Presentations in English

A presentation is a formal talk to one or more people that «presents» ideas or information in a clear, structured way. People are sometimes afraid of speaking in public, but if you follow a few simple rules, giving a presentation is actually very easy.

Karin Silvina Hiebaum – International Press

This tutorial guides you through each stage of giving a presentation in English, from the initial preparation to the conclusion and questions and answers. This tutorial is itself set out like a mini-presentation. You can follow it logically by starting at the presentations introduction page and then clicking on the link at the foot of each page, or you can jump direct to the section you want from the list of contents on each page.

«Well Done!!!! All the basics, in an easy to use, easy to follow format! Finally, my students have some high quality, free material to use!»

Presentation Preparation

This page discusses the vital importance of preparing before giving a presentation and how we can best achieve that.
Can you name the 3 most important things when giving any presentation?

Number 1 is . . . preparation

Number 2 is . . . preparation

Number 3 is . . . preparation

Preparation is everything.
With good preparation and planning you will be totally confident and less nervous. And your audience will feel your confidence. Your audience, too, will be confident. They will be confident in you. And this will give you control. Control of your audience and of your presentation. With control, you will be ‘in charge’ and your audience will listen positively to your message.

Objective
Before you start to prepare a presentation, you should ask yourself: «Why am I making this presentation?» Do you need to inform, to persuade, to train or to sell? Your objective should be clear in your mind. If it is not clear in your mind, it cannot possibly be clear to your audience.

Audience
«Who am I making this presentation to?» Sometimes this will be obvious, but not always. You should try to inform yourself. How many people? Who are they? Business people? Professional people? Political people? Experts or non-experts? Will it be a small, intimate group of 4 colleagues or a large gathering of 400 competitors? How much do they know already and what will they expect from you?

Venue
«Where am I making this presentation?» In a small hotel meeting-room or a large conference hall? What facilities and equipment are available? What are the seating arrangements?

Time and length
«When am I making this presentation and how long will it be?» Will it be 5 minutes or 1 hour? Just before lunch, when your audience will be hungry, or just after lunch, when your audience will be sleepy?

Method
How should I make this presentation?» What approach should you use? Formal or informal? Lots of visual aids or only a few? Will you include some anecdotes and humour for variety?

Content
«What should I say?» Now you must decide exactly what you want to say. First, you should brainstorm your ideas. You will no doubt discover many ideas that you want to include in your presentation. But you must be selective. You should include only information that is relevant to your audience and your objective. You should exclude all other ideas. You also need to create a title for your presentation (if you have not already been given a title). The title will help you to focus on the subject. And you will prepare your visual aids, if you have decided to use them. But remember, in general, less is better than more (a little is better than a lot). You can always give additional information during the questions after the presentation.

Structure
A well organised presentation with a clear structure is easier for the audience to follow. It is therefore more effective. You should organise the points you wish to make in a logical order. Most presentations are organised in three parts, followed by questions:

Beginning Short
introduction welcome your audience
introduce your subject

explain the structure of your presentation

explain rules for questions

Middle Body of
presentation present the subject itself
End Short
conclusion summarise your presentation
thank your audience

invite questions

Questions and Answers
Notes
When you give your presentation, you should be – or appear to be – as spontaneous as possible. You should not read your presentation! You should be so familiar with your subject and with the information that you want to deliver that you do not need to read a text. Reading a text is boring! Reading a text will make your audience go to sleep! So if you don’t have a text to read, how can you remember to say everything you need to say? With notes. You can create your own system of notes. Some people make notes on small, A6 cards. Some people write down just the title of each section of their talk. Some people write down keywords to remind them. The notes will give you confidence, but because you will have prepared your presentation fully, you may not even need them!

Rehearsal
Rehearsal is a vital part of preparation. You should leave time to practise your presentation two or three times. This will have the following benefits:

you will become more familiar with what you want to say
you will identify weaknesses in your presentation
you will be able to practise difficult pronunciations
you will be able to check the time that your presentation takes and make any necessary modifications
So prepare, prepare, prepare! Prepare everything: words, visual aids, timing, equipment. Rehearse your presentation several times and time it. Is it the right length? Are you completely familiar with all your illustrations? Are they in the right order? Do you know who the audience is? How many people? How will you answer difficult questions? Do you know the room? Are you confident about the equipment? When you have answered all these questions, you will be a confident, enthusiastic presenter ready to communicate the subject of your presentation to an eager audience.

Well, I’ve told you about the importance of preparation. Let’s turn now to the various types of equipment used when making presentations…

Presentation Equipment

This page looks at the equipment we use when making a presentation and the English words we use to talk about it.
Your most important equipment is YOUEasily your most important piece of equipment is…YOU! Make sure you’re in full working order, and check your personal presentation carefully – if you don’t, your audience will!
notebook computer The notebook computer is used to display text and graphics during presentations. Basically, it can display anything that you put on your computer screen, including entire presentations generated by presentation software. An excellent tool if used in moderation, but not as an alternative to you—the speaker. It is often used in conjunction with an overhead projector or other projector, which projects the image from the computer screen onto the wall screen.
A good workman never blames his tools.
overhead projector (OHP) The overhead projector (OHP) displays overhead transparencies (OHTs or OHPTs). It has several advantages over the 35mm slide projector:
it can be used in daylight
the user can face the audience
the user can write or draw directly on the transparency while in use
whiteboard The whiteboard (more rarely blackboard or greenboard) is a useful device for spontaneous writing – as in brainstorming, for example. For prepared material, the OHP might be more suitable.

duster The duster is used for cleaning the whiteboard. It is essential that the duster be clean to start with. You may consider carrying your own duster just in case.
felt markerMarkers are used for writing on the whiteboard (delible – you can remove the ink) or flipchart (indelible – you cannot remove the ink). They are usually available in blue, red, black and green. Again, it’s a good idea to carry a spare set of markers in case you are given some used ones which do not write well.
flipchart or paper-boardThe flipchart consists of several leaves of paper that you ‘flip’ or turn over. Some people prefer the flipchart to the whiteboard, but its use is limited to smaller presentations.
35mm slide projector
The Slide projector – which must be used in a darkened room – adds a certain drama. Slide projectors have mostly been overtaken by digital electronic media and are rare today. Some slide projectors can be synchronised with audio for audio-visual (AV) presentations. These projectors are typically used for larger presentations. The majority take 35mm slides or transparencies (as seen here), but projectors for 6x6cm slides are also available.
screenTransparencies are projected by an overhead projector or a slide projector onto a screen – in this case a folding screen which can be packed up and transported.
handouts Handouts are any documents or samples that you ‘hand out’ or distribute to your audience. Note that it is not usually a good idea to distribute handouts before your presentation. The audience will read the handouts instead of listening to you.
So much for equipment. Now we can consider the various techniques for delivering a presentation in English…

Presentation Delivery

This page looks at important aspects of delivery (as opposed to language) when giving a presentation.
‘Delivery’ refers to the way in which you actually deliver or perform or give your presentation. Delivery is a vital aspect of all presentations. Delivery is at least as important as content, especially in a multi-cultural context.

Nerves
Most speakers are a little nervous at the beginning of a presentation. So it is normal if you are nervous. The answer is to pay special attention to the beginning of your presentation. First impressions count. This is the time when you establish a rapport with your audience. During this time, try to speak slowly and calmly. You should perhaps learn your introduction by heart. After a few moments, you will relax and gain confidence.

Audience Rapport
You need to build a warm and friendly relationship with your audience. Enthusiasm is contagious. If you are enthusiastic your audience will be enthusiastic too. And be careful to establish eye contact with each member of your audience. Each person should feel that you are speaking directly to him or her. This means that you must look at each person in turn – in as natural a way as possible. This will also give you the opportunity to detect signs of boredom, disinterest or even disagreement, allowing you to modify your presentation as appropriate.

Body Language
What you do not say is at least as important as what you do say. Your body is speaking to your audience even before you open your mouth. Your clothes, your walk, your glasses, your haircut, your expression – it is from these that your audience forms its first impression as you enter the room. Generally speaking, it is better to stand rather than sit when making a presentation. Be aware of and avoid any repetitive and irritating gestures. Be aware, too, that the movement of your body is one of your methods of control. When you move to or from the whiteboard, for example, you can move fast or slowly, raising or reducing the dynamism within the audience. You can stand very still while talking or you can stroll from side to side. What effect do you think these two different approaches would have on an audience?

Cultural Considerations
Because English is so widely used around the world, it is quite possible that many members of your audience will not be native English-speakers. In other words, they will not have an Anglo-Saxon culture. Even within the Anglo-Saxon world, there are many differences in culture. If we hypothetically imagine a German working for an Israeli company making a presentation in English to a Japanese audience in Korea, we can see that there are even more possibilities for cultural misunderstanding. You should try to learn about any particular cultural matters that may affect your audience. This is one reason why preparation for your presentation is so important. Cultural differences can also be seen in body language, which we have just discussed. To a Latin from Southern France or Italy, a presenter who uses his hands and arms when speaking may seem dynamic and friendly. To an Englishman, the same presenter may seem unsure of his words and lacking in self-confidence.

Voice quality
It is, of course, important that your audience be able to hear you clearly throughout your presentation. Remember that if you turn away from your audience, for example towards the whiteboard, you need to speak a little more loudly. In general, you should try to vary your voice. Your voice will then be more interesting for your audience. You can vary your voice in at least three ways:

speed: you can speak at normal speed, you can speak faster, you can speak more slowly – and you can stop completely! You can pause. This is a very good technique for gaining your audience’s attention.
intonation: you can change the pitch of your voice. You can speak in a high tone. You can speak in a low tone.
volume: you can speak at normal volume, you can speak loudly and you can speak quietly. Lowering your voice and speaking quietly can again attract your audience’s interest.
The important point is not to speak in the same, flat, monotonous voice throughout your presentation – this is the voice that hypnotists use to put their patients’ into trance!

Visual aids
Of all the information that enters our brains, the vast majority of it enters through the eyes. 80% of what your audience learn during your presentation is learned visually (what they see) and only 20% is learned aurally (what they hear). The significance of this is obvious:

visual aids are an extremely effective means of communication
non-native English speakers need not worry so much about spoken English – they can rely more heavily on visual aids
It is well worth spending time in the creation of good visual aids. But it is equally important not to overload your audience’s brains. Keep the information on each visual aid to a minimum – and give your audience time to look at and absorb this information. Remember, your audience have never seen these visual aids before. They need time to study and to understand them. Without understanding there is no communication.

Apart from photographs and drawings, some of the most useful visual aids are charts and graphs, like the 3-dimensional ones shown here:

3D piechart
Piecharts are circular in shape (like a pie).

3D barchart
Barcharts can be vertical (as here) or horizontal.

3D graph
Graphs can rise and fall.

Audience Reaction
Remain calm and polite if you receive difficult or even hostile questions during your presentation. If you receive particularly awkward questions, you might suggest that the questioners ask their questions after your presentation.

We’ve looked at delivery. Now we’ll move on to the language of presentations in English…

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