English Presentation Skills

(Starting, Main Body, Closing)

In this unit, you will learn to:

a. Identify what makes a good presentation

b. identify the structure of an English presentation,

c. use some expressions to open a presentation,

d. use some expressions to signal the different parts in a talk

e. use some expressions to close a presentation.

A presentation is a formal talk to one or more persons that “presents” ideas or information in a clear, structured
way. All presentations have a common objective: they are given in order to inform, train, persuade or sell. The
key factors of any successful presentation are:

 the audience;
 the contents of the presentation itself;
 and the presenter.
A presentation usually consists of at least three parts. Typically there will be an introduction outlining the scope of
the presentation and providing an overview of the project. The central part, or body, goes into greater detail and
might be structured according to building sections or phases. The conclusion should sum up the scheme
emphasizing the key points and invite the audience to ask questions or take part in a discussion. The introduction is
perhaps the most important part of a presentation – it is the first impression the audience has of the presenter. The
introduction should be used to:  welcome the audience , introduce the project , outline the structure of the
presentation. The table below lists useful expressions that you can use to introduce the various parts of your
presentation.
 Most presentations consist of three parts

Beginning/ Get starting/ Introduction welcome your audience/greeting

opening part Introduce yourself/say you position as…

introduce your subject/ title

Introduce objective

Introduce the structure /outline of your presentation

Mention of the visual aids that you will use;

Mention time you will take;
Mention when you would like to answer questions;
Make a link to the first section of your presentation

Middle/ Central Part Body of the Present the subject itself

presentation
Explain the subject detailed
The central part, or body, goes into greater detail and might be structured
according to building sections or phases.

End/ Closing part Short conclusion Summarise your presentation

Give conclusion/ key points

thank your audience

invite questions

Give time to ask and answer

STAGING ON YOUR PRESENTATION AND THE SIGNPOSTING LANGUAGE

A good way to make your presentation effective, interesting and easy to follow is to use signposting
language. It is the words or phrases that people use to tell the listener or audience what just what
happened, and what is going to happen. It is used to link the parts in your talk, Here are some expressions
that you can use ;

1. OPENING STAGE
NO FUNCTIONS EXPRESSIONS
1. Greeting (a very) Good morning (to you all)
Good afternoon
Good evening Assalamualaikum, Wr.Wb.
Peace be upon you all

2. Addressing Ladies and gentlemen, Everyone,

Everybody,
Dear Colleagues,
Dear Professors, Brothers and sisters,
My dear classmate,

3. Introducing self (and  Let me introduce myself, I’m Mike Petrov

affiliation/profession/ from…
posi tion)  I'd like to start by introducing myself. My name
is...
 I am very pleased to introduce m y s e l f . M y
name is……I am a consultant engineer
from…..
4. Opening remarks It’s good to be here today
I’m glad to be here today
I’m honoured to be here today

5 Introduce your subject The subject/ topic of my presentation is…

/title
6 Stating your objective
In my presentation I would like to report on… The theme of my talk
is...
Today I'm going to talk about...
The purpose/objective/aim of this presentation is to…
My objective is to…
Today I’d like to give you an overview of…
What I would like to do today is to explain…
What I would like to do today is to illustrate.../to give you the essential
background information on.../
Today I’d like to outline.../ to have a look at...
What I want my listeners to get out of my speech is..
 5. Starting The title of my presentation is I’d like to talk today
about

My topic today is

I’d like to discuss today about

a) Starting with a Have you ever wondered why ? Did you know that
question/proble ?
m
How many people here today ever ? How would you ?

Do you ever ?

b) Starting with Would you like to hear a story/joke?

a story/joke
Let me start by telling you a story/joke.

c) Starting with facts According to the latest research Statistics show that

/opinion Did you know that ?

I’ve read somewhere the other day that

6. Planning I have divided my talk into The first point of my talk is

My second point is

2. MAIN BODY STAGE

FUNCTION SIGNPOSTING LANGUAGE

The first point I would like to address is…
Let me first raise…
Begin the body of the talk

Develop the first point For example…

This is especially important because…

Sum up the first point So, we can see that…

Introduce the second point Secondly, I’d like to turn to…

Develop the second point An important statistic in this area is…

It means that…
Sum up the second point It’s evident that…

Bring in the final point Finally, we need to look at…

Develop the final point This situation exists because…

It’s worth noting that…

Sum up the final point Thus, the result is…

Emphasising a point I’d like to stress that…

Let me repeat that…

Introducing a contrasting idea By the way…

Incidentally…

Sum up the body of the talk and remind To summarise…

listeners of the topic To review, we have found that…
What I have been saying is that…

3. CLOSING STAGE

No Function Expression

15 Signalling the end  Ok, that brings me to the end of my/presentation.

 This is the end of my talk.
 So, that's all i have to say...in this talk
 I come to the end of my
talk/presentation..
 ..

16 Summarizing  To sum up,...

  In brief, ...
 Before i stop, let me just ....
 If i can briefly summarize....
17 Concluding  To conclude, i'd like to say....
 I'd like to finish by saying....
 In conclusion....
18 Closing  Thank you.
 Thank you for your attention.
 Thank you for litening attentively
19 Inviting questions  I’d be glad to answer any questions.
 That brings me to the end of my
presentation, I’d be glad to answer any
questions.

EXERCISES

Introduction Practice

Exercise 1. Match these less formal phrases with the more formal phrases in the table:

The topic of today’s presentation is ….… I suggest that we begin now

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen In my presentation I would like to report on …..

Today I would like to …. Let me just start by introducing myself. My name is ….

It’s a pleasure to welcome you today

More formal Less formal

Hi everyone

It’s good to see you today

Ok , shall we get started ?

As know I’m Philipus Renwarin

What I want to do today is …

In my talk, I tell you abouy ..

Today I’m going to talk about..

 Exercise 2. Replace the words in bold with the words from the box:
after that * begin * I’m * realize * responsible for * sections * turn

1. I’ll start off by showing you…

2. I’ve divided my presentation into three parts
3. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Gordon Smith.
4. Then I’ll move on to the problems…
5. Professor Brown is in charge of our new Plasma Laboratory.
6. I’m aware that you’re all busy preparing for the seminar…

Exercise 3 . Read the introductions and say what is wrong with them:

 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

 .Let me introduce myself. I am here as the Head of the R&D (Research and
Development Department). My name is Professor Brown. I should say it is a
great honour to speak in front of such a distinguished audience.
 What I’d like to present to you today is the topic which engages me greatly. I
don’t think many of you know much about it.
 Wow! How many of you have come! It’s so unexpected.

Main Part Practice

Exercise 4. Complete the list of “signposting” phrases with useful phrases from the box
given below.

Let’s go back to what we were discussing earlier…

In this part of my presentation, I’d like…

Let me briefly summarize the main issues.

This brings me to the end of my second (third, etc.) section…

As I said earlier Let’s now turn to the next issue…

I’d like to sum up the main points. So much for …

As I mentioned previously… Let’s move on to the next point

This leads us to my next point… Let me give you a brief overview of…

1. Saying what is coming in the next part ..

2. Moving on to the next point

3. Indicating the end of the section

 4. Referring back to

5. Summarising a point

Exercise 5.Imagine that you are to give a presentation. Choose the correct answer on the
quiz about body language . More than one answer is possible.

1. What should you do when you feel nervous?

a. Hold a pen or cards in your hands.

b. Try to speak slowly and calmly.

c. Look at the screen. (not at the audience)

2. How should you express enthusiasm?

a. By establishing eye contact with each member of the audience.

b. By waving your arms.

c. By raising your voice and making hand or arm gestures during important points.

3. How should you stand

a. Relaxed or leaning against the wall (table).

b. Straight, but relaxed with your hands by your sides.

c. Arms crossed over your chest.

d. Back turned to the audience.

4. How should you maintain eye contact with the audience?

a. Focus on a small amount of people and look at them as often as possible.

b. Look at your notes, the screen or the floor.

c. Spread your attention around the audience, and make eye contact with each person.

5. How should you emphasise something?

a. Move forward to show that something is important.

b. Use a pen or a pointer to draw attention to important parts of the presentation.

c. Use your finger to point out important parts of the presentation.

 6. How should you speak?

a. Speak with the same, flat, monotonous voice throughout your presentation.

b. At either normal speed or slightly slower than usual.

Closing Part Practice

Exercise 6 . Choose the phrases which could be used in the final/closing part of your
talk

a. I'm here today to inform you…

b. My purpose today is to introduce you to…

c. I'd like to finish saying that…

d. I will talk for fifteen minutes.

e. I'd like to conclude by reminding you that …

f. My presentation is split into three key areas. To sum up then, …

g. There will be time for questions at the end…

h. In conclusion, may I remind you ..

i. Please feel free to interrupt me as I go along.

j. To summarize my main points …

k. I'd like to review …

l. I'm going to analyse …

m. Let me end by …

n. Let's now move on to …

o. This brings me to …

p. Finally, I'd like you to look at this graph.

q. To illustrate my point let’s look at some diagrams