How to make a good presentation

Ø Preparation is essential for an effective presentation. Think about the presentation beforehand.

Ø Do use PowerPoint if the facilities are available. Although some speakers seem to have taken an aversion to PowerPoint, it is so convenient and ensures that your presentation has a clear structure and something for your listeners to take away.

Ø Face your audience at all times even though the screen to which you are speaking is behind you.

Ø Be very clear about how much time you have - and stick to that time in preparing and delivering your presentation.

Ø Be very clear about your key message - and ensure that everything in your presentation is both consistent with, and supportive of, that key message.

Ø Ensure that the slides look good. This does not necessarily mean that they look flashy - although suitable pictures or illustrations are very effective - but it does mean using a consistent format and typeface and readable colours plus giving each slide the logo of the organization you are representing and a chronological number.

Ø The first slide should announce the title of your presentation, the event and date, and your name and position.

Ø The second slide should seize the attention of your audience for your presentation.

Ø The third slide should set out the structure of your presentation.

Ø Each theme should be the subject of a small number of slides. Again, a good working assumption is that three slides for each theme is about right. Less than two and it isn't substantial enough to be a separate theme; more than five and it should probably be broken up into two themes.

Ø Each slide should have a clear heading. A question is often a good way of winning attention - but, in that case, make sure you answer the question in the body of the slide.

Ø Each slide should normally contain around 25-35 words, unless it is a quote (when you might use more) or contains an illustration (when you will probably use less). Too many words and your audience will have trouble reading the material; too few words and you're likely to be flashing through the slides and spending too much time clicking the mouse.

Useful Phrases for Presentations

Starting the presentation

Good morning, everyone.

Hello everyone, welcome to…

The subject of my presentation today is…

What I`m going to talk about today is…

Stating the main points

The main points I will be talking about today are firstly…, secondly…, next…, finally, we are going to look at.

I'mgoing to divide my talk into four parts.

First, I'll give you ....

After that, ....Finally, ....

Introducing the first point

Let`s start/begin with

I`d like to start by…

Moving on to the next point

Now let`s move on to…

Referring to visuals

If you look at the graph..

Could I draw your attention to the chart?

I`d like to illustrate this by showing you…

Giving background information

I'll give you some background. Let's start with the background.

Referring to the audience’s knowledge

As you know,…

As you are aware,…

Changing the topic

Right, let’s move on to…

O.K., I’ll now look at…

Summarising

To sum up,...

I`d like to recap the main points of my presentation.

First I covered…, then we talked about… and finally we looked at…

I`d now like to sum up the main points, which were…

Ending

Thanks very much. Any questions/

Well, that’s all I have to say. Thank you for listening.

Inviting questions

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to

ask.

I'llbe glad to answer any questions (at the

end of my talk).

Finally, I will be happy to answer your questions.

A.Make a presentation on countries with different economic systems. Focus on:

1. Geographical position.

2. Political system.

3. Economic system.

4. Current economic situation.

5. World-known business companies based in the country if there are any.

B. Listen to your fellow-students' presentations. After each presentation rate the following aspects of the presentation from 1 to 5 (1 = unacceptable, 2 = fair, 3 = average, 4 = good, 5 = excellent).


The presentation was interesting.
The presentation was clear.
The presentation's beginning made an impact.
The presentation had a logical manner structure.
The presentation had a summary or conclusion.
TOTAL: 25

C.Discuss the following questions.

1. Do you agree that economics is helpful in everyday life? Give your arguments.

2. Try to think of several important decisions that you have made recently. What
was the opportunity cost of each decision?

3. Do you think economics is a theoretical or applied discipline?

4. Imagine the world without a problem of scarcity. Would you enjoy living insuch a world?

5. Are there any countries with traditional economies nowadays?

6. Is it correct to say that all major economies in the world are market economies?

7. How can you define the economic system of Belarus?

WRITING

Write an essay of at least 500 words describing economics and its major concepts.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

ADAM SMITH

Economics, like every other intellectual discipline, has its roots in early Greece and Rome; but economics was first considered as a branch of domestic science (home economics) dealing with such matters as the management of slaves and the allocation of manureamong alternative agricultural uses. In the revival of learning that followed the Middle Ages, economics emergedas a branch of moral philosophy concerned with such issues as the ethics of loan interest and the “justness” of market-determined wages and prices.

By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the subject had lost most of its theological overtones and had taken shape as an academic discipline, largely as a branch of political theory dealing with problems of government intervention in economic affairs.

Then in 1776 the Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith published the first edition of «Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations», and economics soon became an independent science.

The Vision of Adam Smith

Smith lived in an age when the right of rulers to impose arbitrary and oppressive restrictions on the political and economic liberties of their subjects was coming under strong attack throughout the civilized world. As other men of that time were arguingthat democracy could and should replace autocracy in the sphere of politics, so Adam Smith argued that laissez-faire could and should replace government direction and regulation in economics. The “should” was so mixed with the “could” portion of Smith's analysis that much of his book seemed almost as much a political tract as a work of science. What gave the book lasting significancewas the Smith's strong arguments that the economic activities of individuals would be more effectively coordinated through the indirect and impersonal action of natural forces of self-interest and competition than through the direct and frequentlyill-considered actions of government authorities. Smith opened minds to the existence of a “grand design” in economic affairs similar to that which Newton had earlier shown, to exist in the realm of physical phenomena. The impact of Smith's ideas upon his contemporaries was widespread and immediate. As one modern scientist observed,“before Adam Smith there had been much economic discussion; with him we reach the stage of discussing economics”.

That Smith's vision of the economy should ever have been considered original might seem strange to modern minds, but that would be because we now see economic phenomena in the light of his conception. As two leading scholars recently remarked.The immediate “common sense answer to the question”, “What will an economy motivated by greed and controlled by a large number of different agents look like?”is probably: there will be chaos”. That is certainly the answer that would have been given by most of Smith's contemporaries - before they read his book. The greatness of Smith's accomplishment lies precisely in the fact that he, unlike his predecessors, was able to think away extraneous complications and so perceive an order in economic affairs that common sense did not reveal.

It is one thing, of course, to say that Smith's conception of economic phenomena is original, another – to suggest that it corresponds to contemporary experience. According to Smith, society in its economic aspect is a vast concourse of people held together by the desire of each to exchange goods and services with others. Each person is concerned directly only to further his own self-interest, but in pursuing that aim each “is led by invisible hand” to promote the interests of others. Forbidden by law and social custom to acquirethe property of other people by force, fraud, or stealth, each person attempts to maximize his own gains from trade by specializing in the production of goods and services for which he has a comparative advantage, trading part of his produce for the produce of others on the best terms he can obtain. As a consequence, the “natural forces” of market competition — the result of each person attempting to “buy cheap and sell expensive” — come into play to establish equality between demand and supply for each commodity at rates of exchange (prices).

The economic system (so Smith and later writers argued) is a self-regulating mechanism that, like the human body, tends naturally toward a state of equilibrium if left to itself.

Vocabulary

allocationofmanure-зд. распределение органических удобрений

revival, n- возрождение, возобновление

emerge-появляться, всплывать

intervention - вмешательство

affair, n - дело

impose, v - налагать

arbitrary -произвольный

restrictions -ограничения

argue, v - спорить

laissez-faire -невмешательство

significance, n - значимость, значительность