Stay in control until the very last second and follow these steps at the ‘finish’ of your presentation.
PRESENTATIONS IN ENGLISH
Giving a presentation is like taking your audience from start to finish on a journey. At the start your audience requires some basic information before they start accompanying you on this journey. Once they have this information they are on your side, attentive and ready to listen to every step of the journey along to your final message.
WHO
Introduce yourself. Clearly, the amount of information you give about yourself and your work and the level of formality you use, depends on the presentation you're giving. For example, for a presentation to a group of your colleagues, you probably don't need to give your name and background and you can use informal language. A presentation to a new client can require more detailed information about your background and experience and a more formal approach. Make sure that you're comfortable talking about your past and present experience in such cases.
WHY
Tell your audience your destination - the reason they're there to listen to you and the purpose of your presentation. If the audience don't know why they should listen, they won't have any reason to accompany you along your journey. The 'why' is linked to the conclusion, your final message - probably, the most important part of your presentation.
WHAT
Outline the roadmap - the main points that you're going to develop and the order in which you would like to develop these. When your audience have a clear view of the roadmap you want to navigate, they can follow you more easily and can also see you're planned, prepared and effectively managing the presentation. There are good reasons for giving the roadmaps, as research shows your audience listen better and remember better and more when they know the structure and shape of your presentation. The technique we use to give the roadmap is called 'sequencing'. This is a very simple technique as it just involves using language such as one, two, three or firstly, secondly, thirdly. Nevertheless, it is also highly effective as 'sequencing' or 'ordering', as it is sometimes called, is a principle of memory by which we recall information.
HOW
Put yourself into your audience's shoes: address your audience's needs. Your audience won't listen to you as you go into the main part of your presentation if they have other concerns. They may be thinking: How long do I have to sit here? Do I have to take notes? When can I ask questions? Is there any coffee here? It can therefore be useful to answer such questions in your 'start' so that your audience are ready to listen.
Your 'start' should include these points but at the same time not be too long. Ninety seconds is a good guideline as there's evidence that you begin to lose listeners after this amount of time. Your audience tend to listen to your every word and form an impression of you in these ninety seconds. An accurate 'start' helps to create a good impression and you should aim to be grammatically accurate at this stage.
| WHO | |
| 1. Let me introduce myself. I am ... I am a ... 2. Before I continue, let me tell you something about myself. 3. Morning everyone. Thanks for coming. My name is Luca and I'm in charge of ... | 4. For those who don't know me, my name is Carlos Lopez and I'm the managing director. 5. Morning everyone. I'm ... I'm a ... at ... 6. On behalf of Mr Keane, may I welcome you to Jackson Inc. My name's Jo Black and I'm responsible for ... |
| WHY | |
| 1. My purpose today is to ... 2. Today I would like to give you a general overview of ... 3. Today, I'm going to bring you up to date with ... | 4. My objective today is to ... 5. Today, I'm going to tell you ... 6. What I am going to do today is review ... 7. The reason we are here today is to ... |
| WHAT | |
| 1. I'm going to develop three main points. First, ... Second, ... Third, ... 2. So, I'll be addressing three main points and the first one is going to be ... The second point will be ... And finally the last point is ... 3. I've divided my presentation into three main points. I would like to begin with ... | 4. I'm going to outline three proposals. Firstly, I'll ... Then, I'd like to ... and finally ... 5. I would like to start with ... And then ... Lastly ... |
| HOW | |
| 1. I'll pass round copies of my slides so you can make notes as I go through the presentation. 2. The presentation should last about five minutes. 3. We'll take a short coffee break at about 10.30. 4. I'm happy to take any questions after that. | 5. If you have any questions, I'd be grateful if you could leave them until the end. 6. We can take two or three questions at the end of each point. 7. You don't need to take notes as we'll be handing out presentation booklets. 8. Please feel free to interrupt me at any time if you have a question. |
Signposts
1Moving on now to ... . 12 So, we've looked at ...
2 I would like to begin by ... .. 13 That completes my overview of ...
3 Let's now turn to ... . .. 14 Let's just recap ...
4 Let's start with my presentation............................. 15 So, that's pretty much ...
5 So, first of all ... . 16 and this is...
6 Now, turning to ... . . 17 Next we come to ...
7 Now, what about ...? ............................................. 18 So, that was ...
8 Let me move on to ... ... 19 My next point is ...
9 So, that's the general picture for ... ...................... 20 That's all I want to say about ...
10 I’d like to conclude this point by saying ... . 21............................................ So, that covers this point.
11 This leads me to a point ... ..... 22 And finally...
Signposting helps you structure and shape the main content of your presentation. Signposts create 'verbal paragraphs' or 'verbal signals' and raise the attention curve at the beginning and end of each point of your presentation. The technique allows you to guide the audience through the structure of your presentation linking one point to the next. The audience can't see your notes and can't look forward to see what is coming. You know where you're going on your journey and you need to guide your audience by telling them exactly where you are оn the roadmap of your presentation. This is a simple but highly effective technique that adds clarity to your presentations.
Make your final message clear
Stay in control until the very last second and follow these steps at the ‘finish’ of your presentation.
Firstly, pause briefly and signalclearly that you are now ready to finish the presentation. The audience will start to listen again closely at this point.
Then, make your summary,giving a brief overview of what has already been said. The summary is a reflection of your 'what' and looks back. It should not be too long as you will lose your audience's attention again, but detailed enough to cover your points. This can be a difficult balance to achieve! A good summary gives your listeners time to reflect on the content and builds up to your conclusion, making your conclusion stronger, more powerful and more effective. A conclusion without a summary can sound incomplete as your audience may not have listened to every point during the main part of the presentation and the purpose can be lost. Avoid giving any conclusions while you are making your summary.
After this, give your conclusion.This is a reflection of your 'why' and looks forward to what you want people to do or think after your presentation. It should follow logically from your summary. There are different kinds of conclusions: you can make a call for action, make a recommendation or assure your audience that they're better informed. This is the destination of your journey and the most important part of your presentation.
Finally, make your closing remarksby thanking your audience, asking for questions or passing round your presentation handouts.
| Signal | 1. So, that brings me to the end of my presentation... 2. At this stage, I'd like to go over ... 3. So, that completes our presentation. 4. Well, that covers everything I want to say.. 5. Let me just go over the key points again.... |
| Summary | 1. Let me summarise what we've looked at. 2. I'll briefly summarise the main issues. 3. I'd like to summarise. 4. To sum up ... |
| Conclusion | 1. I'd like to conclude by strongly recommending ... 2. To conclude, I'd like to leave you with the following thought ... 3. In conclusion, I'd like to leave you with the following idea. |
| Closing Remarks | 1. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. 2. Thank you for your attention...... 3. I'll now hand out ... 4. Thank you for listening. |
Выражения к презентации
1. I would like to tell you …- мне бы хотелось рассказать
2. My aim today is to cover the following subject …- Цель моего сегодняшнего выступления – охватить следующую тему …
3. The subject of my talk is …- Тема моего доклада …
4. It’s my pleasure to be here to tell you about … - С удовольствием расскажу вам о…
5. I’d like to start by describing … - мне бы хотелось начать с описания …
6. I’d like to break this into two parts… - Я бы хотел разбить свой доклад на две части.
7. I’ve divided my talk into three parts … Firstly I’ll… Secondly… Finally…- Я разделил свое сообщение на три части. Сначала я. … Затем … И в заключение …
8. Let’s start with …- Давайте начнем с …
9. I’ll begin by talking about … Я начну с рассказа о …
10. My first point will be … My next point is … - Первый пункт моего выступления …
11. Let’s move on to …- Давайте перейдем к …
12. I’d like to move on to …- Я бы хотел перейти к …
13. Let’s turn now to the question of … - Давайте перейдем к вопросу о…
14. I’d like you to look at the figure (diagram). – Посмотрите, пожалуйста, на картинку.
15. What is particularly interesting … - Что особенно интересно…
16. It should be noted … - следует отметить
17. It should be mentioned … - следует упомянуть
18. It should be emphasized … - следует подчеркнуть
19. The problem is the following … - проблема заключается в следующем…
20. As far as I know… - насколько я знаю
21. As far as I can judge … - насколько я могу судить
22. In my opinion …- по-моему
23. To my knowledge … - насколько мне известно
24. To my mind …- по-моему, на мой взгляд
25. According to what I know … - в соответствии с тем, что я знаю
26. So, we’ve covered 3 main points. – Итак, мы осветили три основных вопроса.
27. So, just to summarize (to sum up) I’d like to say that…- Итак, подводя итоги, я бы хотел сказать…
28. That’s all I had to tell you about this problem … Это все, что я могу сказать по этому вопросу.
29. I hope you now have a clear picture of …- Надеюсь, у вас сложилось ясное представление о …
30. I wish to finish by emphasizing that …- я хочу закончить, отметив, что …
31. In conclusion it should be emphasized …- в заключение нужно отметить, что
32. In conclusion I would like to mention … - в заключение мне бы хотелось упомянуть
33. In conclusion I’d like to add … - добавить
34. We finally conclude that … - мы делаем вывод, что
35. Thank you for your attention and if you have any questions I’d be pleased to answer them. – Благодарю за внимание, и если у вас есть вопросы, я с удовольствием отвечу на них.