Now you practice writing your own CV, covering and unsolicited letters, and a letter accepting the post.

 

                                    

MAKING PRESENTATIONS

 

‘The best way to sound like you know what you’re talking about is

to know what you’re talking about.’

Author Unknown

 

Answer the questions.

1. When and why do people give presentations? What do they usually make presentations about?
2. Have you ever had to give presentations? Were they in English or in Russian?
3. What is the most difficult thing about giving presentations?

Which of these suggestions do you agree with?

To make an effective presentation, you should:

1. find out as much as possible about your audience.

2. introduce yourself (name, position, company).

3. start with a joke.

4. outline the structure of your talk.

5. vary the tone of your voice.

6. refer to your notes as often as possible.

7. use clear visual aids.

8. summarise your main points.

 

3. A company boss is presenting his company to potential investors. The presenter does not follow the usual tips for presentations and irritates the investors. Match the tips 1 to 6 that the presenter does not follow with the audience’s reactions a) to f).

Presentation tips	Audience’s reactions
1. Find out about your audience and adapt your presentation accordingly. 2. Introduce yourself. 3. Use humour carefully. 4. Outline the structure of your talk. 5. Vary the tone of your voice. 6. Use clear visual aids.	a) This is no time for jokes. b) Is he still in his introduction or is he on to the main part? c) He’s talking to us as if we were his customers, not potential investors. d) His slides contain too much information – all those boring figures! e) Who is this guy anyway? f) I’m falling asleep. He talks in the same tone the whole time.

Study the information below about the main principles of a successful presentation.

If you want your audience to understand your message, your language must be simple and clear. Use short words and short sentences. In general, talk about concrete facts rather than abstract ideas.

 

Most presentations are divided into 3 main parts (+ questions):

1	INTRODUCTION	(Questions)
2	BODY
3	CONCLUSION
	Questions

 

 

As a general rule in communication, repetition is valuable. In presentations, there is a golden rule about repetition:

- say what you are going to say,

- say it,

- then say what you have just said.

In other words, use the three parts of your presentation to reinforce your message. In the introduction, you tell your audience what your message is going to be. In the body, you tell your audience your real message. In the conclusion, you summarize what your message was.

 

 

Introduction

The introduction is a very important - perhaps the most important - part of your presentation. This is the first impression that your audience has of you. You should use the introduction to:

- welcome your audience,

- introduce yourself,

- introduce your subject,

- outline the structure of your presentation,

- give instructions about questions.

The following table shows examples of language for each of these functions.

 

	Function	Possible language
1.	Welcoming your audience	- Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. - Good morning and welcome to (name of company, name of conference hall, hotel, etc.). - Thank you all very much for coming today. - I hope you all had a pleasant journey here today.
2.	Introducing yourself	- My name is Mark Watson and I am responsible for …. - My name is Mark Watson from (name of company), where I am responsible for …. - Let me introduce myself; my name is Mark Watson and I am responsible for ….
3.	Introducing your subject	- The purpose of today’s presentation is to …. - The purpose of my presentation today is to …. - In today’s presentation I’d like to … (show you …. / explain to you how ….) - In today’s presentation I’m hoping to … (give you an update on… / give you an overview of ….) - In today’s presentation I’m planning to …(look at …. / explain ….) - I am going to talk today about...
4.	Outlining the structure of your presentation	- In today’s presentation I’m hoping to cover three points: firstly, …, after that we will look at …, and finally I’ll…. - In today’s presentation I’d like to cover three points:… - Firstly, …, secondly …, and finally …. - To start with...later...to finish up...
5.	Giving instructions about questions	- Do feel free to interrupt me if you have any questions. - I’ll try to answer all of your questions after the presentation. - I plan to keep some time for questions after the presentation. - If you have any questions you’d like to ask, please leave them until the end, when I’ll be happy to answer them. - If there are any questions you’d like to ask, please leave them until the end, when I’ll do my best to answer them. - There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation. - I’d be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation.

 

Body

The body is the ‘real’ presentation. If the introduction was well prepared and delivered, you will now be ‘in control’. You will be relaxed and confident.

The body should be well structured, divided up logically, with plenty of carefully spaced visuals.

Remember these key points while delivering the body of your presentation:

- do not hurry

- be enthusiastic

- give time on visuals

- maintain eye contact

- modulate your voice

- look friendly

- keep to your structure

- use your notes

- signpost throughout

- remain polite when dealing with difficult questions

You may find the following phases useful:

 

Finishing one subject...	- Well, I’ve told you about... - That’s all I have to say about... - We’ve looked at... - So much for...
...and starting another	- Now we’ll move on to... - Let me turn now to... - Next... - Turning to... - I’d like now to discuss... - Let’s look now at...
Giving an example	- For example,... - A good example of this is... - As an illustration,... - To give you an example,... - To illustrate this point...

 

Language for using visuals

 

Introducing your visual to the audience	- This graph shows you… - Take a look at this… - If you look at this, you will see… - I’d like you to look at this… - This chart illustrates the figures… - This graph gives you a break down of…
Explaining why the visual is important	- As you can see… - This clearly shows … - From this, we can understand how / why… - This area of the chart is interesting….

Conclusion

Use the conclusion to:

- sum up,

- (give recommendations if appropriate),

- thank your audience,

- invite questions.

The following table shows examples of language for each of these functions.

 

	Function	Possible language
1.	Summing up	- To conclude,... - In conclusion,... - Now, to sum up... - So let me summarise what I’ve said. - Finally, may I remind you of some of the main points we’ve considered.
2.	Giving recommendations	- In conclusion, my recommendations are... - I therefore suggest/propose/recommend the following strategy.
3.	Thanking your audience	- Many thanks for your attention. - May I thank you all for being such an attentive audience. - That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention.
4.	Inviting questions	- Now I’ll try to answer any questions you may have. - Can I answer any questions? - Are there any questions? - Do you have any questions? - Are there any final questions?

 

Handling questions

It’s useful to re-word the question, as you can check that you have understood the question and you can give yourself some time to think of an answer. By asking the question again you also make sure that other people in the audience understand the question.

- Thank you. So you would like further clarification on our strategy?

- That’s an interesting question. How are we going to get voluntary redundancy?

- Thank you for asking. What is our plan for next year?

 

After you have answered your question, check that the person who asked you is happy with the answer.

- Does this answer your question?

- Do you follow what I am saying?

- I hope this explains the situation for you.

- I hope this was what you wanted to hear!

If you don’t know the answer to a question, say you don’t know. It’s better to admit to not knowing something than to guess and maybe get it wrong. You can say something like:

- That’s an interesting question. I don’t actually know off the top of my head, but I’ll try to get back to you later with an answer.

- I’m afraid I’m unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps I can get back to you later.

- Good question. I really don’t know! What do you think?

- That’s a very good question. However, we don’t have any figures on that, so I can’t give you an accurate answer.

- Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to answer that.