Dealing with questions

Saying hello

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Right. (Let?s get started)

Good morning. My name is ? I am a fifth-year student ? and I have been invited to talk to you about ?

To start off then, ?

Expressing purpose

My purpose/objective/ aim today is ?

What I want to do this morning is ?

I?m here today to ?

I will be talking about ?

Structuring

I?ve divided my presentation into three main parts.

This talk is divided into four main parts: firstly, ? etc.

During my presentation I?m going to be focusing on four main areas.

The three areas I plan to cover are ?

Let me begin with/ To start with/ Firstly, I?d like to look at ?

Then/ Secondly, I?ll be talking about ?

Thirdly, ?

My fourth point will be about ?

Finally, I?ll be looking at ?

Schedule

My presentation/ talk/ lecture will take/ last 20 minutes?(and then I will be happy to answer your questions)

We?ll be having a coffee break at about?

We?ll be stopping for lunch at?

Inviting questions

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to interrupt me at any time.

If you have any question, please stop me at any time, and I will be happy to answer them.

Please stop me at any time if you have questions.

Discouraging questions

At the end of my talk, there will be a question and answer session. I would appreciate it if you could keep your questions till then.

I?ll be happy to answer any questions you have at the end of the presentation.

Signposting

Moving on (paragraphing)

OK. To begin, let?s look at ?

Let?s now move on/ turn to ?

I now want to go on to ?

That leads/ brings me to ?

I?d now like to move on/ turn to.

So far, we?ve looked at ?Now I?d like to ?

My next example is ?

Following on from this ?

Firstly? Secondly?Lastly ?

Moving on ?/ To move on to my next point, ?

To turn now to a different matter, ?

Time?s moving on, so let?s turn to the third area

To digress for a moment

Finishing off a part of your presentation

That?s all I have time for on (technical skills)

I think that covers everything on (technical skills)

Coming back to the point

To go back to what I was saying (earlier)

Going back for a moment to ?

But I?m digressing. Let?s go back to ?

To say a bit more about that

Adding more detail and information

To expand on ?/ I?d like to expand on ? here.

To elaborate on ?

Let?s just put this into some kind of perspective.

Perhaps I should expand on that a little

Summarising

Let me sum up. Firstly we looked at ?, secondly at ?, and last, but not least, at ?

So, to sum up, ?

To summarise,

To recap (on) (the main points),

Let me just try and sum up before we move on to ?

I would like to sum up by (saying ?)

What I am trying to say is?/The point I am trying to make is ?

Now that I am reaching the end of my talk I would like to draw together ?

Concluding

That brings me to the end of my talk.

Let me end by saying, ?

I?d like to finish by emphasising ?

Finally, may I say?

In conclusion, ?

And so to my closing point ?

I have one final observation?

I?d like to conclude by ?

Making a recommendation

So, what I would suggest is that we ?

So, I would recommend that ?

Handouts

I?ll be distributing the handouts in a few moments?

The handouts are over by the door?

Copies of my transparencies/ slides are on the table by the door.

I?ll be giving you a short handout at the end.

I?ll be giving out copies of my overhead transparencies at the end.

I have some handouts here, that I?ve prepared, that I will distribute at the end.

Questions

Inviting questions at the end

Thank you for your attention and if you have any questions or comments, I?ll be happy to answer them.

If there are any questions, I?ll do my best to answer them.

If anyone has any questions or comments to start off with ?

Thank you. I am sure you have some questions.

Acknowledging the question

Good point/ Mmm ? good question.

That?s a fair point.

Paraphrasing the question

If I?ve understood your question correctly, you?re saying ?

So, what you?re asking is ?

Well, the question is ? Is that right?

Let me check that I?ve understood your question. You?re asking ?.

Getting the questioner to rephrase it

Sorry, I?m not quite with you. Could you repeat that?

I?m afraid, I don?t quite see what you mean.

Postponing an answer

I?ll be dealing with that a little later on, so if you don?t mind I?d rather answer that question then.

I?ll be coming to that, so if you don?t mind I won?t answer your question straightaway. But I won?t forget.

Answering questions by admitting ignorance

I?m afraid I don?t know the answer to that one. Perhaps, someone here can help us out?

I?m sorry I don?t know the answer to that, but what I will do is find out and send/give you an answer before the end of the week.

Answering questions ? by saying you are not the right person to ask

I?m afraid that?s not my field, but I?m sure Mr/ Ms ? will be able to answer your question/ but I can put you in touch with ? who is working on.

I?m afraid I don?t have that information, but I can ask our ? department to send you the details.

Well, to be honest, I am not really the right person to ask about that.

Well, I think that goes beyond the scope of today?s presentation. Today I wanted to concentrate on ?, not go into?

Checking your answer

Is that OK?

Is that clearer now?

Does this answer your question?

Rephrasing

I?m sorry I didn?t make that clear. The situation is ?

So, basically what I am saying is ?

Sorry, let me rephrase that.

Winding up the question session

I think we have time for one more question.

If there are no other questions, I?ll finish there. Thank you very much.

Right, if there are no other questions, perhaps we should wrap it up here. Thank you.

Using visual aids:

I?d like you to look at this ?

Let me show you (something/?)

As you can see, ?

Let?s have a look at ?/ Have a look at this.

If you look at the screen, you?ll see?

This table/ diagram/ chart shows/ represents, etc. ?

On the right/left you can see?

Here, we can see ?

As you can see, the figures speak for themselves.

I?d like to point out ?

To give you the background to this?

I?ll let you read this one (pause).

Highlighting important information on a visual

I?d like (us) to look at this in more detail.

I?d like us to focus our attention on (one particularly important feature).

I?d like you to think about the significance of (these figures).

I?d like to point out (one or two interesting details).

I?d like to draw your attention to (the upper part of the chart).

If you look at it more closely, you will notice ?.

Interpreting graphs

I?m sure the implications of this are clear to all of us.

I?m sure the conclusions to be drawn from this are clear to all of us.

There is an important point to be made ?

Closing

I think that?s a good thing to stop. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for your attention/time/interest.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you very much.

Handovers (team presentation)

A: I will now hand over to Tim who will explain ?

B: Thank you Ann. [to the audience] I would like to spend the next fifteen minutes talking about ?

A: Now, I know some of you are concerned about ? So, I?ve asked Gary Gale to bring us up to date. Over to you, Gary.

B: Thanks, Michelle. To start off then, ?

Putting the start together

Good morning everyone. I?d like to start by saying what a pleasure it is to be inside these offices, which I have driven past every day for the last two years.

My name is Janet King, and I?m here to give you a short talk about cricket, and what cricket has taught me that I believe would be useful to your organization. I?ll be drawing on my experience as a player in my school?s first eleven, and a captain of my university team. The three areas I plan to cover are:

• Teamwork, including people management
• Energy
• Working under pressure

My talk will last about ten minutes, and then I?ll be happy to answer any cricket questions you have. I?ll be giving you a short handout at the end, but do take notes as well if you feel moved to take up cricket immediately!

First of all, you might wonder why I became interested in cricket in the first place ?

Dealing with questions

When someone in an audience asks a question it is a good idea to comment on it before you actually answer it. This actually gives you time to think.

There are four basic types of questions.

Good questions. Thank people for asking them. They help you to get your message across to the audience better.

Difficult questions. These are the ones you can?t or would prefer not to answer. Say you don?t know, offer to find out, address the question to the audience or ask the questioner what they think.

Unnecessary questions. You have already given this information. Point this out, answer briefly again, and move on.

Irrelevant questions. Try not to sound rude, but move on.

Put the following responses into 4 groups.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 180