Presentation skills – Guidelines

   

   Stating your purpose:

     + OK, let´s get started. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming. I´m………….

   

     + This morning I´m going to be :

              talking to you about | showing you how | taking a look at | reporting  on| telling
    

              you about

   

     + ……..so, I´ll begin by:

             filling you in on | making a few observations about | outlining company policy |  

             giving you an overview of | bringing you up-to-date on

   

     + ……and then I´ll go on to:

             highlight  what I see as | put the situation into some kind of perspective |make  

             detailed recommendations regarding | discuss in more depth sth

   

   Giving information on the Question and Answer Session:

   

   Questions after the presentation:

     + I´d like to ask you to hold your questions till the end.
     + There will be time for questions after my presentation.
     + We will have at least fifteen minutes for questions during the discussion period.
     + Because of the tight time schedule, I´d like you to hold your questions till the end.
     + Since the subject matter is rather complex, I´d appreciate it if you´d save your questions
       until after the presentation.
     + In order to bring everybody to the same level of understanding, I´d like to give you a
       general overview first, and answer questions in the discussion period after my
       presentation.

   

   Questions during the presentation:

     + If you have any questions, feel free to interrupt me at any time.
     + Don´t hesitate to ask questions during my presentation.
     + Please share your questions with us as they come up; I´ll be happy to answer them right 
       away.

   

   

   Signposting – telling what comes next in a presentation

   

   +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   |           |make your next point              |     |To move on to our next point           |
   |           |----------------------------------|     |---------------------------------------|
   |           |change direction                  |     |To turn to last year´s figures         |
   |           |----------------------------------|     |---------------------------------------|
   | when      |refer to an earlier point         |     |To go back to what I said earlier      |
   |           |----------------------------------|     |---------------------------------------|
   |  you      |repeat the main points            |you  |To recap on the main figures           |
   |           |----------------------------------|     |---------------------------------------|
   | want      |give a wider perspective          |     |To expand on this a bit more           |
   |           |----------------------------------|     |---------------------------------------|
   |   to      |do a deeper analysis              |say  |To elaborate on this particular feature|
   |           |----------------------------------|     |---------------------------------------|
   |           |give the basics                   |     |To summarize the points                |
   |           |----------------------------------|     |---------------------------------------|
   |           |depart from your plan             |     |To digress from                        |
   |           |----------------------------------|     |---------------------------------------|
   |           |finish your talk                  |     |To conclude                            |
   +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

   

   vocab.

   digress from – odbočit od

   

   Commenting on visuals

   

   To highlight important information in a visual, you can use the following:

   

   +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   |            |us to look                    |at this part of the graph in more detail.       |
   |            |------------------------------+------------------------------------------------|
   |I´d         |us to focus our attention     |on one particularly important feature.          |
   |            |------------------------------+------------------------------------------------|
   |like        |you to think                  |about the significance of this figure here.     |
   |            |------------------------------+------------------------------------------------|
   |            |to point                      |out  one or two interesting details.            |
   |            |------------------------------+------------------------------------------------|
   |            |to draw your attention to     |to the upper half of the chart.                 |
   +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

   

   To conclude:

     + Thank you for your attention and if you have any questions, I´ll  be happy to answer them.

   

   You can also ask the audience to ask questions during your speech by saying:

     + If you have any questions during my talk, don´t hesitate to interrupt me/feel free to ask.

   

   To ask your colleague to carry on:

     + Now I would like to hand over to Mark.

   

   Source: Powell, M.: Presenting in English – how to give successful presentations, Thomson
   Heinle.2002.