What Makes a Good Presentation

What is the point?

	Communication Skills Overall · Awareness of your audience (Who are they? What are their needs or interests? What do they expect from you?) · Clear objectives (to inform, persuade, welcome etc.)
	System · Planning – have a clear structure and a sense of timing. · Organization – have clear connections between the different parts or ideas. · Information – make sure what you say is interesting and relevant to your audience. · Impact – make sure you have a strong introduction and conclusion.
	Delivery · Clear, simple, and fluent. · Use of natural spoken language. · Use of pauses for emphasis.
	Body language · Use of strong, clear gestures for emphasis. · Good eye contact with the audience. · Positive, confident, and relaxed manner. · No distracting gestures.
	Visual aids · Clear and simple messages. · Efficient, professional use of equipment.

Language focus – Introducing yourself and your talk

Greeting, name, position

Good morning. My name’s ….

I’m the new Finance Manager.

Good morning. Let me start by saying just a few words about my own background.

Title / Subject

I’d like to talk (to you) today about ….

I’m going to

present the recent …. explain our position on …. brief you on …. inform you about …. describe ….

The

subject focus of my topic

talk presentation paper (academic) speech (usually to public audience)

Purpose / Objective

We are here today to

decide… agree… learn about…

The purpose of this talk is to

update you on …. put you in the picture about …. give the background to ….

The talk is designed to

act as a springboard for discussion. start the ball rolling.

Length

I’ll only take … minutes of your time.

I plan to be brief.

This should only last … minutes.

Outline / Main parts

I have divided my presentation into four parts/sections. They are ….

The subject can be looked at under the following headings: ….

We can break this area down into the following fields:

Firstly / First of all ….

Secondly / then / next ….

Thirdly / and then we come to ….

Finally / lastly / last of all …

Questions

I would be glad to answer any questions at the end of my talk.

If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt.

Please interrupt me if there is something which needs clarifying. Otherwise, there’ll be time for discussion at the end.

Reference to the audience

I can see many of you are ….

You all look as though you have heard this before.

As I am sure you know ….

You may remember ….

I’m sure we would all agree ….

Language focus –Linking ideas

Sequencing /Ordering firstly … secondly … thirdly then … next … finally/lastly … let’s start with … let’s move/go on to … now we come to … that brings us to … let’s leave that … that covers … let’s get back to … Giving reasons/causes therefore so as a result that’s why Contrasting but however Comparing similarly in the same way Contradicting in fact actually

Summarizing to sum up in brief in short Concluding in conclusion to conclude Highlighting in particular especially Digressing by the way in passing Giving examples for example for instance such as Generalizing usually generally as a rule

Language focus –Endings

Signalling the end

That brings me to the end of my presentation.

That completes my presentation.

Before I stop / finish, let me just say ….

That covers all I wanted to say today.

Summarizing

Let me just run over the key points again.

I’ll briefly summarize the main issues.

To sum up.

Briefly ….

Concluding