your main pointsuse explicit transitionsprovide internal summaries

use an effective closingyour audience is likely to remember your last words

Structure language

I’ve divided my talk into (N) main sections... My presentation will be in (N) parts ...

– First of all / Firstly – Secondly– Thirdly– Then– After that– Lastly / finally

Moving to a new point language

Turning now to ... What I’d like to to talk about now is ... Now I would like to describe ... Now let’s move on to the next point which is

Language focus

Introducing yourself and your talk linking ideas describing trends, charts and graphs emphasizing and minimizing endings asking and answering questions delivery and style

Comfort, Jeremy - Effective Presentations OUP, 1995

Endings

Signaling the end summarizing concluding recommending closing inviting questions

Effective closing

You may feel as if you are being repetitive, but it is effective to summarize your main points.

Refer to the introduction (story, rethorical questions, promise, image)

Call to action, emphasize the benefits

Summarizing and concluding language

Don’t say:“Well, that’s all I have to say” or “I guess that’s about it” Say:“to summarize” or “in conclusion” To sum up ... To recapitulate what I’ve been saying ... So, to go over the main points again ... I’d like to conclude by saying ...

Closing - sample

“Let me sum up. Firstly, we looked at . . ., secondly, at . . . and last but by no means least. . . In my view, . . . That brings me to the end of my presentation. Are there any questions?”

Ending language

Thank you for listening to me. If there are any questions, I’ll be pleased to

answer them.

Answering questions

Clarifying a question avoiding giving an answer checking if the questioner is satisfied

When answering questions

That’s a fair point. That’s confidential. That’s not really my field. The questioner would like to know . . . Is that right? Well, I think that goes beyond the scope of today’s

presentation. I’m afraid we’ve run out of time. Sorry, I didn’t catch the question I think that’s a good point to stop. Thank you listening

Evaluation sheet

poor satisfactorygoodexcellent

Evaluator's name:        

Presenter's name:        

Presentation Subject:        

  Poor Ok Good Excellent

Subject relation to class        

General Organization        

Introduction        

Ending        

Delivery/flow        

Language – Grammar        

Language – Pronunciation        

Language – Vocabulary: general, presentation specific, emphasizers, linking words        

Technical vocabulary        

Visual Aids        

Grading system

1st 2nd

Poor 4 3

Ok 6 5

Good 8 7

Excellent 10 10

Subject relation to class

Possible subjects– Small business management– Entrepreneurship– Knowledge Management

Possible approaches– Personal experience– Bibliography – preferrably originally in English

Delivery/flow

Audience contact and interest Assurance/confidence Tempo (vary the speed, add silence)

volume (vary it)

expressiveness (vary the pitch, add questions)

articulation (rehearse, focus on stress) sentence length register/style (avoid written language) linkers (helps with pace) emphasizers/minimizers (exagerate a little)

Language

Grammar Pronunciation Vocabulary

– General– Presentation specific– Emphasizers– Linking words

Other useful sentences

As you can see If we took a look at this slide Let’s change the direction for a moment So, what have we looked at so far? Well ... Turning to I would like to start by Another area for consideration is Let me begin by

Visual aids

NumberDesignRelevanceUseSource

Recapping

Introductions and closings

How to structure a presentation

Appropriate language

Dealing with questions

Evaluation sheet

And finally

Let’s all make extremely successful presentations.

Let’s practice here to strike (impact) in the business world.

References

COMFORT, Jeremy. Effective Presentations. Oxford Business English Series. Oxford University Press. 1995

STRUTT, Peter. Market Leader – Business Grammar and Usage. Financial Times and Longman. 2000