Imagine that you are making a presentation to a large group of people working in your industry.

Q: How do you start your presentation?

1. Are we all here? Good, well if we look at the first slide you'll see our total carbon usage for 2005...

2. Hello everyone. Thanks very much for coming along today. My name is Kirk Renolds and today I'll be talking about some of the work we've been doing on our environmental strategy...

3. Hello ladies and gentlemen. My name is Kirk Renolds and today I'll be talking about some of the work we've been doing on our environmental strategy...

Answers

1. This is a bad start to your presentation. You should greet your guests, thank them for coming, introduce yourself and outline what your presentation will be about.

2. This is a good start to your presentation - you have greeted your guests, thanked them for coming and introduced yourself.

3. This is one way to start your presentation - but it would be better if you thanked your guests for coming.

Q: What do you say next?

1. 'I'll begin by giving you some background into why we started the trials, then we'll look at some organisational challenges and finally I'll present the results and take any questions you might have'

2. 'Okay well, as I said, this presentation is all about our environmental strategy and when we first started looking at this none of us were really sure where to start, but I'll talk about that in more detail in a minute or two. Er... and then I'll tell you about some of the problems we had setting this up - actually, I remember one particular incident very clearly, which I'll quickly relate... '

Answers

1. Well done! You have outlined your presentation very clearly and concisely....

2. Stop! You are rambling - keep the outline of your presentation clear and concise.

Q: Later in the presentation, you begin to go through your slides...

1. 'Well, as you can see in this slide, energy savings increased significantly as we implemented our strategy...'

2. 'In January 2005, there was a saving of £293, in February, there was a saving of £300, in March...'

3. 'Here's the next slide. OK? And on the next slide...'

4. 'Oh dear! I'm awfully sorry but we seem to be having some technical problems with the projector. At this point I wanted to show you a slide with the energy savings we made between 2005 and 2006. Savings increased from just under £300 to...'

Answers

1. Well done! You have used the slide to help in your explanation, without ignoring it or reading from it...

2. Don't make the mistake of reading your slides to your audience! It's really boring!

3. Remember to present your slides - explain what it is that your audience is looking at!

4. How unlucky! Maybe you should have checked that all the equipment was working before you began... However, you have apologised and you are now relaying the information on the slides - you have 'made the best of a bad job'!

Q: Suddenly, someone asks a question. How do you respond?

1. 'Look, I said at the start that I'd be happy to take questions at the end...'

2. 'That's a very interesting question...'

3. 'Would you mind if I came back to your question at the end? It's just that I'm rather conscious of the time...'

Answers

1. Using 'look' like this makes you sound very annoyed. Start again and next time, be more polite and friendly!

2. You have decided to answer the question. This is okay, but it would be better to politely remind your audience that you'd prefer to take questions at the end.

3. Very good - you have wisely decided to try to postpone the question to the end of the presentation

Q: You have reached the end of your presentation. What do you say?

1. 'I'm terribly sorry but I seem to taken too long, so we don't actually have time for any questions! However, if you grab me after the session I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.'

2. 'If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them now...'

3. 'Any other business?'

Answers

1. Oh dear, it looks like your timekeeping needs to improve a little. However, you have apologised and told your audience they can ask you questions after the session. Well done!

2. Well done - this a very polite way to ask if there are any questions. Congratulations on a great presentation!

3. Oops! A mistake right at the end! We say 'Any other business?' at the end of a meeting, not a presentation.

18. Look through the following articles and speak on the topic “Public speaking”

Public Speaking in English: Presentations

People speak in public for many reasons. One of the most common forms of public speaking is the 'Presentation'. In a presentation, we 'present' or introduce something (a product, an idea, financial results, a project etc.) to the audience. We give a presentation because we want to 'communicate' something. Generally, we want to do one of four things:

• to inform
• to train
• to persuade
• to sell

A presentation is one of the best ways of communicating our message. And because English is so widely used in international business, knowledge of the vocabulary and techniques used in an English language presentation is very useful.

1) Preparation

Good preparation is essential for any presentation. With good preparation and planning we will be fully confident. Our audience will feel our confidence. And so our audience will be confident in us. This will give us control. With control, we will be 'in charge' and our audience will listen positively to our message.

2) Structure

A good presentation has a clear structure, like a good book or film. A good presentation has:

• a beginning (introduction & preview)
• a middle (main message)
• an end (review & conclusion)

3) Equipment

We may have any of the following pieces of equipment at our disposal:

• whiteboard
• flip chart
• overhead projector
• slide projector
• computer graphics

Each of these has advantages and disadvantages. The important thing is to be the master of our equipment, not the slave. We should know and understand our equipment perfectly.

4) Visual Aids

"A picture is worth 1,000 words."

There are many types of visual aids - photographs, graphs, pie charts, maps, tables, real samples etc. But we should use visual aids with care. We shouldn’t overload our audience with too much information in a short time. A good rule is: use one image to give one message.

5) Signposting

When we read a book, we know where we are. We know the title of the book, the subject, the chapter, the end of one chapter and beginning of another, the section and even the page number. But when we give a presentation, our audience does not know where they are - unless we TELL them! We can use special language called 'signalling' or 'signposting' that helps our audience know where they are. Here are a few examples:

• Let's begin by...
• That's all I have to say about...
• Now we'll move on to...
• Let's consider this in more detail...
• I'd like to deal with this question later, if I may...
• I'd like now to recap...
• To start with...later...to finish up...

6) Audience Rapport

We need a warm and friendly relationship with our audience. Enthusiasm is contagious. If we are enthusiastic, our audience will be enthusiastic too. We should try to make eye contact with each member of our audience. Each person should feel that we are speaking to him or her personally.

7) Body Language

Our body is speaking to our audience even before we start speaking. Our clothes, our walk, our glasses, our haircut, our expression: it is from these that our listeners form their first impression as we enter the room.

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 877