ORAL PRESENTATIONS

DO:
• Write short notes in point form.

•Have your notes ready in case you forget anything.

•Use more formal language.

•Use short, simple sentences to express your ideas clearly.

•Don’t speak too quickly.

•Speak loudly enough to be heard everywhere in the room.

•Practise your presentation. If possible record yourself and listen to your presentation. If
you can’t record yourself, ask a friend to listen to you.

•Make eye contact with all members of your audience whenever possible.

• Use hand gestures.

•Allow the audience to ask questions at the end of your presentation.

DON’T:
•Write out the whole presentation and learn every word by heart. 

•Write out the whole presentation and read it aloud.

• Remember you only have 3 minutes.

•Use very informal language.

•Only look at your notes.

SLIDES

When designing your slides remember:

Present only one idea per slide.

Write only keywords or ONE SHORT SENTENCE.

Include numbers if necessary: long numbers are easier to grasp when they are written

Include as many pictures (or graphs) as possible – a picture is worth a thousand words.

USEFUL LANGUAGE FOR PRESENTATIONS

Explain what your presentation is about at the beginning:

I’m going to talk about ...

I’d like to talk about ...
The main focus of this presentation is ...

Use these expressions to order your ideas:

First of all, ...

Firstly, ...
Then, ...
Secondly, ...
Next, ...
Finally, ...
Lastly, ...
To sum up, ...
In conclusion, ...

Use these expressions to add more ideas from the same point of view:

In addition, ...
What’s more, ...
Also, ...
Added to this, ...

To introduce the opposite point of view you can use these words and expressions:

However, ...
On the other hand, ...
Then again, …
 READY, SET, GO!
You are now ready to stand up in front of your audience and deliver a memorable speech.
Relax, take a deep breath, and just do it.

In conclusion, remember that the more oral presentations you make, the
more confident you will be and the easier they will become.

View every opportunity to make a presentation as a challenge and as

practice for your next big presentation!