English++ 202 How to Give a Successful Presentation? Practical information Pre-preparation. Selecting the topic and materials ‘An essential task im a pre-preparatory phase is to ask yourself the following questions + What isthe purpose of my presentation? + What ate the main pointe that I would like to get across? Start getting ready for your presentation a few weeks before you ate due to speak « 1 the materials on the basis of which you would like to prepare the presentation ‘Make a wise choice out of the collected materials Prepare reliable bibliography (the author's name, the title of the aticle/book, a year of its publication, the website addvess, when the material was retrieved, etc) ‘From the material select the keywords for your presentation and do not them on the handout Preparation + Make the fist plan of the precentation (you can modify st ater) sacle + Remember about a logical the presentation, Introduction - ray, what you've going to say Main Body say it; develop the above mentioned issue) Conclusions - sum up what you've just said + Make the first draft of your presentation. Read it carefully If there is information lated to the topic. emove it + Tf there are issues which you cannot express in a precise or clear way, probably it 4s because you do not realy understand them yourself. So it is better not to talk about them. + Never ead f notes. You should knovr well the material you want to present, Ifyou do not know it, maybe you should not go for giving a pres + Prepare a set of numbered due cards, on which you can vnte the main points or/ and keywords and which will help you during the presentation. Make sure that on, your clue catds you've marked an appropriate visual aid (a transparency or slide), which you are going to refer to m your presentation.+ Hind ume to sarge again and again! By doing that you are going to make yourself familiar with your own voice, to check and adjust the presenting time, to see whether visual aids (ifyou use them) actualy illustrate your presentation and whether you coordinate well their usage swith what you say. If you have problems with a foreign Language in which you present the material. it could be better not to use visuals at all. Otherwise the chance that something goes wrong is bigger than when you concentrate slely on the oral aspect of the presentat + Reep to the time! Do not exceed the time limtt It is better to shorten the presentation by two minutes rather than extend it by two minutes, Rememb that exceeding the sme limit may mean taking the next speaker's ime. And thi te really unas + Follow the plan of your presentation! Do not digress! Usually digressions take move time than we think, Successful presenters have “spontaneous digressions” well thought over and well planned + Leave time for questions from the audience (Questions may help you to get your message across bet + Design good visuals to help you get your message actoss more efficiently aber that tatty visuals will leave a similar impression on the listeners should speak for themselves Ulustrating your point, Give listeners sme to take them in. Reading out what you have written on a transparency or slide i counterproductive, Visuals are always welcomed - they may help to catch the audience's tention, but f you do not fel comfortable with them. give yourself more time for practice Visual aids ‘There are different types of visuals. The choice depends on the type of presentation and your needs. + OBP transparencies - overhead projector transparencies + Presentations in PowerPoint + Flipcharts + Whiteboard and marker + video + Short episodes or scenes from films + 35mm slides + Real objects, which you can provide listeners with to explore them Remember that badly prepared and/or badly used visuals can ruin your presentation! Make sure you know in advance how to connect the equipment and what to do to Ihave a desired slide ox diagram on the screen. Sometimes, dusing teal presentations English++ 203English++ 204 a technician is designated to operate the equipment, In that cate make suze that he understands your signals, which you are going to send when you wish, for example, to change a slide Slides and transparencies should contain minimum information which is needed to ilustrate your point. Too much on a slide makes it unreadable and diverts audience's attention from what you say. A slide ts said to be readable if it contains no move than ten words in 18pt Times Roman font or bigger and which can be xead without a projector from the distance of ‘twometers, Never useas your visuals pages photocopied from books or other materials ‘They ate not adapted for such usage. n sr to mention the fact that they den n J prove your professionalism For transparencies, use multiple colours, but be careful with orange and yellow - they do not come out well on the seen, On slides, the text is of 4m yellow or white colour on the blue background, Avoid adding/drawing information on a presented twansparency: While speaking avoid indicating with your finger or am er. A pointer job much better Tum off a projector if you do not need it for the next few minutes, Two minutes is the ‘maximum time that the same slide should be shown on the screen. Presentation - dress rehearsal Presentation should not ike place without practicing it earlier a lot times in front n/and with of a mitror tape recorder, Observing yourself and li ening to yourself ‘in action” is stressful, but very formative. tt provides you with the material on which you can gradually develop your presentational skills and competencies. A couple of final tips + Speak clay + Avoid raised voice, whispering or mumbling “under your nose + Try to maintain your natural pace of speaking typical for an official, not everyday situa + Makepausesinplaceswhich youconsidercritical foryour presentation: thistreatment ‘emphasizes the crucal information you wish to transmit to the audience. + Try to control your body language; avotd excessive gesticulation, + Keep an eye contact with your listeners but do not focus on one person only. + Don’t turn back to the audience if you want to show something on the screen and don't to the screen’ either + Don’t stand in the light of a projector covering the screen. + Observe your audience's reactions ~ maybe you should shorten the presentationby two minutes and move on to conclusions. ‘Don't forget to thank the audience for thetr attention and encourage them to ask ‘questions. If you are not sure about the answer of if you simply do not know it, don’t be afraid to admit that, but suggest the source in which the answer can be found. Enjoy your presentation, Try to treat it as your new experience and show your enthusiasm! Good luck!English++ 206 Repertoire of presentation phrases Part one — introduction 1. Signaling the start OK then, sh OK then, I'd lke to begin. Let's we start? east 2. Greeting Good morn {afternoon ladies and gentlemen/everyone. Thank you for coming, 1'm very happy that you've come here today 3, Self-introduction First ofall. like to in roduce myself My name is sw words about myselifmy own background. tm (mame) from (countyy/aty. Ym from (organisation) Iworkas a ob) for (organisation) J study (subject at {university 'm in my thied year 1 yepresent Yma representative of 4.Introducing the subject Today, I'm going to talk about Td like to talk you today about Tm going to present the recent ...nform you about ./describe The subjectifocus/topic of my tall/presentation/speech is 5. Stating the purpose We are here today to decide/learn about/iscuss The altm/object day is to update you on ../give you the background e/purpose t 1m my presentation today Ill be discussing. /!'m going to explain ‘What I'd like to do today is to presen 6. Outline (main points/sequencing/length) I've divided my presentation into fous parts/sections. They axe My presentation will consiRight. I'd like to begin with my fixst point, ‘istly/Pust ofall wll Secondly/then/next ... would lke to ‘Thirdly / and then we come to. After that/later. _'m going to talk about / Took at ‘inallylastlylast of alld like to analyze/discuss/look aticonsidev/explain‘tell you bout’ show you how/speak to you about . 7. Inviting questions Td be glad to answer any questions at the end of my talk. Ifyou have any questions, please feel free to interrupt. Part two — main body 1, Ordering Areaching the end of one point Right. I've talked about/ mentioned... ‘We've looked at ‘That's all have to say about ‘That covers 'B moving on tothe next point Now we come to... That rings us to 1d like to move on/draw your attention to my next point, Let's move onto Let's look now at ...The next thing Tike to talk about is 2. Giving reasons ‘The matn explanation for this is ‘There are two reasons/explanations for this First... Second, ‘This can be explained by two factors. Firstly... Secondly. This is due to... ‘One reason for this. Another season is. 3. Developing the point ‘Where does that take us? Let's look at this in more detail ‘What does that mean for us?4. Giving examples Agood example ofthis i. ‘To illustrate this point, . ‘To support what I've said .. I'd like to give you some examples such as - Ike, 14 like you to Look at this tansparency/graphytable/pie chartflow chartbar chast! dingramn/chart 1d like to draw your attention to ‘This shows/reprerents As you can see. 1 you look at ..you can see from the transparency: etc. that let me show you Could you look at your handouts ‘The next slide/picture/graph shows 6. Relating ideas, A showing consequence therefore... so... consequently... because of this. asa result B comparing similatly.. in the same way... one similanity/ifference between... is that C contrasting bat. however. although... nevertheless. even though spite / spite (of the fact that). whereas/ while. ‘m contrast to by contrast with con the other hand... D highlighting in particular... especially ~ changing the word order. e.g: ‘What was important was the final conclusion’ (instead of: The final conclusion was important)repeating key words, eg: ‘We need to compare past achievements and present achievements. (instead of ‘We need to compare past and present achieve- ments.) E showing an additional argument moreover... in addition to this notonly...butalso furthermore... Part three — ending 1. Signaling the end ‘That brings me tothe end of my presentation. ‘That completes my presentation, ‘That covers all I want/wanted to say today. Before I stopyfinish, let me jut say... 2. Summarizing ‘Let me just run over the key points again, ‘Il briefly summarize the main issues. ‘To sum up. Let's recap, shall we? fan just sum up the main points... Finally. lke to go overview Fast. talked about ....... Secondly. I discussed......Thirdly looked at. 3. Concluding In condlusion 1rd like to conclude by saying ‘As a conclusion, 1 lke to 1rd lke to leave you with the following thoughtiidea. 4. Closing “Thank you for your attention / being so atentiveflistening, reas pleasure talking to you 1 willbe giving you handouts ‘You wil find handouts atthe entrance. ‘There are copies on the table5. Inviting questions -e there any questions? ‘ave you got any questions? 6. Asking questions ‘Could 1 go back to the point you made about Twas interested in your comment on ‘You said that. Could you say a litle more about that? Could you clarify what you said about 1 like to ask about ‘May Task you a question? ‘Tm interested in your opinion about ‘Do you mind if task you. 1m interested to know .. 7. Handling questions Acclarifying ET understand you correctly, you are saying/asking {didn't quite catch that ‘Could you go over that again? ‘Tm not sure what you're getting at Sony, im not sure what you mean B playing for time ‘That's a goodyinteresting/difficult point/question/comment. ‘Ym glad you raised that point. C saying you don’t know ‘Tm souty I don't have that information at this moment. ‘Tm afraid 1 don’t know atthe moment. D avoiding giving answers Perhaps we could deal with that later. ‘Can we talk about that on another occasion? ‘im afraid that's not my field, 1 don’t have the figures with me. ‘Tm sure Mi/Ms .. could answer this question. 1 get back to you if time permitsE checking if the questioner is satisfied ‘Does that answer your question? Te that dear ‘can we goon? F concluding the questions ‘ight. if nobody wants to ask anything els. 1 think we can finish here. ight. if there are no more questions ‘Thank you.