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Giving reports and presentations in English

Introducing the subject

You can say what you are going to talk about:

• Right at the beginning of the introduction to your presentation

• By leaving your statement of purpose until the latter part of the introduction, having gradually laid the background to it.

Stating the purpose

Do you want to …

inform, describe, explain (how\why), argue that…, propose that…, suggest that…, consider, review, convince (the audience), analyze, examine, outline, recommend that…, look at

Ex. In my report ( presentation) I’ll be explaining…

I’m going to explain

Today I’d like to talk about…

The subject of this report is…

Inversion can create impact: “What I’d like to talk about today is…”, “What I’ll be explaining in my report is…”

Giving an overview

Your introduction should offer some “signpoints” for the audience, telling them the main points to be developed and the order in which they will be developed. This defines for the audience the limits of your report and focuses them on the aspects of the topic you wish to talk about.

Ex. I’m going to divide my talk into X parts.

My report will be in X main parts.

I’d like to outline X areas which I shall be looking at.

There are X points I’d like to make.

First, I’ll give you… Second,… Lastly…

In the first part I’ll…And then I’ll…

Firstly I’d like to… Secondly I want to…

Firstly we can…Then I’d like to turn to…and then move on to…And I’ll finish with…

The body of the presentation

(Signposting the route through a report)

Showing where one part ends and a new one starts makes the structure of the report clearer to follow.

Ex. I’ll begin by + -ing

Let’s start with + noun

Now let’s look at + ing

If I could now turn to…

Now, turning to…

Now, what about….?

Let me now move on to…

It is also useful to offer summaries at the end of major parts of your report or after key points.

Ex. That completes my overview of…so now I’d like to move on to…

So that’s the general picture for…. And now let’s look at…

Analyzing information

Giving one main reason:

Ex. The main explanation for this is…

A particular reason is…

A key problem is…

Giving more than one main reason:

Ex. There are two reasons/explanations for this. First,… Second,…

This is/can be explained by two factors. Firstly,… Secondly,…

This is due to… and also to…

One reason for this is… Another reason is…

Commenting on the information:

When you give your subjective comments to factual information, a slight pause helps the audience to distinguish them, even where both within one sentence.

Recommending action

Show that you have looked at different ways of dealing with a situation by explaining the alternatives to your favored proposal:

Ex. We’ve considered/looked at three options

One way to solve this problem is… Another is to…

There are two alternatives…

The first option is to… But what about the second option?

(outline both the benefits and weaknesses for each of the options you consider)

To recommend:

Ex. My suggestion would be

our proposal is to

The recommendation -----//-----

We recommend setting up a….

I’d like to suggest -----//-----

I propose ------//----

We suggest you set up a……

I recommend --------//--------

We propose --------//-------

Concluding the presentation

(Giving a summary).

This is often needed before you give your final conclusions. A review of the key points helps to reinforce them for your audience.

Ex. So, to sum up… To summarize…

As I’ve explained… As we’ve seen…

Summarizing in this way will often involve generalizing about specific cases that were dealt with in the report (presentation):

Ex. Generally speaking… In general…

All in all… On the whole…

Concluding

Ex. Lastly I’d like to…

Finally ------//-------

In conclusion -------//------

I’d like to finish by…

The conclusion will often take the form of recommendation or call for action. It may be a challenge or it may consist in a dynamic concluding statement to reinforce your message.

Giving supporting documentation.

This is the best stage to give out handouts, cost breakdowns etc.:

Ex. I have a detailed cost breakdowns which I’ll be passing round/handing out now.

In the folder which I’ll be distributing you’ll find copies of…

Asking for questions and closing formalities.

Ex. Do you have any questions? Does anyone have any further questions?

If anyone has any questions? I’d be happy to answer any questions.

I would welcome any comments or suggestions.

Thank you for your attention.

Involving the audience

The introduction of your presentation is your opportunity to interest the audience in what you are going to say.

• Include some unusual or interesting facts or statistics about the topic

• Illustrate the point of your report with examples or stories

• Ask the audience questions, rhetorical questions – a great way of giving one-way communication with a large group

Ex. It’s a question of whether…or…

So what is a …?

What is the future of?

How will this affect us?

Involving the audience is important at all stages of a presentation.