Introduction
1. Greeting the audience: "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen" "Good afternoon, everybody"
2. Introducing yourself "Let me take a minute to introduce myself. " "My name is ________ and I represent _______."
3. Introducing the subject: "My purpose today is to introduce our new range of..." "I am going to talk about..." "The subject of my talk is ... " "I'd like to give you an overview of ... "
4. Outlining the structure: * "My talk will be in (three) parts. First ... Second ... Third/Finally…" "I’ve divided my presentation into three parts. First, I’ll talk about ... Second ... Third ... " |
5. Timing "My talk will take about ten minutes. "
6. Policy on questions / discussion "Please interrupt if you have any questions." "I'll try to answer any of your questions after the presentation." "After the presentation there will be time for any questions (and a discussion). "
7. Ending the introduction "That's all for the introduction. " "So that concludes the introduction. "
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* When you drive on the roads, you know where you are. Each road has a name. Each town has a name. And each house has a number. You can look at the signposts for directions. It is easy to navigate the roads. You cannot get lost. But when you give a presentation, how can your audience know where they are? They know because you tell them. Because you put up signposts for them, at the beginning and all along the route. This technique is called 'signposting' (or 'signalling' / 'sequencing' / 'ordering'). Use this technique in all three parts of your presentation: introduction, body and conclusion!
Quick Communication Check
1 Subject
Complete the spaces in the five opening sentences of presentations.
2 Presentation structure
The classic presentation has three parts. Here are six sentences from the introduction to a presentation. Put them in the right order.
a) I'm going to talk about the new organization of our European Sales.
b) Afterwards you can ask any questions or say what you think.
c) Good afternoon, everyone. My presentation today is about changes in our organization.
d) Finally I'll describe the new arrangement - the new system.
e) First I'll describe the current situation - how things are now.
f) Then I'll explain why we have to change this.
3 Introducing your presentation
Make verb + noun phrases by matching the verbs below to the right words.
e.g. 1.- e
to talk about a) questions
to explain b) an overview
to say c) a few words
to give d) the problem
to divide e) something
to answer f) the talk into x parts