Presentation

eful to put your points on individual index cards to help you during the presentation. The index card can also be used for writing the pronounciation of a word you have difficulty saying.
Introducing the presentation
Get someone else to introduce you to the audience. This gives you credibility as a speaker and means that you don’t have to waste time telling people who you are and why you are there.
After you are introduced to the audience, you can start your presentation. What you say at the beginning is crucial - if you don’t interest your audience at this stage, it is difficult to keep them listening to you. Think of something to say that means something importance to the audience. It could be a problem that you know how to solve, or fact or statistic that they need to know. This opening statement or question shouldn’t take something to think about.
Overviews
After you give your opening statement, you should give a brief overview of your presentation. This includes what your presentation is about and what you are going to cover, how long you will take and how you are going to handle questions.
For example, a presentation to sales staff could start like this:
Welcome
“Hello everyone”
Opening statement
“As you all know, this company is losing its market share. But we are being asked to increase sales by 20%. How can we possibly increase sales in a shrinking market?”
Overview
“Today I am going to talk to you about how we can do this. My presentation will be in three parts. Firstly I am going to look at the market and the background. Then I am going to talk to you about our new products and how they fit in. Finally, I’m going to examine some selling strategies that will help us increase our sales by 20%.”
“The presentation will probably take around 20 minutes. There will be time for questions at the end of my talk”
Useful language for overviews
“My presentation is in four parts.”
“My presentation is divided into three main sections.”
“Firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally …”
“I’m going to …..
take a look at …
talk about …
examine …
tell you something about the background …
give you some facts and figures …
fill you in on history of …
concentrate on …
limit myself to the question of …”
“Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions.”
“There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.”
“I’d be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation.”
The main body of the presentation
After you give your overview, you can begin with the presentation itself. By this time, you should be feeling more relaxed and your audience will know why they are listening to you.
During your planning stage, you will have organized your presentation into main points as well as the supporting evidence. If you have each point on an index card, it will be easy to follow your plan. For example, if you are giving a presentation to sales staff (as in the example above), remind them occasionally of the benefit of what you are saying.
Useful expression for reoffering back
“As I said at the beginning …””
“This, of course, will help you (to achieve the 20% increase).”
“As you remember, we are concerned with …”
“This ties in with my original statement …”
“This relates directly to the question I put to you before …”
Keeping your audience with you
As you go through your presentation, remember that what you are saying is new to your audience. You are clear about the structure of your talk, but they may not be. For this reason, you should let your audience know when you are moving on to a new point. You can do this by saying something like “right”, or “Ok”. You can also use some of the following expression:
“I’d like to move on to …”
“I’d like to turn to …”
“That’s all I have to say about …”
“Now I’d like to look at …”
“This lead me to my next point …”
If you are using index cards, putting the link between points at the bottom will help you remember to keep the audience with you. In addition, by glancing at your index cards you will be pausing - this will also help your audience to realize that you are moving on to something new.
Using visuals
If you are going to using visuals, be careful not put too much information on them. In general, visual should only be used to illustrate information that would otherwise take too long explain.
When you design your visuals, think about how you are going to present the information. Are you going to use to use pie charts, bar graphs or normal graphs? How much labeling do you need? The simpler you can keep them, the better. Don’t use too many words on the visual, but feel free to use colour and different fonts to get your point across.
It’s important to introduce your visual to the audience. Useful language to introduce visuals
“This graph shows you …”
“Take a look at this …”
“If you look at this, you will see …”
“I’d like you to look at this …”
“This chart illustrate the figures …”
“This graph gives you a break down of …”
When you show your visual to the audience, give them enough time to absorb the information. Pause to allow them to look at the information and then explain why the visual is important.
Useful language to say why a visual is important
“As you can see …”
“This clearly shows …”
“From this, we can understand how/why …”
“This part is particularly important …”
“This area of the chart is interesting …”
Using your voice
Don’t speak in a flat monotone - this will bore your audience. By varying your speed and tone, you will be able to keep your audience’s attention. Practise emphasizing key words and going down at the end of a sentence. Make sure you are pausing in the right place - usually in between ideas in a sentence. For example “The first strategy involves getting to know our market (pause) and finding out what they want. (pause) Customer surveys (pause) as well as staff training (pause) will help us do this.”
Don’t forget - if you speak too fast you will lose your audience!
Body language
Most presentation stand rather than sit during their presentation. Try not to stand with your hands in your pockets or with your arms crossed over your chest. Instead, find a position that feels comfortable and looks relaxed. You can experiment with a mirror to find a pose that suits you.
Do you have irritating gestures? Fiddling with jewellery or your hair can put off your audience. If possible, practise your presentation on video so that you can eliminate any annoying gestures.
Keep eye contact with the audience as you speak. If possible, look at everyone rather than staring at just one person. If you find it difficult to look people in the eyes, concentrate on a spot just above their eyes - it will seem to people that you are looking at them rather than staring.
Summarising
At the end of your presentation, you should summarise your talk and remind the audience what you have told them.
Useful summarizing language
“That brings me to the end of my presentation. I’ve talked about …”
“Well, that’s about it for now. We’ve covered …”
“So, that was our marketing strategy. In brief, we …”
“To summarise, I …”
Relate the end of your presentation to your opening statement.
Relating language
“So I hope that you’re a little clearer on how we can archive sales growth of 20% ...”
“To return to the original question, we can archive …”
“So just to round the talk off, I want to go back to the beginning when I asked you …”
“This in fact, answers my first question. We can achieve sales by …”
Handling questions
Thank the audience for their attention and invite questions.
“Thank you for listening - and now if there are any questions, I would be pleased to answer them.”
“That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention. I’d be glad to answer any questions you might have.”
When you receive a question, thank the person who asked it and then re-word it. By re-wording a question you can check that you have understood the question and you can give yourself some time to think of an answer. By asking the question again you also make sure that other people in the audience understand the question.
“Thank you. So you would like further clarification on our strategy?.”
“That’s an interesting question. How are we going to get voluntary redundancy?”
“Thank you for asking. What is our plan for next year?”
“Does this answer your question?”
“Do you follow what I am saying?”
“I hope this explans the situation for you.”
“I hope this was what you wanted to hear!”
If you don’t know the answer to a question, say you don’t know. It’s better to admit to not knowing something than to guess and maybe get it wrong. You can say something like:
“That’s an interesting question. I don’t actually know off the top of my head, but I’ll try to get back to you latter with an answer.”
“I’m afraid I’m unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps I can get back to you later.”
“Good question. I really don’t know! What do you think?”
“That’s a very good question. However, we don’t have any figures on that, so I can’t give you an accurate answer.”
“Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to answer that.”
What can you say if things go wrong?
You think you’ve lost your audience? Rephrase what you have said.
“Let me just say that in another way.”
“Perhaps I can rephrase that.”
“Put another way, this means …”
“What I mean to say is …”
Forgot where you were in your presentation?
Look at your index card to see what your point was. Did you make your point? If so, make your link to the next point.
Can’t remember the word?
If it’s a difficult word for you - one that you often forget, or one that you have difficult pronouncing, you should write it on your index card. Pause briefly, look down at your index card and say the word.
If you are getting lost in a sentence and can’t remember the word. Tell your audience you are going back to the beginning.
“What I mean to say is …”
“Essentially …”
“Basically …”
Gook luck