Business English BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS Prof.

GHALMAT

BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS
What is an oral presentation?
Oral presentations, also known as public speaking or simply presentations, Oral
presentations are one of the most common assignments in college courses. Scholars,
professionals, and students in all fields desire to disseminate the new knowledge they
produce, and this is often accomplished by delivering oral presentations in class, at
conferences, in public lectures, or in company meetings. Therefore, learning to deliver
effective presentations is a necessary skill to master both for college and further
endeavours.
Oral presentations consist of an individual or group verbally addressing an audience on a
particular topic. The aim of this is to educate, inform, entertain or present an argument. Oral
presentations are seen within workplaces, classrooms and even at social events such as
weddings. An oral presentation at university assesses the presenter’s ability to
communicate relevant information effectively in an interesting and engaging manner.
Oral presentations typically involve three important steps:
1) planning, 2) practicing, 3) presenting.

Planning your oral presentation

Set objectives
Your presentation may have more than one purpose;
however, it must have at least one purpose that you
are aware of. Before beginning to plan your
presentation, answer the following questions:

Why am I speaking?
What’s the “take-home” message?
How should my audience feel when I am
done?
What do I want to achieve?
▪ Information dissemination
▪ Motivation
▪ Persuasion
How will I know whether I have been
successful or not?

Understand your Topic

You may have a choice of topic, or it may be dictated by your course’s requirements.
▪ Brainstorm. Map out everything you already know about the topic. Write out any
ideas you can use to interact with the audience, or engage them, and jot down what
questions, explanations and information you want the audience to be provided with.
▪ Do the research. Find relevant material, take notes, and remember to keep the
references you used.
▪ Organise your ideas. Create a logical presentation so the information flows well.
▪ Pay attention to the language you are using. Presentations should be delivered in
spoken or conversational language rather than written language. Spoken language
is much easier for your audience to follow.

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Business English BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS Prof. GHALMAT

Consider your audience

Keep a picture of your audience in mind and tailor your presentation accordingly.
Remember that different types of presentations suit different audiences. Before planning
your presentation, ask yourself the following questions about your audience:

What is their demographic profile? (Age, sex, occupation, education level, socio-
economic status, etc.)
Why are they here? (self-improvement, coursework, optional or mandatary training,
entertainment, desperation, etc.)
What will your audience expect? For example:
▪ An undergraduate discussion group may expect an opportunity to share and
clarify ideas;
▪ Conference participants will expect evidence of solid research;
▪ Workshop participants may expect practical advice;
How does your audience …
▪ Already know about your topic?
▪ Need to know about your topic?
▪ Want to know about your topic?

Introduction: (tell them what you are going to tell them)

The beginning of your speech needs an attention-grabber to get your audience interested
right away. Choose your attention-grabbing device based on what works best for your topic.
Your entire introduction should only be around 10 to 15 percent of your total speech, so be
sure to keep this section short. Here are some devices that you could try:

Attention-grabbing:
Subject Statement: to the point, but not the most interesting choice.
Audience Reference: highlights something common to the audience that will make them
interested in the topic.
Quotation: wise words of another person. You can find quotations online that cover just about
any topic.
Current Event: refer to a current event in the news that demonstrates the relevance of your
topic to the audience.
Anecdote, Parable or Fable: an anecdote is a brief account or story of an interesting or
humorous event, while a parable or fable is a symbolic tale designed to teach a life lesson.
Surprising Statement: A strange fact or statistic related to your topic that startles your
audience.
Question: you could ask either a question that asks for a response from your audience, or a
rhetorical question, which does not need a response but is designed to get them thinking
about the topic.
Humour: a joke or humorous quotation can work well, but to use humour you need to be
sure that your audience will find the comment funny. You run the risk of insulting members
of the audience, or leaving them puzzled if they don’t get the joke, so test it out on someone
first!
Personal Reference: refer to a story about yourself that is relevant to the topic.

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Business English BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS Prof. GHALMAT

After the attention-getter comes the rest of your introduction. It needs to do the following:
▪ Capture the audience’s interest
▪ State the purpose of your speech
▪ Establish credibility
▪ Give the audience a reason to listen
▪ Give a brief outline of the major points you will cover in your presentation
▪ Signpost the main ideas

Body: (Tell Them)

Divide the body of your talk into sub-topics
Give each sub-topic a short introduction, conclusion, and transition into the next sub-topic
Explain how each sub-topic fits into your overall agenda
Vary the pace: for example, have question periods at the end of each sub-topic
Whether you organise by chronology, priority, or theme, the body of your talk must proceed
logically with the main points brought out one by one, with concise and relevant supportive
evidence, statistics or examples and verbal ‘signposting’ your progress through your
argument or report.
You could present each important idea or point several times in different ways, because a
listening audience needs several opportunities to fully absorb meaning.
You need to state clearly the links between your ideas and always signal when the next point
is coming. If you think something is particularly important, say so and why.

Conclusion: (Tell them what you told them)

Summarize your main points and what has been learned or shown, state the main points of
the speech, give essential message to retain using a quote, a comparison or an example.
Raise implications inherent in the findings and offer creative recommendations.
Have a memorable conclusion if possible and appropriate: a call for action or restatement of
benefits for example.
Invite the audience to ask questions, make comments or open a discussion

Practicing your Oral Presentation

Practicing your presentation is essential. It is at this stage of the process that you figure out word and
phrase emphasis and the timing of your sections and overall presentation.

Record your presentation and review it in order to

know how you sound and appear to your audience. You may
notice that you are pausing awkwardly, talking too fast, or
using distracting gestures.

Consider using different coloured highlighters to

remind yourself when to pause, when to emphasize a
particular point, when you have a slide change on your
PowerPoint, etc.

Practice in front of peers and elicit feedback. Ask your

peers to comment on your delivery and content. What
aspects of your delivery work well to convey the information
and argument of the presentation, and what aspects of your
delivery are not working as well as they could? Also, are there moments in your presentation
in which your peers become confused, bored, or distracted?

Remember that the more you practice, the more comfortable you will become with the
material. As a result of repeated practice, you will appear far more polished and professional
while delivering your presentation

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Business English BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS Prof. GHALMAT

Presenting an Oral Presentation

Oral presentations are real-time performances. In contrast to written documents, they thus require
that you handle three components simultaneously: what you say (verbal delivery), how you say it
(vocal delivery), and everything that you let your audience see (visual deliver). While keeping all
component under control, remain yourself, show interest in your topic and in the people in front of
you. Establish a genuine relationship: speak to them, not at them.

Speak extemporaneously: memorise your outline, but do not write out and memorize your
wording.
Rehearse your presentation until you can express your ideas fluently.
Maintain eye contact. Only look at notes or slides very briefly. Sweep the room with your
gaze, pausing briefly on various people.
Pause after making a particular statement, or while the audience is examining a new slide.
Be aware of your body posture.
Be enthusiastic about your topic.
Smile.
Slow down your speech. We naturally talk faster when we are nervous. Include pauses to
allow your listeners to keep up and time for you to think ahead.
Use gestures to emphasize points and move about the space if possible
Calibrate the volume of your voice so that people in the back of the room can hear you.
Avoid fillers, such as “Ah, uh, I mean, like, okay, um….” Whenever you have to search for
words, simple keep silent.
Dress appropriately

Audience interaction and engagement

It is good practice to engage the audience and/or to have them interact during your
presentation. Examples of ways to ensure audience interaction are:
▪ Asking questions, testing the audience, providing a quiz.
▪ Allowing the audience to ask questions.
▪ Providing handouts – It’s essential to give your handout to
listeners at the end of your presentation, so that they listen to you
before they read it!
▪ Asking someone to volunteer if there are demonstrations.
▪ As a rule, be honest and helpful. Dare to say things the way they
are.
▪ When you are under attack, remain calm and professional:
- Quiet the atmosphere: mark a pause before you answer
- Acknowledge the questioner’s concern (emotional level)
- Disagree with the questioner’s opinion (intellectual level)

Team Presentation
In order to deliver a seamless performance, team presentations require careful planning.
Follow these tips:
▪ Outline the presentation together so that everyone has input and agrees to the flow
of topics.
▪ Divide the presentation into manageable sections and assign each to one team
member, with each person responsible for developing their visuals and speaking
notes. Naturally, if some team members have expertise in particular topics, make
sure they are assigned those parts of the presentation.
▪ If one team member is a particularly dynamic speaker, consider having this person
present first in order to launch the presentation with a good energy level.

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Business English BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS Prof. GHALMAT

▪ If you are using presentation software, finalize a template before anyone starts and
make sure everyone uses it so that all the slides have a consistent look.
▪ Merge all the slides into a single slide deck, rather than trying to switch from one file
to the next during the presentation. Assign one person to edit and finalize the entire
slide deck to ensure consistency and eliminate any overlaps.
▪ If you will be giving the presentation online, plan how you will share control of the
presentation slides. Zoom, for example, lets you pass control from speaker to speaker
so that each presenter can control their own slides.

Importantly, schedule even more development and rehearsal time than you would with an
individual presentation. Presentations almost always take longer to develop than you might
think, and with the extra coordination they require, team presentations can take
considerable time to get right. To be safe, schedule double the amount of development and
practice time than you first think you’ll need.

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