PRESENTATION SKILL

II
LANGUAGE
 Simplicity and Clarity
• Use short words and short sentences.
• Do not use jargon, unless you are certain that
your audience understands it.
• In general, talk about concrete facts rather
than abstract ideas.
• Use active verbs instead of passive verbs.
– Toyota sold two million cars last year.
– Two million cars were sold by Toyota last year.

PRESENTATION SKILL II (LANGUAGE)

 Vivid Verbs
• Verbs can be the call to action that grab your
audience’s attention. Find distinctive verbs to
say what you mean in a memorable way.
– Instead of ‘make’ consider ‘craft’ or ‘build’ or
‘create’
– Replace ‘change’ with ‘alter’ or ‘upgrade’ or
‘transform’ or ‘adapt’
– Avoid dry verb clauses like ‘to be’ ‘to do’ ‘to have’
‘to see’ or ‘there is’ and ‘there are’

PRESENTATION SKILL II (LANGUAGE)

 Appropriate Adjectives
• Use adjectives and adverbs only when
necessary; And when you do use them, find
adjectives that will engage your audience.
– Swap out  ‘better’ or ‘unique’ for specifics that
show (not tell) your audience how you are
different.
– Omit generic adjectives like ‘great’ and ‘qualified’
and unnecessary adverbs like ‘truly’ or
‘exceptionally’

PRESENTATION SKILL II (LANGUAGE)

 Signpost Language
• To tell the listener what has just happened,
and what is going to happen next
• These ‘signposts’ make it easier for the
audience to:
– follow the structure of the presentation
– understand the speaker more easily
– get an idea of the length and content of the
presentation.

PRESENTATION SKILL II (LANGUAGE)

Keep your presentation text logical and concise,
use concrete examples, and be sure to connect
the dots for your audience.

PRESENTATION SKILL II (LANGUAGE)