Effective Presentation Skills – Briefing English

12/24/2009

Peiling Hsia

Standing in front of an audience and giving a presentation, for most people, is as stressful and painful as going to dentist and getting root canal.

There are very few people who have a natural talent for delivering outstanding presentation.

On the other hand, prudence, hard work, and practice can carry the rest of us into the “very good” level of presentation skills.

Being able to communicate effectively is a skill that benefits you for all your life.

Whether you are going to stay in academic life or get involved in any number of business related job opportunities, successful communication skills can help you reach your goals more effectively. Making a good presentation requires practice !

The nine characteristics of a powerful speaker.

1. Be enthusiastic

2. Be organized

3. Audience focus

4. Be flexible

5. Sense of humor

6. Appropriate body language

7. Appropriate vocabulary

8. Vary voice tone

9. Focus on purpose

Briefing English

Presentation Skills for Public Speaking

A presentation is a formal talk to one or more people that "presents" ideas or information in a clear, structured way. People are sometimes afraid of speaking in public, but if you follow a few simple rules, giving a presentation is actually very easy.

1. Preparation2. Equipment3. Delivery4. Language5. The Presentation

1. Preparation Preparation is everything!

All presentations have a common objective. People give presentations because they want to communicate in order to:

■ inform ■ train ■ persuade ■ sell

(1) Objective(2) Audience(3) Venue(4) Method(5) Content(6) Structure(7) Notes(8) Rehearsal

"Why am I making this presentation?"

"Who am I making this presentation to?" “How much do they know already and what will they expect from you?”

Time and length

“How should I make this presentation?"

"What should I say?"

Most presentations are organized in three parts, followed by questions: beginning, middle, end

Reading a text is boring! Practice makes perfect!

2. Equipment

3. Delivery

'Delivery' refers to the way in which you actually deliver or perform or give your presentation. Delivery is a vital aspect of all presentations.

(1) Nerves (2) Audience rapport(3) Body language(4) Cultural considerations(5) Voice quality(6) Visual aids

Try to speak slowly and calmly. Build a warm and friendly relationship with your audience. Enthusiasm is contagious.

Avoid any repetitive and irritating gestures.

Vary your voice - speed, intonation, volume.

Avoid cultural misunderstanding.

Keep the information on each visual aid to a minimum.

4. Language

(1) Simplicity and Clarity

(2) Signposting

• Use short words and short sentences.

• Use active verbs instead of passive verbs.

Examples: (Which is easier to understand? Which is more immediate? ) Toyota sold two million cars last year. Two million cars were sold by Toyota last year.

• Let your audience know where they are and the structure of your

presentation.

• Make a list of useful expressions to signpost the various parts of

your presentation.

Useful expression of signposting

Signposting

Function Language

Introducing the subject I'd like to start by... Let's begin by... First of all, I'll... Starting with... I'll begin by...

Finishing one subject... Well, I've told you about... That's all I have to say about... We've looked at... So much for...

...and starting another Now we'll move on to... Let me turn now to... Next... Turning to... I'd like now to discuss... Let's look now at... The next slide is about… The following side that I’m going

to present you is…

Analyzing a point and giving

recommendations

Where does that lead us? Let's consider this in more

detail... What does this mean for ABC? Translated into real terms...

Giving an example For example,... A good example of this is... As an illustration,... To give you an example,... To illustrate this point...

Dealing with questions

We'll be examining this point in more detail later on...

I'd like to deal with this question later, if I may...

I'll come back to this question later in my talk...

Perhaps you'd like to raise this point at the end...

I won't comment on this now...

Summarizing and concluding

In conclusion,... Right, let's sum up, shall we? I'd like now to recap... Let's summarize briefly what

we've looked at... Finally, let me remind you of

some of the issues we've covered...

If I can just sum up the main points...

Ordering Firstly...secondly...thirdly...lastly...

First of all...then...next...after

that...finally... To start with...later...to finish up...

5. The Presentation Most presentations are divided into 3 main parts:

1 INTRODUCTION

(Questions)2 BODY

3 CONCLUSION

Questions  

Presentation introduction - essentials

Your presentation should start with a short introduction about you (or your group), your topics, and the format of your presentation.

In general, your introduction could conclude some of the following:

- Greeting- Your name- Group member- Your position- Your topic- Your purpose- The length of your presentation- Outline- Question time

Purpose:

State the main purpose of your presentation as it relates to your topics.

Your purpose statement should seem achievable and possible to establish to your audience in the amount of time you are given.

When you state your purpose, make sure that you are specific

“Today I’d like to talk about jeans.” (too general) “Today I’d like to talk about how jeans have

influenced the way people dress at work.” (specific)

“The purpose of my presentation is to discuss advertisement.” (weak)

“The purpose of my presentation is to talk about sex in advertisement.” (better)

“The purpose of my presentation is to explain how the uses of sex in advertisements influence teenagers in Taiwan.” (even better)

“The purpose of my presentation is to persuade everyone here to convert to (my religion) today.” (specific, but doesn’t seem achievable)

“The purpose of my presentation is to explain the benefits of (my religion).”

(achievable, but not specific enough) “The purpose of my presentation is to explain ho

w (my religion) defines the relationship between parents and children. “

(specific and achievable)

Useful language for making an English presentation

Opening a presentation Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is ... I’m the (new marketin

g manager). Welcome to ....., my name is.... I’m pleased to be here Thank you for coming. It’s very nice to see you all here today. Ladies and gentlemen. It's an honor to have the opportunity to address suc

h a distinguished audience. It’s an honor for me to visit (company) today. Good morning. Let me start by saying a few words about my background. Welcome to (company). I know I’ve met some of you already, but for those

I haven’t, my name is*** Today I would like to give this presentation for defining our problem and giv

e a solution.

Introducing report subject I’d like to talk to you today about ....... I’m going to present the recent..... I will now brief you on..... The topic of today’s conference is .... The topic of my presentation is The focus of my speech is ...... We are here today to learn... The purpose of this presentation is to... The aim of this presentation is to introduce you to ****/ tell you about ***/ talk about ***. The reason why I’m here today is to talk about / discuss ***. It’s my pleasure to give you a presentation on (topic). This talk is designed to present the recent (topic). First of all, I’m going to brief you on the recent development and trends of the LCD mar

ket.

Report outline I’ve divided my presentation into five sections/parts. This talk is segmented into five parts: firstly / secondly /

eventually. We can break this down into the following fields: first of all / then /

next / finally. We can break this area down into the following fields: a, b, c… The subject can be looked at under the following headings: a, b,

c… I’d like to begin by/secondly/thirdly/lastly To start with/later/to finish up I shall only take 15 minutes of your time. This should only last 15 minutes. This presentation contains 3 parts. The presentation is composed of 3 parts.. First of all, … I’ve divided my speech into 3 parts / sections. They are … Let’s start with ….First, we’ll talk about.. then…

Introduce parts of structure I’ll start with… / To begin with, … / First / first of all Step one is to (verb) / Next / second / then / After that, we’ll discuss… And then we come to (topic) Finally / third / to close / Lastly / last of al Let’s go back what we were discussing earlier. Let’s go to next page. I'd now like to move on to…

This page is telling us that … / This page is about … According to the latest study, … From this page, we can see… As you can seen from this page,… Statistics show that…

Introduce visuals this page is to show … this slide indicates that … Please take a look at … I’d like to direct your attention to this slide.. This graph shows…. / The graph is about… Here we can see…. / As you can see… As you can see from this slide… The graph represents… / This graph shows you… I’d also like to draw your attention to… If you look at this, you will see… I'd like you to look at this… This chart illustrates the figures… This clearly shows … From this, we can understand how / why… This area of the chart is interesting…

Inviting questions I’d be glad to answer any questions at the end of my presentation. If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to interrupt at any tim

e. If you have any questions, please stop me at any time, and I will be

happy to answer your questions. Please interrupt me if there’s something unclear. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation. I'd be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation. 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.

End of presentation

Thank you for your input and patience. Thank you for your attention. Thank you for your listening. This is for today’s presentation. Thank you for p

articipating. I hope you will have gained an insight into… I’d like to pass my presentation to the next spea

ker/ presenter…let’s welcome Dr. Wang.

Vocal Delivery

paralanguage

Paralanguage refers to the non-verbal elements of communication used to modify meaning and convey emotion. It includes pitch, volume, and intonation of speech.

When do you speak louder? Do you peak too fast or too slow? Do you have an accent? Does your voice have a high pitch?

The basic vocal characteristics for an effective delivery are:

Breathing Volume Pace / Rate Articulation Intonation / pitch Stress pause

Tips of Effective Public Speaking Know your audience Use a strong opening statement or question to interest your

audience. Begin with something to get the attention of the audience.

Be energetic in delivery. Structure your speech. Plan the content of your presentation Tell your own story somewhere in the presentation... To add interest and understanding to your speech, include a visua

l aid. Look at the audience as you speak. To have consistently good eye contact , not to read your speech. Include a "wow" factor in your speech. Consider using a touch of humor in your speech. Leave the audience with something to think about. Time control

Web links

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/leechihyin/8402384 (Briefing English)

http://www.englishclub.com/speaking/presentations.htm (English presentation and public speaking)

http://www.theenglishweb.com/ (Business English)