IV. Complete the following sentences and translate them into Russian. 1. Making a presentation presents a challenge _________________________
1. Making a presentation presents a challenge _________________________.
2. Before the presentation you should rehearse it _______________________.
3. Plan the content and structure but ________________________________.
4. Don't labour a particular point___________________________________.
5. Don't run over ________________________________________________.
6. In order to join the audience's attention ____________________________.
7. You should make eye contact ___________________________________.
8. To emphasize key points you should _____________________________.
V. Comment on the following statements. In your opinion are they:a)essential; b) helpful; c) unhelpful for a successful presentation?
1. Tell a joke at the beginning.
2. Speak more slowly than you normally do.
3. Smile a lot.
4. Involve the audience.
5. Invite questions during the presentation.
6. Always keep to your plan.
7. Move around during your presentation.
8. Use a lot of gestures to emphasize important points.
9. Read out your presentation from a script.
10. Stand up when giving your presentation.
VI. Fill in the gaps with the words from the text.
I am very worried about next week. I am doing a __________ presentation about our new advertising campaign. There will be about 30 people in the_________ - mainly regional sales managers. The _____________ is a big hotel in London. They have excellent ___________ so I don't have to worry about that. I've prepared the ___________ of my talk but I'm still working on my visual___________. I've tried to ___________ the main parts of my talk so I won't have to read from my notes. On Friday, I'm going to___________ the whole thing in front of a few friends from the department.
VII. Paraphrase the "Five Rules for Presenters" using the words from the text.
Five Rules for Presenters
Rule 1: Start on time. Don't wait for people who get to the presentation after the starting time.
Rule 2: Keep to the time that you have allocated to each point in your plan.
Rule 3: Don't go on and on about a particular point for a long time.
Rule 4: Don't go off the point and talk about things that aren't in your plan.
Rule 5: Don't go on past the time when the presentation is supposed to finish.
VIII. Answer the following questions.
1. Why can making a presentation present a challenge for the speaker?
2. What can be done to make it less stressful?
3. How should you start a presentation?
4. What are the musts and mustn'ts of speaking while giving a stand up presentation?
5. What are the tips on body language?
6. What can be done to gain the audience's attention?
IX. Using appropriate words and phrases at key moments of a talk makes it easier for your audience to follow what you are saying and to anticipate what you will be saying next. Study the following phrases carefully.
Introducing the talk:
ü This morning I'm going to be talking about...
ü In my talk today I will be looking at...
ü I'd like to start by giving you...
Indicating the structure and sequences of your talk:
ü I have divided my presentation into X sections...
ü In the first section I will/am going to describe...
ü Then I will/am going to go on to...
ü After that I will/am going to look at...
ü Finally I will/am going to...
Moving from one section of your talk to another:
ü I would now like to go on to the next point which is...
ü If I can now move on to the next section... To continue...
Summarizing and condensing what you have said:
ü To recap...
ü The main thing/s to remember is/are...
ü The point that I am making here is that...
Highlighting:
ü This is particularly important because...
ü I can't stress enough that...
ü It should be pointed out that...
ü I would like to draw your attention to...
Giving examples:
ü For instance...
ü For example...
ü Such as...
ü Like...
ü A case in point is...
Inviting questions and feedback from the audience:
ü Are there any questions so far?
ü Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
ü I welcome questions if at any point you don't understand something.
ü If you have any questions about this, please/do ask.
Asking rhetorical questions (questions that the audiences are not expected to answer):
ü Some of you may be wondering how can this be done?
ü Am I right in thinking that...?
ü So, just how can this be achieved?
ü You may be wondering how long will this take?
Drawing conclusions:
ü This means that...
ü Consequently...
ü As a result...
ü Therefore...
Closing your talk:
ü I would just like to finish by saying...
ü To finishI would just like to remind you...
ü In conclusion, thank you...
ü Do you have any questions?
X. Choose one of the presentation situations below. Prepare a short presentation and get ready to answer the students' questions about your product and services.
Ø Your company is developing a small car aimed at women.
Audience: a group of car dealers.
Ø Your bank wishes to encourage young people to save money.
Audience: a group of students.
XI. How to say nothing.
Here are some phrases that can be useful when avoiding answering questions.
ü I'm afraid I can't comment at the moment.
ü A statement will be issued shortly.
ü I'm sorry, butI can't comment at this stage.
ü Thank you for your interest but I can't tell you anything before the statement is issued.
ü That's confidential. I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to tell you.
ü That's not really my field. But I can put you in touch with someone in my organization who is working on...
ü Well, I think that goes beyond the scope of today's presentation.
ü Today I wanted to concentrate on.., not to go into particular case studies in...
ü I'm afraid we've run out of time. But if you'd like to come and discuss that with me now, I'll try and give you an answer.
a) After the presentation you are asked questions, that you can't answer. Try to be polite, but try to say noting important.
1.In what ways do you think ________is going to change the way your management consultants work in the future?
2. What new technologies are you going to introduce?
3. What's the average salary for your consultants?
4. I don't know if you have time to answer this, but can you tell me how I can apply to work for __________ ?
5. You say that ____________have enormously increased profits for some companies. Can you give one or two examples of this?
6. Is ______________going to expand in the future? etc.
B) Meeting the press.
Students: Try to think of some tricky questions that you could ask after the presentation.
Student A: be polite and try to avoid answering them.
XII. Steps towards a successful presentation. Make up a dialogue:
Student A (PR executive): is preparing a first-time presentation and asks the training officer for advice.
Student В (Training officer): consult the PR executive on the presentation.
Remember that thinking about the audience is the key to success. So begin by defining who these people are and what they expect. Use the following questions and statements:
ü What kind of language do these people use?
ü Why were you invited to make this presentation?
ü Can people hear you?
ü How should you look at the audience?
ü Should you use notes?
ü Are they friends, colleagues, customers or total strangers?
ü What work-related problems do these people have?
ü Does the audience appreciate humour?
ü Should you show any visual aids?
ü How long should the presentation be?
Step 1. Define who these people are. Define their essential features and motivations. What work do they do? What is their level of education? What kind of language do they use? What problems and opportunities might they have?
Step 2. There must be something special about your expertise that is of interest to the audience. An audience can be disappointed if the speaker ignores the reason why he or she was chosen.
Step 3. When you were invited, you were probably given a general idea.
The best thing is to take only as much time as is necessary to discuss it.
The only thing worse than being long and boring is being too short
and not fully understood.
Step 4. Your knowledge of their problems is probably why you were invited to speak. They expect new insights, a different point of view, and ideas that they can take away and use so that they feel their time was well spent listening to you.
Step 5. If your audience is from a particular industry, what terminology does it understand best? The audience dictates your choice of words, but remember, you should always make your language clear and concise, especially if the language is not your mother tongue.
Step 6. What is funny in one culture may not be in another. The subject of your presentation is probably serious and, for some people, humour may be out of place. A light touch here and there is all right but humour cannot replace good ideas.
Step 7. Use visual aids if they make your speech easier to understand.
But make them clear and simple. Don't laboriously read out aloud what is written on the screen, on the board etc. Make sure that everyone can see it, even from the back of the room.
Step 8. Speak loudly enough to make your voice carry to the furthest listener. No one wants to listen to someone who mumbles and who does not speak with conviction.
Step 9. Make direct eye contact. Try to convince your audience you are talking to them personally. It also makes you feel that you have made contact with them as individuals.
Step 10. Make an outline, perhaps on small cards, and consult them as you speak. This forces you to organize your presentation in a logical, coherent way and not wander off the point.