Oral Presentation

Week 10
• Sometimes, especially when invited to speak, the host introduces the
guest, gives the same information as above and then gives the floor to
the guest speaker.
• I am very pleased and proud to introduce …who is…. He/she is known
for…
• Now I'll turn the floor over to today's speaker. (to take the floor, to
have the floor, to give the floor to someone.)
II.1.D Give title and introduce 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.
• I plan to speak about...
• Today I'm going to talk about...
• The subject of my presentation is...
• The theme of my talk is...
• I've been asked to give you an overview of...
• Cultural aspects may be important here; scientists want to
demonstrate their work and findings while managers and humanities
people want to share ideas and reflections with their audience. It may
be the result of a desire to persuade and convince. It may be
comparison of two or more products, plans or proposals.
• Why are you going to speak about it?
• I have chosen to speak about this because...
• I was asked to speak about X because...
• Have you set any limits on the scope of your talk? What won't you
speak about?
• It may be very useful to eliminate certain areas before you start so as
to avoid confusion or deviation from your main task. It also protects
you from criticism later for not covering certain aspects or issues.
• Have you estimated the time it will take? It is useful to give the
listeners some idea of how long you will speak so as to maintain their
attention better.
• I will not speak about...
• I have limited my speech to
• My talk will last about 15 minutes
Remember
Concerning time, professional people are very often pressed
for time. The average person’s attention span is also very, very
short.
Conclusion: the shorter the better!
• You may want to give acknowledgements here too. If you have been
sponsored, supported or encouraged by a particular firm,
organization, professor, etc. you may want to recognise their
contribution. Your research and paper may have been the work of a
collaborative effort and you should acknowledge this too giving the
names of all the participants.
• At some point you should ask a question or somehow try to
determine the attitude and knowledge of the audience. How do they
feel about the subject? You will then have to modify the contents, as
you never know exactly what to expect.
• Have you ever heard of...?
• You may already know…
• I feel sure that some of you…
• Every day you encounter...
To get the audience's attention and perhaps to find out where they are
you could introduce the subject by saying:
• Have you ever heard of/seen X?
• You've probably seen countless times...
• You may have wondered...
II.1.E Give your objectives (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.
 My purpose in this course is to give you a
solid background on the subject of oral
presentation skills so that in the future, at the
AAST or elsewhere, you can deliver a
successful speech in front of a group.
• What I would like to do today is to explain
• to illustrate...
• to give you the essential background information on...
• to outline...
• to have a look at...
• 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…
Once you have established your specific objectives you may go on to
formulate your content.
II.1.F Announce your outline.
• 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.
• I have broken my speech down/up into X parts.
• I have divided my presentation (up) into Y parts.
• In the first part I give a few basic definitions.
• In the next section I will explain
• In part three, I am going to show...
• In the last part I would like/want to give a practical example...
II.1. G Questions and comments from the
audience.
• You should also let the audience know at some point in the
introduction when and whether they may ask questions.
• I'd ask you to save your questions for the end.
• There will be plenty of time at the end of my speech for a
discussion.
• You may interrupt me at any moment to ask questions or make
comments.
• Please stop me if you don't understand any thing I say but could
you keep any specific questions until after I've finished.
II.1.H Make a transition between the
introduction and the body.
• You should refer to your transparency or outline.
• Now let us turn to point one.
• Let us now move on to the second part, which is, as I said earlier….
Remember
If you are giving a technical presentation a glossary might be
useful and avoid unnecessary interruptions. Always explain
abbreviations and say acronyms giving their full name when
you first mention them and be especially careful with the
pronunciation.