Lesson 7: Presentations

Have you ever given a presentation in

English? If you have, you know it can be
quite difficult to think of the right words
with the pressure of everyone watching!
Don't worry, because in this lesson you'll
learn a number of English phrases that will
help your presentations sound polished and
professional.

Introduction
At the beginning of your presentation, it's
good to do three things:

 Introduce yourself and your topic

 Give a summary/overview
 Tell the audience how you will handle questions

To introduce yourself, say your name, what company you work for, and/or what
your specific job is:

 "Good afternoon. My name is (your name) and I'm the (your job) at (your
company)."
 For example: "Good afternoon. My name is Shayna and I'm the
Marketing Director at ABC English School."

You can say "good morning," "good afternoon," or "good evening" depending on
what time of day it is. Do NOT say "good night" - because that is a phrase used to
say "goodbye."

Then, you can tell the audience what your general topic is. Here are two phrases
you can use - you can complete these phrases by simply saying the name of your
presentation.
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  "My presentation is about..."
 "Today, I'd like to talk to you about..."

It's always a good idea to give the audience a summary or overview of your
presentation - this means you quickly tell them the main points:

 "Let me quickly take you through today's presentation."

 "Let me give you an overview of the presentation."
 "First, I'm going to talk about... (topic 1)"
 "After that, we'll be taking a look at... (topic 2)"
 "Then, we'll consider... (topic 3)"
 "Finally, I'll explain... (final topic)"

You can mix and match the phrases: for example, you can say "First, we'll
consider..." or "First, I'll explain..." The phrases "After that" and "Then" are used to
move to the next topic, and the word "finally" is used for describing the last topic in
your presentation.

Next, tell the audience if you want people to ask you questions in the middle of the
presentation, or only at the end. Here's a phrase for each one:

 "Please feel free to interrupt me if you have any questions."

 "I'll leave some time for questions at the end of the presentation."

Making Transitions between Topics

To begin the first topic, you can use these phrases:

 "I'd like to start by... [showing you some data]."

 "Let's begin by... [looking at the project's history]."

In this context, the words "start" and "begin" are the same. Notice that after the
word "by," we use a verb in the -ING form. As an alternative, you can use "with"
and a noun or noun phrase. For example:

 "I'd like to start with some data."

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  "Let's begin with the project's history."

To transition to another topic, you can use these phrases:

 "Now we'll move on to..."

 "Now let's look at..."
 "Now I'd like to discuss..."
 "Now let me turn to..."

You'll notice that all of them begin with the word "now" - this is a signal to your
audience that you're introducing a new topic.

Referring to Slides / Graphics

If you're giving a PowerPoint presentation, you'll want to refer to the slides, which can
show pictures, maps, graphs, charts, tables, etc.

map:

graph:

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pie chart:

flow chart:

table:

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  Here are some phrases you can use:
"This slide shows... [a map of the area in which we plan to expand]."
 "Looking at this slide, we can see that... [the number of accidents has decreased
significantly in the past year]."
 "As you can see from this slide... [sales are gradually increasing among
customers aged 18-24]."

In the next lesson, you'll learn more about how to describe numbers, trends, and
statistics.

Talking about Cause and Effect

One important element of your presentation is making logical connections between

your ideas - especially cause and effect. The "cause" happens first, and the "effect"
is the result. For example, if it is raining, and a baseball game is cancelled, the rain is
the "cause" and the cancellation is the "effect."

Phrases to describe causes:

 The reason is that...

The last three issues of the newsletter have been published late. The reason is
that there have been delays in printing.
 This is due to…
Our processing time has gotten 30% faster. This is due to improvements in the
software.
 Since
The employees went home early since there was no more work to do.
 Because / Because of

The difference is that because is followed by a subject + verb, and because of is

followed by a noun:

 The game was canceled because it was raining.

(it = subject)
(was raining = verb)
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  The game was canceled because of the rain.
(the rain = noun)

Phrases to describe effects:

 Therefore (usually used for a logical conclusion)

This product is more expensive to produce. Therefore, the profit margins are
lower.
 Consequently (more formal)
The company didn’t get the proper construction permit. Consequently,
we had to pay a fine for non-compliance.
 As a result
We’ve invested in better safety equipment, and the number of accidents
has gone down as a result.
 So
The advertisements were successful, so now we plan to expand the
program.

The words "therefore" and "consequently" are typically used at the beginning of a
sentence. “As a result” can be used at the beginning or the end of a sentence, and
the word "so" is typically used in the middle of a sentence.

Rephrasing / Correcting

What do you do if you say something incorrect or confusing during your

presentation? First, don't panic! Native English speakers make mistakes during
presentations too - so it's not the end of the world. Then, use one of these phrases
to get back on track:

Phrases for saying something again using different words:

 "Let me put that another way."

 "Let me rephrase that."
 "In other words..."

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Phrases for correcting a mistake:

 "I'm sorry - that's not correct. I meant to say that...

[we've hired 15 new employees, not 50]."
 Excuse me + correction with emphasis.
For example: "The school was founded in 1999 - excuse me - nineteen-
eighty-nine.")

Conclusion

At the end of your presentation, you can give a brief summary of your main points or the
most important message. Here are some phrases for that:

 "In conclusion..."
 “I’ll close by summing up the main points.”
 "Let me briefly remind you what we've covered."

As your final phrase, you can say:

 "Thank you for your attention."

Questions

To inform the audience that you are ready to answer questions, you can say:

 "Does anyone have any questions?"

(usually done in a smaller meeting/group)
 "I'd like to open it up for questions now."
(usually done when presenting to a larger group)

If you didn't hear the person's question, you can say:

 "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that – could you repeat it?"

If you didn't understand the question, you can say:

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  "I'm sorry, I don't quite understand your question - would you mind
rephrasing it?"

The expressions "I'm sorry" and "would you mind" are included for politeness.

If the question requires information that you don't have at the moment, but that you
could find out later, you can say this:

 "That's an interesting question. I don't actually know off the top of my head,
but I'll try to get back to you later with an answer."

If you can't answer the question, but someone else can, then say:

 "Unfortunately, I'm not the best person to answer that - but I can put you in
touch with a colleague of mine."

Finally, if the answer to the question will be very long, you can say:

 "I'm afraid that would take a long time to explain, but maybe you and I can
talk about it more in-depth afterwards."

This means that you don't want to answer the question immediately, but you are
willing to talk to the person about it after the presentation.

You've finished Lesson 7! Try the quiz to test your vocabulary, and log in
tomorrow for lesson 8 - we'll go into more detail about how to talk about
numbers, statistics, and trends.

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Quiz: Lesson 7

1) "Let me give you an of the presentation."

A. overview
B. oversight
C. overlook

2) "I'll leave some time for questions at the of the presentation."

A. conclude
B. final
C. end

3) "I'd like to start some statistics from last year."

A. by
B. for
C. with

4) "Now we'll on to the results of the training."

A. move
B. run
C. jump

5) "This slide the damage caused by the equipment failure."

A. does
B. shows
C. sees

6) "The main for the increase in sales was the online advertising
campaign we launched in June."

A. reason

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 B. motive
C. consequence

7) "There were three serious accidents in the factory last year. , the
company decided to close it until the infrastructure could be improved."

A. Because
B. However
C. Therefore

8) " me say that in another way."

A. Let
B. Leave
C. Permit

9) "We now have operations in twelve - - thirteen countries in

Asia."

A. as a result
B. excuse me
C. in other words

10) "Thank you very much for your ."

A. attendance
B. attraction
C. attention

11) "I'm sorry, I don't quite understand your question. Would you
rephrasing it?"

A. make
B. mind
C. think

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12) "Unfortunately, I'm not the person to answer that question."
A.
most
B. best
C. worst

13) "I'm that would take a long time to explain."

A. afraid
B. nervous
C. scared

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