UNIT 2: Presentations

Key Answers: Eman Luqman Amin

Answer input: Mohammed Ahmed AbdulRahim

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 Part One: Planning and Starting a Presentation

The body of your

Introduce your presentation
topic
Greet your audience
and introduce yourself

Questions Conclusion

In a presentation, you communicate with an audience on a specific topic. This can take the
form of a demonstration, a lecture or a speech meant to inform, persuade, motivate or
present an idea or product.

WARM-UP ACTIVITY
Discuss with a peer:
- Have you ever given a presentation?
- What was it about?
- Look at the above diagram and explain to your peer what is the most difficult part of
doing a presentation?

LISTENING
Watch the video about “How to give presentations”. Identify which elements below are
do’s or don’ts during a presentation:

Elements Do’s / Don’ts

Carry a lot of items when you want to present. Don´t

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Dress formally and be professional. do
Make sure that everyone can hear you. do
Stand with your back to the audience. Don´t
Keep slides short and clear. do
Be aware of your body language and always
smileat your audience. Do

Answer phone calls during the presentation. Don´t

Maintain eye contact with your audience. do
Read from the screen. Don´t

VOCABULARY
Match the following phrases with the corresponding part of a presentation.

Parts of a Presentation Phrases

1. Greeting the audience 5 Let me sum up my main points …..

2. Introducing yourself 4 I’d like to illustrate this point by showing you…

3. Introducing your topic 2 First, let me introduce myself. I am [name] from

[company].

4. The body of the presentation 1 Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone.

5. Conclusion 6 Thank you for your attention. Now I am happy to

answer any questions you might have.

6. Questions 3 Let me start by giving you some background

information.

VOCABULARY
A. Fill in the missing blanks from the words or phrases
in the box below for an effective presentation structure:

Timing/ Sequencing/ Conclusion/ Handouts/ Introduction

1. Phrases for the Introduction

Good morning/afternoon everyone and welcome to my presentation. First of all, let me
thank you all for coming here today.
Let me start by saying a few words about my own background.
As you can see on the screen, the title of my presentation is ......

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 This morning/ afternoon I’m going to take a look at the recent developments in.....

2. Phrase about ______ Timing_______

It will take about X minutes to cover these issues.

3. Phrases about Handout

Does everybody have a handout / copy of my report?
I’ll be handing out copies of the slides at the end of my talk.
I can email the PowerPoint presentation to anyone who would like it.
Don’t worry about taking notes, I’ve put all the relevant statistics on a handout for you.

B. Write some useful expressions or phrases for (Questions/ Sequencing/ Highlighting

Information/ Conclusion)
e.g.: Phrases for question:
If you have any questions, feel free to ask (during/ at the end) of the presentation.

RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Homework: do some research on your presentation topic. Find some ideas and
information to start building the body of your presentation. Bring your title to class
and share them with your classmates:

Examples:
• E-learning vs classroom learning.
• 80s parenting vs current parenting.
Or create your own topic.

READING
Read the following text. Identify any words that you do not know; look up their
definition in a dictionary. Then look at the steps for creating a presentation;
throughout this unit you will complete each step as you prepare your own
presentation.

10 Step process for delivering your presentation

A presentation is not simply a speech to a large gathering, or even to a small one. Nor is it
just selling an idea to a colleague. It is a mixture of all three. The distinction is worth making
because many people in business treat presentations either too formally or too informally.

1. Identify Your Objective

2. Know Your Audience
3. Introduce Yourself & Your Topic
4. Get the Audience’s Attention
5. Give Them the Structure of Your Presentation
6. Convey Benefits

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7. Reinforce Your Position
8. Connect Emotionally with Your Audience
9. Concluding
10. Questions and Answers

1. Identify Your Objective

The first step in preparing a presentation is to identify the goal that you want to achieve
through your presentation. Think about how you want your audience to think, feel and/or
behave in a new way. Do you aim to create more awareness about you a specific situation
or problem? Do you want to persuade them to think differently about an issue? Do you
want to inspire them to take a particular action?

· What is the goal of your presentation? Write down the objective of your presentation in
one sentence:

2. Know Your Audience

How you craft your message
will depend on the goal of
your presentation. Effective
and persuasive
communication addresses
the audience's needs, values
and desires. Audiences
respond better to persuasive
communication when they
feel the person speaking is
similar to them in some way,
whether it is in age,
occupation or socio-economic
status. If you address what is
important to your audience,
they will see you as someone who is similar to them. Therefore, they should be more
receptive to your message, too.

·Think about some of the differences/ similarities between you and your audience (i.e. your
classmates). Write them down here:

______________________________________________________________________

· Based on the differences/ similarities, what types of problems, stories, examples, facts
and figures, etc. would they find interesting/convincing?
______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

3. Introduce Yourself and Your Topic

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In your introduction you present your listeners – whether they are two people or 20 people –
with the main theme, tone and style of your presentation. You tell them what to expect –
“This is going to be about higher education, the changing needs of industry and some new
initiatives to bring the two closer together.”
It may take two words; it may take several statements. Generally, the shorter, and the
simpler, the better.

4. Get the Audience's Attention

Before you can persuade an audience, you must first grab their attention and demonstrate
why it is worth their time to listen to your idea or suggestion. Start with an anecdote that
illustrates the point you are trying to make or with a surprising fact that tells them why what
you have to say is important. For example, if you are trying to persuade a company
management to adopt a no-smoking policy, begin with a statistic regarding how many sick
days smokers take compared to non-smokers.

· Write down a statistic, example, anecdote, problem, etc. that you can use to grab your
audience’s attention (look at step 3 again for help):

_____________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

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 Part Two: Organising and Persuading

WARM-UP ACTIVITY

Work in groups and discuss the following questions:

- What kind of language do you think you should use for different types of
presentations?
- When should you use formal language and when can it be informal?

READING
Now continue preparations for your presentation.

5. Give Them the Structure of Your Presentation

Give your audience a preview (a road map) of the journey that you are about to take them
on: “I am going to talk about a new concept in degree courses. First I shall describe the
status quo. Then I shall explain why change is necessary. Next we will look at the proposed
new initiatives in some detail and finally I shall round up by saying what action I think all of
you might want to take, to speed up implementation. I suspect – I hope – that there will be
some interesting surprises for you along the way.”
In order to give your listeners a preview, you need to plan well. Make an outline of the order
in which you will present your ideas. Look at the sample outline in the appendix at the end of
this unit.

Use the information from (Part I, Reading Section) to complete the introduction in the
outline below:

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I. Introduction

II. Body (fill in as relevant and necessary for your topic)

A. Main idea 1
1. Supporting idea
2. Supporting idea
3. Supporting idea
B. Main idea 2
1. Supporting idea
2. Supporting idea
3. Supporting idea

VOCABULARY

Side-note: Now that you have decided on the structure,

think about how you will guide your listeners along the
way. Keep your listeners on board by giving them
signals when you are moving to a new topic or piece of
information.

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 Match the following presentation stages (A) with expressions (B)

The different stages of a presentation (A) Expressions (B)

C&G 1 Giving examples A. Thisgraph/chart illustrates..5

B. I would like to start with...4

F&I 2 Referring to previous information C. I would like to share an example of

this with...1

D. This leads me to mynext point...3

D&J 3 Moving from topic to topic
E. To begin, I would like to share with
you...4
F. As I mentioned in the introduction...2
B&E 4 Starting a topic G. A good/bad example of this is...1
H. I would like to bring your attention to
this chart/graph...5
A&H5 Introducing numbers, graphs, or I. As you may remember, I shared...2
charts
J. I will move on to my next point which
is...3

WRITING
Now look at your outline again. Identify expressions (see above activity) that you can
use to introduce each idea, anecdote, example, number, graph chart, etc. in your
presentation. Add them to your outline.

SPEAKING
Work in pairs. Explain to your peer the overall structure of your presentation. Use the
connectors of sequence to tell your peer in which order you will include our main
ideas.

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On your outline, write down the connectors
of sequence that you will use to guide your
listeners through your presentation.

VOCABULARY
Fill in the missing blanks from the words or phrases in the box below for an effective
presentation structure.

Sequencing/ Introduction/ Conclusion/ Handouts/ Structure

1. Presentation ___ Structure___

In my presentation I will focus on three major
issues.
This presentation is structured as follows....
The subject can be looked at under the following
headings.....
We can break this area down into the following
fields....

2. Sequencing phrases

My first point concerns...

First of all, I would like to give you an overview of....
Next, I will focus on......and then we will consider....
Then I will go on to highlight what I see as the main points of....
Finally, I would like to raise briefly the issue of....

Side-note
Rules to keep in mind not to get derailed
You have given them a map, stick to the route you promised.
• Don’t fall into the trap of saying too much.
• Tell them only what they need to know about the subject.
• Too many facts, too many deviations, too many ideas, will detract from your main
messages.
• Present the points clearly, recapping on each as you progress along the route and relating
one to the next by making links.

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LISTENING
Watch the video about “Organizing the Body of Your Presentation”, and Discuss the
questions with a peer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDTXW36b51o&ab_channel=SpeakConfidentEnglish

1. What are the rules for presenting a presentation?

2. What do each of the rules mean to you? Explain.
3. Can you change the order of the rules? Why or why not?
4. Match each nonverbal communication skill below with its rule.

Side-note: Nonverbal (body language) communication skills: shared cues between people –
goes hand-in-hand with public speaking. Nonverbal signals can increase trust, clarity, and
can make your presentation more interesting if used properly.

VOCABULARY
Match the following nonverbal communication skills with their explanations on the right:
Skill Explanations
A. Posture C Use hand gestures to emphasize your words. Keep the
audience’s attention by varying your gestures, incorporating your head,
arms and hands. Use positive gestures to sway your audience. When
using visual
aids, point and look at the relevant data. The audience will automatically
follow your hands and eyes.
B. Facial E Move around the presentation space, your speech will be more
expression dynamic. Use movement to illustrate transitions from one subject or key
point to another. Stepping towards the audience creates a positive
feeling, use this technique when you want to encourage or persuade
your audience.
C. Gestures B A simple smile will make your audience feel more comfortable
and at ease.
D. Eye contact F Relaxed and deep breaths ensure that your voice holds power and
can project. Use slow and measured breathing to pace your speech,
pause to emphasize key points.
E. Movement D Moving from face to face, making eye contact while speaking
ensures that the audience is engaged. When answering an audience
member’s question maintain eye contact, this conveys sincerity and
credibility.
F. Breathing A Keep a good posture, stand straight with shoulders back, relaxed
and feet shoulder width apart. Do not cross your arm, put your hands in
your pocket. Face the audience as much as possible and keep your
body open.

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HOMEWORK
Practice your presentation by filming
yourself or watching yourself in the
mirror. Try to identify any rules that
you break and make necessary
changes.

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 Part Three: Persuasion

Persuasion is the process

whereby we try to change
someone’s view, attitude
or behaviour toward some
person, thing or idea. To
persuade someone, we
use words (written or
spoken), as well as visual
aids to share a
combination of
information, ideas, facts,
feelings, or reasons.

WARM-UP ACTIVITY
Discuss with a peer:

- On a scale of 1 to 10 (1=not persuasive at all;10 = very persuasive), how persuasive

are you?
- Share an example of how you were able to persuade someone.
- What are the ways that you use to persuade others?

READING AND WRITING

Now continue preparations for your presentation:

6. Convey Benefits

It is easier to persuade an audience when you can show them how your proposal benefits
them. If you are asking your staff to work overtime during a busy season, describe how the
extra money generated will fund additional employees’ physical improvements to the
workplace. If you are trying to convince your supervisor to let you work from home part-
time, mention studies illustrating that employees are more productive when allowed to
telecommute. If you are introducing an idea to a client, explain how using your idea will
improve the company's image and attract more customers.

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· List 3 benefits that you can use to persuade your audience:

1. _
2._
3.

GRAMMAR
Comparative and superlative adjectives are used to describe the amount or quality of
something in comparison to a group of things. They are used in negotiation to persuade the
other side efficiently. They can be used to illustrate to your listeners how your benefits
compare to those proposed by others.

Write the proper comparative or superlative adjectives in the following sentences:

1. The quality of our product is the best (good) available in the market.
2. The campaign that launched by our company is more interesting (interesting)
thanthe previous ones.
3. The speed of the net here is the fastest (fast) in town.
4. The ARGO companies are more stronger (strong) in competing the new trends
of business than the rest of companies.
5. The Covid-19 patient was vaccinated in the most expensive (expensive)
hospital inErbil.

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VOCABULARY
Fill in the missing blanks from the words or phrases in the box below for an effective
presentation structure:

Highlighting Information / Structure / Conclusion / Handouts

1. Highlighting

I would like to put the situation into perspective.

I would like to discuss in more depth the implications of....
I would like to make more detailed recommendations regarding....
I would like you to think about the significance of this figure here.

2. Conclusion

I would like to sum up my speech about.......

This brings me to the end of my presentation. To summarize my main points....!

READING AND WRITING

Now continue preparations for your
presentation:

7. Reinforce your Position

Use vivid language and compelling

evidence. Persuasive people use
examples, stories, metaphors and
analogies to make their positions come
alive. Vivid word pictures lend a
compelling and tangible quality to the persuader’s point of view.

· What type of language is appropriate for your presentation? Formal or informal? (Think
about the audience)

· Write down 2 examples, stories, metaphors or analogies that will help you to persuade
your audience. Make sure that they are appropriate for your audience.

1. _________________

2.

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8. Connect emotionally with your audience
Although we like to think decision-makers use reason to make their decisions, we will always
find emotions at play if we scratch below the surface. Good persuaders are aware of the
primacy of emotions and are responsive to them in two important ways. Firstly, they show
their own emotional commitment to the position they are advocating (without overdoing it,
which would be counter-productive). Secondly, they have a strong and accurate sense of
their audience’s emotional state, and they adjust their tone and the intensity of their
arguments accordingly.
· Which emotions can you use to appeal to your audience in your presentation? Fear, love,
humour, desire for…, etc.?

9. Concluding
End your presentation by highlighting the
main ideas once more and repeating key
propositions. Remind the audience why the
subject is important and relevant and
remind them of any action you are
expecting them to take.
At this point, anticipate any negatives that
may be in the minds of the audience. For
example: “Some of you may not be
prepared to change your work practice in
the way I have described. But remember, it
will be essential to the overall success of
the scheme. It will not work without your active support.”

The final step in the persuasion process, is to summarize and highlight the main points of
your argument.
• Speak: Summarize your presentation for a peer in 3 to 5 sentences.

• Write a short paragraph that summarizes and concludes your presentation.

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 Part Four: Dealing with Questions

The questions at the end of a presentation

can be terrifying for many speakers as they
cannot be controlled and are hard to
prepare for. However, questions form an
important part of the presentation for the
whole audience; they allow for clarification
and association of learning.

WARM-UP ACTIVITY
Discuss with a peer:

- On a scale of 1 to 10 (1=not fear at all; 10 = terrified), how would you rate yourself on
receiving questions at the end of your presentation?
- What are the advantages of asking questions at the end of a presentation?

Here you find the final step in the 10 step process for delivering a presentation.

10. Questions and Answers

Welcome questions, listen, and read between the lines. Questions often reveal the extent to
which people did not understand or hear messages you thought you had delivered very
clearly. Do not use question time to deliver another lecture. Give as many people an
opportunity to ask their questions.
Complete the activities below to understand how to deal with questions and answers at the
end of a presentation.

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MATCHING ACTIVITY
Look at the answers you can give when taking
questions. Match the descriptions in list A with the
answers in list B.

List A (Descriptions) List B (Answers)

1. Another way to say that you don't have 2 Does that answer your question?
the information/details with you.
2. A polite phrase to confirm if your 1 I don’t have it to hand.

answer is good for the questioner.

3 That is a good question.
3. A phrase that compliments the question
that has been asked. 5 That is an interesting point.
4. A formal/polite way of saying 'I will send
it to you'. 6 I didn’t quite catch that.
5. A phrase that compliments a comment
or suggestion that has been presented. 4 I would be pleased to forward it to you.
6. Another way to say that 'I didn't hear
what you said'.

LISTENING
Check that you understand the meanings of the following words before watching the
video. Write the meaning of each word, you can use a dictionary to help you:

Maintain:
Interrupt:

?
Benefit:
Restate:
Verify:
Satisfaction:

Read and answers the questions below.

Watch the video about questions and answers at the end of presentations. Compare
your answers with a peer.

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 1. Why is it important to ask questions at the end of the presentation?

2. Can you answer questions if they are asked in the middle of a presentation?

3. According to the speaker, what is ‘active listening’?

4. What could be done if you are asked a question in a large room?

?
5. Can a presenter ask the audience for clarifications? What are some expressions
that can be used?

READING

Read the passage below and fill the blanks with the correct adjectives in the box. Check
the meanings of the words in your dictionary.

considerable, significant, particular, concise, additional

PRESENTATION Q & A TIPS

For some presentations, the question and answer session is the

most significant element. It gives audience members an
opportunity
to have the speaker address issues of ……… particular ……….
concern to them. It also shows listeners how well the speaker can
formulate a spontaneous response.

PREPARATION

Preparation is crucial to a successful Q & A session. In most cases, you will give your best
answer to a question when you have anticipated the question and given .........considerable...
thought to your response.
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In fact, the more prepared you are, the more spontaneous you can be. When you really know
your subject and have thought about the questions people may ask you, you can respond more
quickly and confidently.

LISTENING AND ANSWERING

When someone asks a question, it is critical to listen carefully to what is being asked so that
you can respond specifically. Before you give an answer, make sure all of your listeners have
heard the question; repeat the question if necessary. If you need clarification of a question,
don’t hesitate to ask for it. If you don’t know the answer, simply say so, and perhaps offer to e-
mail or call the questioner later with additional information.

Many speakers give inappropriately long answers to questions, perhaps out of a well-
intentioned but misguided desire to please the questioners. When giving an answer, however,
you should consider not only the questioner but also the rest of the audience. In any case,
……… concise …… answers are usually the best answers.

REVIEW

Review the rubric that your teacher and peers will use to assess your presentation (see
appendix 2). Now complete and practice your presentation. Do your presentation for
your peers (either in person or as a recording).

Appendix 1
2
SAMPLE OUTLINE

Appendix 2 2
PEER REVIEW RUBRIC
Student Name: …………………............... Date: ……………………

Class: …………..

The Presenter

Very
Poor Fair Good Excellent
good
1 2 3 5
4
The presenter delivered the material in a clear
and structured manner.
The presenter was knowledgeable about the
topic and any related issues.
The presenter maintained my interest during
the entire presentation.
The presenter answered questions effectively
The presenter used non-verbal communicative
skills effectively which include:
- body language (eye- contact, facial
expression, gesture language)
- speaking skills: (self-confidence, clear
articulation, proper tone, steady rate,
good posture, and enthusiasm).

The presentation

Very
Poor Fair Good Excellent
good
1 2 3 5
4
The presentation was concise and informative.
The outline of the presentation was effective.
The presentation contained practical examples
and useful techniques that can be applied to
current work.
The slides were well designed and visual aids
were used effectively.

Additional Comments:

Total Marks:………………………………