Presentation Signpost Expressions

Starting
1. Good morning/afternoon/evening Starting
(everyone, ladies and gentlemen, 1. Good day to everyone
colleagues)

2. Thank you very much for inviting me to

speak here today.
3. I am honored to have the opportunity
to share our research with you here
today.
2. Thank you for inviting me to be your
speaker.
3. I am humbled to be invited to share
with you our research

4. I am happy to have this chance to speak

to you (al) today about… 4. I am grateful for the chance to talk to
you about...
Introducing topic
1. Today, I’m going to talk about… Introducing topic
1. This evening, morning, afternoon. I will
2. As you can see, I’m here today to talk to be talking about...
you about… 2. As of this moment, I will be presenting
to you about...
Explaining structure
1. (Especially important if the structure of
your talk is a little different from Explaining structure
normal, or you have a very long 1.
presentation with many parts).

2. I’ve divided my presentation into

two/three/four/several parts.
3. First, I’ll explain XXX and then I’ll move
onto talk about…
Showing respect for listener’s knowledge
1. As you may know,
2. As you can see,
3. As you may be aware,
4. I know many of you are familiar with…
2. My presentation is divided into several
parts
3. I will first explain about XXX then
about... after
Showing respect for listener’s knowledge
1. As we all know
2. If you would look at...
3. If you would notice,

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 Presentation Signpost Expressions

4. You may be familiar with...

5. Many of you may have performed... 5.

6. I am sure, you are all familiar with X’s 6. I am confident that you are accustomed
work on with X's works

Moving from section to section

1. So let me start by… explaining the Moving from section to section
background 1. Let's start with the background of...

2. So I’ll start with…

2. i will begin with..
3. Right, so first…
3. First, let's talk about
4. Well moving onto…
4. Moving forward...
5. Next, I’ll talk about…
5. Now, I will be talking about...
6. Right, was that clear? So, I’ll move
onto… 6. Clear? Let's move to the next topic

7. Well, what does this all mean? So what

is the significance of this? 7. Why am I talbing about this? What is
the importance?
8. Let’s take a moment to look at a few
other reports… 8. Now let's check on other reports..

9. So, what have other people said about

this? 9. What do you think the people says
about this topic...
10. OK, so what’s next…
10.
11. Right, I’ll introduce/share our materials
and methods. 11.

12. So Finally,
12.
13. That brings us to my last point
13.
Looking at visuals
1. Now let’s look at… Looking at visuals

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1. If you would look at.... 6. Don’t worry if this isn’t so clear now, I’ll
explain the details later…
2. May I focus your attention on the table/
chart/figure 2.

3. You’ll notice that…

3.
4. OK so you can see a summary of our
results here… 4.

5. Please focus on the second row/the

post operative findings in patient 2 5.

Underlining points
1. Please remember that… Underling points
1.
2. It’s important to remember that…
2.
3. This is important/significant because…
3.
4. You’re probably thinking that… and
you’re right/but this would be a 4.
mistake…

5. Please notice that…

5.

6. Note this point… 6.

Referring backwards and forwards

1. You’ll remember I said… Referring backwards and forwards
1.
2. Just to repeat what I said earlier,
2.
3. As I mentioned earlier…
3.
4. Do you remember I said…?
4.
5. I’ll talk more about this later,
5.

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 Presentation Signpost Expressions

6.

7. More on this later on. 7.

8. The details will come later. 8.

9. Can I come back to this point? 9.

Referring to study weaknesses Referring to study weaknesses

1. You may be able to see the weaknesses 1.
in our study

2. Of course our study cannot conclusively 2.

say that…

3. We need to look at X in more detail and 3.

a further study with Y might confirm
our findings.

Summarizing Summarizing
1. OK, so in summary… 1. To sum it up

2. So where does this leave us? Well we 2. We are left with...

need to:

3. We can agree that… 3. We share the opinion that...

4. Our main point is that… 4. Our focus is on...

5. We have raised the following questions: 5. Now we have the following questions.

6. Our study has proved that: 6. The study we made has proven

7. We believe our study raises many 7. Our study gives gives meaning to a lot
questions about…. of subjects

8. We believe our study may be the first

step in… 8.

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 Presentation Signpost Expressions

Finishing up:
Finishing up: 1.
1. I hope my rather rapid explanation was
clear.
2.
2. Thank you very much for your attention
3.
3. Thank you for listening
4.
4. Well that’s all from me today. It’s been
a great pleasure to share this with you
today.
5.
5. Thank you very much.

Starting question-time
Starting question-time 1. I'm open to questions..
1. I’ll be happy to answer questions…
2. I'm sure you have questions in mind
2. If you have any questions, I’ll be happy
to try to answer.
3. Any clarifications?
3. Does anyone have any questions?

4. OK, so question time! Anyone? 4. The floor is now available for questions!

5. Unfortunately we seem to have run out 5. Im sorry we dont have enough time.
of time. If anyone has any questions, I’ll You can email me for other questions
be happy to try to answer them
privately…/ you can see my email
address here…

Responding to tricky questions Responding to tricky questions

1. Thank you... It’s a good questions and 1. We will be looking onto that in our
one we are trying to address in our upcoming studies...
follow up studies…

2. Ah yes. That occurred to us too. We 2. That has happened to us and we tried

tried to account for it by… to solve it by....

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 Presentation Signpost Expressions
3. I’m afraid I have no idea! Perhaps we
can look at that in more detail in a
follow up study. Do you have any
suggestions?
4. Let me check I understand you clearly.
Do you mean…? / So do you mean….? /
So are you saying…?
5. Could you repeat that? / I didn’t quite
catch that… / I’m not sure I’m following
you…
6. I’m afraid my English is failing me.
7. Ah… I’m afraid I don’t have that
information with me now. If I can get
your email address after this session, I’ll
mail it to you.
3. I'm sorry it is not clear to me. We will
conduct a follow up study for that. Any
comments?
4. To clarify your question is it....
5. Could you rephrase your question it is
unclear
My english is running out sorry about
that.
6. My apologies,,I don't have the answer
as of the moment can I get your contact
number so I can address the situation if
I get the answer