THE MAIN PART OF A

PRESENTATION

Media and Tools

Main Part of a Presentation

1. Briefly state your topic again
2. Explain your objective(s)
3. Signal the beginning of each part
4. Talk about your topic
5. Signal the end of each part
6. Highlight the main points
7. Outline the main ideas in bullet-point form
8. Tell listeners youve reached the end of the main
part

Getting the Audiences

Attention

Ask a rhetorical question. For examples:

1. Is market research important for brand
development?
2. Do we really need quality assurance?

Getting the Audiences

Attention
Start with an interesting fact. For examples:
1. According to an article I read recently, central
banks are now buying Euros instead of dollars.
2. Did you know that fast food consumption has
increased by 600% in Europe since 2002?
3. Id like to share an amazing fact/figure with you.

Getting the Audiences

Attention

Tell them a story or anecdote. For

example:
1. I remember when I attended a meeting in
Paris
2. At a conference in Madrid, I was once asked
the following questions:
3. Let me tell you what happened to me a
couple days ago.

Getting the Audiences

Attention
Give them a problem to think about
1. Suppose you wanted to set up a new call
centre. How would you go about it?
2. Imagine you had to reorganize the sales
department. What would be your first step?

Giving the Presentation

- Signposting Saying what is coming
In this part of my presentation, Id like to
talk about
So, let me first give you a brief overview.

Giving the Presentation

- Signposting Moving to the next point
This brings us to my next point.
Lets now move on/turn to
After examining this point, lets turn to
Lets now take a look at

Giving the Presentation

- Signposting Indicating the end of a section
This brings me to the end of my first point.
So, thats the background on
Thats all I wanted to say about

Giving the Presentation

- Signposting Referring Back
As I said/mentioned earlier,
Let me come back to what I said before
Lets go back to what we were discussing
earlier.
As Ive already explained,
As I pointed out in the first section,

Giving the Presentation

- Signposting Summarizing a point
Before I move on, Id like to summarize the
main points.
Let me briefly summarize the main issues.
Id like to summarize what Ive said so far.

Giving the Presentation

-Talking about Difficult
Issues I think we first need to identify the problem.
Of course well have to clarify a few points before
we start.
We will have to deal with the problem of ..
How shall we cope with ?
The question is: Why dont we tackle the
distribution problems?
If we dont solve this problem now, well get into
serious trouble soon.

Giving the Presentation

-Referring to other Points Id like to mention some critical points in
connection with/concerning
There are a few problems regarding
With respect/regard to prices, we need
more details.
According to the survey, our customers are
unhappy with this product.

Giving the Presentation

-Adding Ideas In addition to this, Id like to say that
Moreover / Furthermore, there are
other interesting facts we should take a
look at.
As well as that, we can
Apart from being too expensive, this
model is also too big.
To increase sales we need a new strategy
plus more people.

Giving the Presentation

-Emphasizing Important PointsUsing a Verb
Id like to stress the following point.
Id like to draw your attention to the
latest figures.
Id like to emphasize that our market
position is excellent.

Giving the Presentation

-Emphasizing Important PointsUsing What
What is really important is how much we
are prepared to invest.
What we should do is talk about
intercultural problems.

Giving the Presentation

-Emphasizing Important
PointsRhetorical Questions
So, just how good are the results?
So, where do we go from here?
Why do I say that? Because

Giving the Presentation

-Emphasizing Important PointsAdverb + Adjective Construction
It would be completely wrong to change
our strategy at this point.
We compared the two offers and found the
first one totally unacceptable.
I think this fact is extremely important.

Using Your Voice Effectively

Use your voice and the way you stress
words or make pauses in sentences to
make your presentation more
interesting and easier for the
audience to follow.

Using Your Voice Effectively

- Stressing Words -

We all know that this is an extremely

difficult market. (Its more than just difficult).
We all know that this is an extremely difficult
market. (you and I agree on this)
We all know that this is an extremely difficult
market. (but they dont)

Using Your Voice Effectively

- Making Pauses Use pauses to slow your pace down and make your sentences
easier to understand.
Group words into phrases according to their meaning and
make pauses between the phrases.
EXAMPLES:
In my opinion we should go into other markets.
In my opinion // we should go // into other markets.
On the other hand, the figures prove that we are on the right
track.
On the other hand, // the figures prove // that we are on the
right track.

Reference
Comfort, J., Effective Presentations,
Oxford University Press, 2004.
Grussendorf, M., English for Presentation:
Express Series, Oxford University Press,
2007.