HELPFUL LANGUAGE MODELS

Don’t waste a lot of time at the beginning of your presentation introducing yourself, your organization and the subject of your talk. It is essential to state the purpose of your presentation near the beginning. To do this clearly and effectively you need a few simple presentation verbs:take a look at, report on, give an overview of, etc.

The content is much more important than anything else in a good presentation. And a clear structure will help you. When you move on to your next point or change direction, tell the audience. You can do this easily and effectively using simple verbs as signposts to guide the audience through your presentation (See Table 5):

Table 5

VERBS TO GUIDE THE AUDIENCE

Remember, the simplest way to signpost the end of one stage of your presentation and the beginning of the next is to say: OK. So, … [1, p.16].

PRACTICE

Exercise 1.Put the phrases into the correct column in the table.

Exercise 2.Study the phrases and decide whether they are used for rejecting, accepting, asking for an opinion or expressing your own one. Fill in the table below.

Exercise 3.Intonation is a good indicator of how you feel about what you are saying. Read and show how your voice tends to rise when you make a positive point and fall when you make a negative one.

1) We're doing well in Russia, but not in the whole world.

2) Money supply is down, but productivity is up.

3) In railway sector we're going up, machinery construction is also growing, fuel-energy complex was also not so bad, but in general our agriculture is nowhere.

Exercise 4.Practice your articulation, pausing, and pitch control by reading the following presentation extract.

The problem of transport system modernization is growing every year. Currently the city has the following global transport problems:

1) Many areas are kept away from each other.

2) We need more main streets connecting one part of the city with another.

3) City parts "are stretched" along the river coasts, therefore communication within the city causes troubles.

4) City traffic in some streets has exceeded their capacity (among them Berdskoe highway, Vibornaya, Pervomaiskaya, Bolshaya and both automobile bridges across the Ob river).

The traffic in Novosibirsk promises to grow much as a half in 5-6 years and therefore by 2015 it is necessary to construct some main roads and road interchanges.

Exercise 5.Here are some ways of stating the purpose of presentation. Complete the sentences using the word combinations given in the charts A, B and C.

A.

B.

C.

Exercise 6. In the following sentences choose the word which suits best (it can be more than one).

1) In the main part of my report, which by now you should've all had time to look at, outlines / reviews / sets out in detail our main conclusions.

2) Perhaps I should start off by pointing / stressing / reminding that this is just a preliminary report. Nothing has been finalized as yet.

3) And I'll also be asking / raising / putting the question of domestic production of locomotive components.

4) And the main conclusion we've thought / got to / come to is that massive railway section restructuring will be necessary before any changes can go through.

5) I'm sure there's no need to draw out / spell out / think out what the main problem is going to be.

6) Basically, what we're suggesting / asking / reviewing is a complete reorganization of staff and plants.

7) The basic message I'm trying to get through / get across / get to here is simple. We can't rely on government support for much longer.

8) But later on I will, in fact, be putting forward / putting out / putting over several detailed proposals.

9) I'd now like to turn / draw / focus my attention to some of the difficulties we're likely to face.

10) One thing I'll be dealing with / referring / regarding is the issue of a minimum profit.

Exercise 7.If you suddenly panic, pause, sort out the problem and then continue. Here are the most common phrases; think in what situations you can use them:

Exercise 8.The following words can be used when interrupting or asking for clarification. Write in the missing pairs of words from the list below.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 861