English for Presentation and Seminar page|1

ENGLISH FOR PRESENTATIONS AND SEMINAR

Good preparation is very important. Good preparation and planning will give you confidence.
Your audience will feel your confidence and have confidence in you. This will give you control
of your audience and of your presentation.

1. PREPARATION AND PLANNING

1 ESSENTIAL PREPARATION AND PLANNING CHECKLIST

This is a checklist of the essential elements to consider in preparing and planning an oral
presentation. Use it yourself by filling in the boxes on the right under “My Ideas”.

Questions to ask yourself My ideas

Objective
'Why am I making this presentation?'
Your objective should be clear in your mind.
Audience
'Who am I making this presentation to?'
How many people?
Time and length
'When am I making this presentation?
How long will it be?'
Method
'How should I make this presentation?'
Formal or informal?
Lots of visual aids or only a few?
With or without anecdotes and humour?
Content
'What should I say?'
Include only relevant information. Create a
title for your presentation. The title will help
you to focus on the subject. Prepare your
visual aids, if any.
Others
How should I dress up?
Are there any cultural aspects involved?
Do I have any handout to give the audience?

You have only one chance to make the first impression, so be prepared!!!
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2. STRUCTURE OF AN ORAL PRESENTATION

A good oral presentation is well structured; this makes it easier for the listener to follow.
Basically there are three parts to a typical presentation: the beginning, the middle and the end
(or introduction, body and conclusion). We are going to look at each part in turn and present
the language needed to express both the structure and the content.

THE BEGINNING OR THE INTRODUCTION

The beginning of a presentation is the most important part. It is when you establish
a rapport with the audience and when you have its attention.

A. Get the audience's attention and signal the beginning.

Some useful expressions: Welcoming courtesies

It’s nice to see you all here today...
Welcome to...
Good morning everyone. Thanks for coming.
It gives me a great pleasure to be here today...
It’s an honor to have the opportunity to address such a distinguished audience.
First of all, let me thank you all for coming here today.
It’s pleasure to welcome you today.
I’m happy / delighted that so many of you could make it today.
It’s good to see you all here.

B. Introduce yourself,(name, position, and institution)

Do this not only to give important information so people can identify you but also to establish
your authority on the subject and to allow the audience to see your point of view on the subject

Some useful expressions:

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce
myself. Good morning everyone, I'd like to start by
introducing myself.

- My name is...
- I am a(4thyear/graduate)student from the Faculty of…………, majoring
in……………..
- I am a doctoral candidate, from……………………
- I am…(position)……from ….(company)……….
- I am a student from… I've been working on the subject now for…….years.
I've had wide experience in the field of ...........
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Sample of self introduction

Good morning, my name is Lydia James. I am a graduate student from the Faculty of
technology, majoring in computer science, Harvard University. Today, I would like to talk to
you about some of my findings in a study I did on…..

C. Give a title and introduce the subject

What exactly are you going to speak about? Situate the subject in time and place, in relation to
the audience and/or its importance. Give a rough idea or a working definition of the subject.

Some useful expressions:

Today, I plan to speak about...

Today I'm going to talk about...
The subject of my presentation is...
The theme of my talk is...
like to talk about...
This morning I’d like to discuss (report on/give an overview /show/present)
I’m going to present (explain/inform you about/describe)....
I’m going to speak to you about....
The subject (focus)of my presentation (talk/paper)is....
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Give your objective ( purpose, aim ,goals)

The main purpose of an informative speech is to have the audience understand and remember a
certain amount of information. You should therefore have two purposes: a general purpose and
a specific one. The former is to inform: to give an overview, to present, to summarize, to
outline; to discuss the current situation or to explain how to do something or how something is
done. The latter is what you want the audience to take away with them after listening to you,
what you want them to do, what they should remember.

Some useful expressions:

What I want my listeners to get out of my speech is...
If there is one thing I'd like to get across to you today it is that…

Sample:
My purpose in doing this paper is to give you a solid background on the subject of oral
presentation skills. So that in the future, you can deliver a successful speech in front of a
group.

D. Announce your outline.

Once you have established your specific objectives you may go onto formulate
You want to keep the outline simple so 2 or 3 main points are usually enough. Concerning
grammar the headings of the outline should be of the same grammatical form.

Some useful expressions:

I have broken my speech down/up into…… parts.
I have divided my presentation (up)into…….parts(sections)..They are....
This subject can be broken down into the following fields....
I’m going to make some brief points about...
Firstly, I’ll talk about.......Then,......, and the last part.............
Next, I’ll focus on.................
Firstly/Secondly/Thirdly I’ll talk about.........and then we come to....
Then I’ll go on to...
Lastly/Finally/Last of all...
I’ll finish with...
In the first part I give a few basic definitions.
In the next section I will explain about…………
In part three, I am going to show...
In the last part I would like /want to give a practical example...
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3. THE BODY OF PRESENTATION

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.

A. Content.
What information should you give in your speech? All your information should support your
purpose. In most cases you will have to limit the content, as time is usually precious!

B. Quantity
How much information should you give? Is it enough to clearly develop your ideas? Don’t
forget to illustrate through
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To be clear Use examples, rephrasing, summaries etc.:

To give an example: To refer to what you have said previously:

Now let's take an example. As I have already said earlier...
An example of this can be found... As we saw in part one...
To illustrate this, let’s see… To repeat what I've said already…
Let's see this through an example.
For example, To refer to what you will say:
e.g. We will see this a little later on.
This will be the subject of part ……..
To rephrase: We will go into more detail on that later.
Let me rephrase that, For now, suffice to say...
In other words
Another way of saying the same To refer to what an expert says:
thing is I quote the words of...
That is to say In the words of…
i.e. According to...
Here I'd like to quote…
To summarize: As Mr. X says in his book...
To summarize There is a famous quotation that goes...
To sum up,
Let me summarize by saying To refer to common knowledge:
So that concludes my overview As you all may well know...
In conclusion It is generally accepted that...
Briefly said As you are probably aware(of)...
In short,
What I've tried to show in this part... Referring to graphs, tables:
To recap what we've seen so far... As you can see from the graphs/table...
This bar graph/pie-chart shows...
To emphasize: If we look to this transparency, we can see...
What is very significant is... As can be seen from the graph...
What is important to remember... According to the statistics (figures)....
I'd like to emphasize the fact that... This graph shows you…
I’d like to stress the importance of... Take a look at this…
To highlight. If you look at this, you will see…
To underline. I'd like you to look at this…
What I tried to bring out... This chart illustrates the figures…
What we need to focus on... This graph gives you a breakdown of…
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4. THE END OR CONCLUSION

The end of a talk should never come as a surprise to an audience; it needs special
consideration.

A. Content
The end or the conclusion of your talk should include three parts:
a. A brief reminder of what you tried to show in your speech and how you tried to do
so
b. a short conclusion
c. thanks to the audience for listening and invite questions, comments or open a
discussion.

Brief reminder: At the end of your presentation, you should summarize your talk and remind
the audience of what you have told them:

That brings me to the end of my presentation. I've talked about…

Well, that's about it for now. We've covered…
In brief, we…
To summarize, I…
like to summarize/sum up
At this stage I would like to run through/over the main points...
So, as we have seen today....

Handling questions
Would anyone like to ask any questions?
I’m ready to take any questions now.
If anyone has questions I’ll be happy to answer them.
I'd be happy to answer any questions....
If there are any questions please feel free to ask.
Thank you very much for your attention and if there are any suggestions or comments
Thank you for listening–and now if there are any questions, I would be pleased to answer
them.
That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention. I'd be glad to
answer any questions you might have.
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Dealing with difficult questions

If you don't know the answer to a question, it’s fine to say that you don’t know. You can say
something like:

- Hmm, that’s a good question. I don’t have the information to answer that question right
now, but I’d be happy to find out and get back to you later.
- I don’t think we have enough time to go in to that right now, but I’ll be happy to
speak to you one-to-one after the presentation if you would 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.
- 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.

Rehearsal
Practice your presentation two or three times so that you:
- Become more familiar with what you want to say
- Identify weaknesses in your presentation
- Can practice difficult pronunciations
- Can check the time that your presentation takes and
make any necessary modifications
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Summary: Outline of a Presentation

Structure
Organize your presentation in a logical structure. Most presentations are organized in
three parts:

1 Introduction
- Welcome your audience
- Introduce yourself and your subject
- Explain the structure of your presentation

2 Body of presentation
- present the subject itself

3 Conclusion
- Summarize your presentation
- Thank your audience
- invite questions

+Questions

5. VISUALS AIDS

80% of what we learn is learned visually (what we see) and only 20% is learned aurally (what
we hear). This means that:

- Visual aids are an extremely effective tools of communication

- non-native English speakers do not need to worry so much about spoken English since they
can rely more heavily on visual aids

What are visuals?

graph charts maps photos
drawings images models video/film
objects

What media are used?

Slides PowerPoint slides
video projection/projector handouts

It is often a good idea to give out a paper copy, called a handout, an outline, a glossary of key
words, sources, any other visuals you plan to use, so people can take them away, not waste
time in taking notes on key concepts.
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What is the vocabulary of the equipment used?

Black board whiteboard
Paper board chalk, felt tip pen or marker, eraser
podium, lectern overhead projector system (OHP)
screen
microphone

Why use visuals?

 To focus the audience's attention
 To illustrate points easier to understand in visual form but difficult in a verbal
form (e.g. statistics)
 To reinforce ideas
 To change focus from aural/oral to visual
 To involve and motivate the audience
 To involve all the senses
 To serve as logical proof
 To save time and avoid putting information on a board
 To avoid turning your back to the audience when writing on aboard
 to help the speaker

Text to put on a visual

 name of the conference/company and company logo, date, title of presentation.
 Full sentences are not to be used, unless a quote or a definition is given.
 N.B keep text to a minimum
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6. BODY LANGUAGE

The golden rule is "Be natural and relax!"

What is body language?

Eye contact, facial expressions, posture, movements, gestures.

Why is it useful?
It is a natural part of communication:
 To clarify meaning; it is very visual
 To vent nervousness
 To maintain interest
 To emphasize and regulate

Below are just a few examples of both positive and negative body language:

Positive body language

 Eye contact to keep audiences' attention.
 Facial expressions should be natural and friendly. Don't forget to smile.
 posture– stand straight but relaxed (do not slouch or lean)
 movement- to indicate a change of focus, keep the audience's attention
 gesture
o up and down head motion or other movements to indicate importance
o pen or pointer to indicate a part, a place(on a transparency).
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Negative body language

 loss of eye contact: looking at notes, at the floor
 back turned to the audience
 nervous ticks
 hands in pockets
7. LANGUAGE

Simplicity and Clarity

If you want your audience to understand your message, your language must be simple and
clear:
- Use short words and short sentences
- Do not use jargon, unless you know that your audience understands it
- Use active verbs instead of passive verbs

Active verbs are much easier to understand. They are much more powerful. Consider these two
sentences, which say the same thing:
Sentence 1: Toyota sold two million cars last year.
Sentence2: Two million cars were sold by Toyota last year.

Sentence 1 is active and Sentence 2 is passive.

8. VOICE AND PRONUNCIATION

Correct pronunciation is important if one is to be understood correctly. Incorrect pronunciation

is perhaps the first cause of communication breakdown. If the listener is not accustomed to the
speaker’s native language, he/she will not understand a mispronounced word.
Mispronunciation also tires the listener’s ear and he/she will perhaps stop trying to understand
the speaker if it becomes too difficult.

Your audience must be able to hear you clearly. In general, you should try to vary your voice.
Your voice will then be more interesting for your audience. You can vary your voice in at least
three ways:
1. Speed: you can speak at normal speed, you can speak faster, you can speak more slowly,
and you can stop completely! Silence is a very good technique for gaining your audience's
attention.
2. Intonation: you can change the pitch of your voice. You can speak in a high tone. You can
speak in a low tone.
3. Volume: you can speak at normal volume, you can speak loudly and you can speak quietly.
Lowering your voice and speaking quietly can again attract your audience's interest.
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