Presentation Skills: Seminar 1

a) What do you think makes a good academic presentation? Think about the following
points and make notes on your thoughts.

 Body language and gestures

 Speaking: pronunciation, emphasis and pace

 Visuals: PowerPoint slides, figures and images

 Presentation structure

 Use of evidence

Matthew Bayly (2023) EAP1003M: English for Academic and Specific Purposes
 b) Listen to the presentation ‘Problems of and Solutions for Management in Business.’ Make
notes on what the presentation does well for the points from question a.

Body language
and gestures

Speaking:
pronunciation,
emphasis and
pace

Visuals:
PowerPoint
slides, figures
and images

Presentation
structure

Use of
evidence

Matthew Bayly (2023) EAP1003M: English for Academic and Specific Purposes
c) Like an essay, an academic presentation needs an introduction, body section and a
conclusion. Look at the content points below and decide if they would go into an
introduction, body section or a conclusion.

 Greet the audience and introduce yourself.

 Thank the audience and ask if they have any questions.
 Introduce the topic and purpose of the presentation.
 Presents the main points of the presentation and explain their importance.
 Give an overview of the content of what the presentation will cover and its structure.
 Reminds the audience what the topic and purpose of the presentation was.
 Uses evidence to support main points.
 Define any key terms or words that the listener will need to know.
 Summarises the most important points made in the presentation.

d) Look at the example presentation script below. Can you identify where the content
points from question c have been used?

Hello, my name is Matthew and today I would like to speak to you about problems of and solutions
for management in business. Currently, problems and solutions linked to business management
have been an object of research within the literature. Here, management can be defined as
‘processes which link to the organisation and control of a team to perform a function.’ During this
presentation, I will focus on one problem of management in business and suggest a possible solution
for this. Firstly, I will discuss a problem faced in managing a business, namely a lack of effective
communication which may cause issues in staff understanding their responsibilities; poor team
morale; and low productivity. After this, I will present a solution to this problem, suggesting that
having regular and structured meetings and communication between managers and staff may help
resolve the issue outlined. Managers should have set team meetings; personalised catch-up
meetings with individual staff; and utilise technology such as emails and text chat software to keep
in regular contact with team members. Finally, this presentation will end with a conclusion
summarising its main points and allowing audience members to ask any questions they may have.

First, let me turn towards discussing a problem to management in business, specifically

communicating effectively. A lack of effective communication can cause issues in staff clearly

Matthew Bayly (2023) EAP1003M: English for Academic and Specific Purposes
knowing their roles and responsibilities. Here, Spink et al. (2023) have noted that those new to
management roles can often display poor communication skills leading to confusion amongst their
staff on what it is they exactly needed to do on a day-to-day basis. Secondly, a manager who lacks
communication skills can inadvertently negatively affect team morale. Indeed, Priestley and
Gildersleve (2022) have concluded that a lack of effective communication can impact staff emotions,
leading to feelings of confusion and sometimes animosity towards management. Thirdly, poor
communication can impact the efficiency of a team and lower their effectiveness. For example, in a
study of ten departments within a banking firm, those exhibiting low productivity often also
reported lack of clear direction from managers (Gambles, 2019). All in all, it appears that a lack of
effective communication skills can impact businesses negatively in several different ways.

Now, I would like to suggest a possible solution to the problem outlined above. One potential
solution to a lack of effective communication from management is to have structured touch points
of communication between managers and staff members. Firstly, managers should organise set
team meetings which include an agenda, minutes and action points with clear deadlines for staff to
act on. Indeed, Tomkins (2021) has stated that regular structured meetings are essential to
developing good communication in businesses. Moreover, whole team meetings should be followed
up by individual catch-up meetings between a manager and individual staff members. According to
Hall et al. (2019) personalised catch-up meetings allow managers to track the progress of individual
team members whilst also allowing a space for any issues or worries to be raised in confidentiality.
In addition, managers should utilise technology such as emails and text chat software to stay in
regular communication with staff. This is a point raised by Green (2023) who has noted the increase
in working remotely or at home within businesses, necessitating the importance of technology for
effective communication between managers and staff. All in all, I would like to suggest that having
regular and planned points of communication between managers and staff may go far in solving the
issue of poor managerial communication skills in business.

In summary, this presentation has explored one problem for management in business and suggested
a possible solution to this. Firstly, I argued that poor managerial communication skills is a problem in
business, often leading to staff being confused about their roles and responsibilities; negative team
morale; and low efficiency and productivity. Secondly, in order to solve this issue I proposed that
managers and staff should have regular set meetings, revolving around structured whole team
meetings; personalised catch-up meetings with each staff member; and utilising technology to

Matthew Bayly (2023) EAP1003M: English for Academic and Specific Purposes
communicate regularly with staff working remotely. Thank you for listening to me today and now I
would like to ask if you have any questions?

e) Signposting language (today I will show; firstly, I would like to talk about; therefore) is
used in presentations to show the direction of argument and structure. Look again at the
example presentation script and identify where signposting language has been used.

f) Look at the example presentation language phrases below. When do you think we could
use them in our presentation?

 My purpose today is…

 As can be seen here…
 In summary, I have discussed…
 This presentation will cover…
 If we look at this slide...
 I may just mention that…
 This presentation is divided into…parts….
 Now, let’s move on to…
 The [first] point I would like to address is…
 I’d like to turn to…
 I would like you to look at this image…
 I will talk to you today for around [10] minutes…
 To recap, I have…
 Let me raise this point next…
 This point can be supported by…
 This brings me to my next point…

Matthew Bayly (2023) EAP1003M: English for Academic and Specific Purposes
g) Using what you have learnt today, think of five things that you will need to do to
succeed in assessment 3: presentation.

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Matthew Bayly (2023) EAP1003M: English for Academic and Specific Purposes