/>Presentation
Before you start
There are five questions you should answer.
Who are you going to talk to?
You can plan better if you know something about your audience’s level of English and
their knowledge of your subject. If you know your audience, you can choose the right
vocabulary and style. You can also decide how to tailor your presentation to your
audience and how to make the introduction relevant and interesting.
Why are you giving presentation?
Are you trying to sell something to someone, persuade someone to do something, or tell
someone something? What do you want your audience to think or feel at the end of the
talk? What will their next step be? Is it necessary to give a presentation, or would it be
more appropriate to write a report oa a memo?
How long will your presentation be?
You need to know how much information to include and to save times for questions and
answers at the end. Generally, presentations don’t go for longer than 30 minutes. If
yours goes on for longer than this, there’s a risk your audience will get sleepy!
Where will your presentation be?
Make sure that you have a big enough room with all the equipment you need. If
possible, check the room before you go in so that you know the equipment works
properly and that there is enough lighting and ventilation.
When will your presentation be given?
If it’s right before lunch, or last thing on a Friday afternoon, your audience may not be
as attentive as at other times. Make especially sure your presentation is interesting and
informative if you are going to give it at a difficult time.
Planning
If you know who you are talking to and why you are talking to them, you can start to
put yourself in your audience’s position. You can think of what information to include
/>in your presentation and how to order it. You also think about an introduction to the
presentation which will interest your audience.
Your presentation can probably be split into five main areas:

“Today I am going to talk to you about how we can do this. My presentation will be in
three parts. Firstly I am going to look at the market and the background. Then I am
going to talk to you about our new products and how they fit in. Finally, I’m going to
examine some selling strategies that will help us increase our sales by 20%.”
“The presentation will probably take around 20 minutes. There will be time for
questions at the end of my talk”
Useful language for overviews
“My presentation is in four parts.”
“My presentation is divided into three main sections.”
“Firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally …”
“I’m going to …..
take a look at …
talk about …
examine …
tell you something about the background …
give you some facts and figures …
fill you in on history of …
concentrate on …
limit myself to the question of …”
“Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions.”
“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.”
The main body of the presentation
/>After you give your overview, you can begin with the presentation itself. By this time,
you should be feeling more relaxed and your audience will know why they are listening
to you.
During your planning stage, you will have organized your presentation into main points
as well as the supporting evidence. If you have each point on an index card, it will be
easy to follow your plan. For example, if you are giving a presentation to sales staff (as
in the example above), remind them occasionally of the benefit of what you are saying.

It’s important to introduce your visual to the audience. Useful language to
introduce visuals
“This graph shows you …”
“Take a look at this …”
“If you look at this, you will see …”
“I’d like you to look at this …”
“This chart illustrate the figures …”
“This graph gives you a break down of …”
When you show your visual to the audience, give them enough time to absorb the
information. Pause to allow them to look at the information and then explain why the
visual is important.
Useful language to say why a visual is important
“As you can see …”
“This clearly shows …”
“From this, we can understand how/why …”
“This part is particularly important …”
“This area of the chart is interesting …”
Using your voice