GLOBAL EDUTOWN INC.

Presentation
Gambits

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GLOBAL EDUTOWN INC.

Table of Contents
Opening/Overview

Sign Post Expressions, Introductions

Main Body of the Presentation

Sign Post Expressions, Body

Closing a presentation

14

Sign Post Expressions, Conclusion of a Presentation

16

Testing Your Presentation Gambit

20

References

23

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I.

Opening/Overview

After you give your opening statement, you should give a brief overview of your
presentation. This includes what your presentation is about, how long you will take and
how you are going to handle questions.
For example, a presentation to sales staff could start like this, "Welcome / "Hello
everyone." But if you want to make good impression on your audience you can follow
these expressions below:
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming along here today
The purpose of todays presentation is to discuss how we can
Ive invited you here today to have a look at my findings
Now let me begin by
Secondly
and finally
Id be happy to invite you to ask questions at the end of the session
At the end Id be very happy to answer any of your questions
My presentation is in three parts.
My presentation is divided into three main sections.
Firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally
I'm going to
-take a look at
-talk about
-examine
-tell you something about the background
-give you some facts and figures
-fill you in on the history of
-concentrate on
-limit myself to the question of
Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions.
There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.
I'd be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation.

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Sign post Expressions:

Introducing
yourself

Introducing
the topic

Outlining your
presentation

Inviting questions

INTRODUCTION
Formal
Good
morning/afternoon/evening.
On behalf of (company, department,
etc.), Id like to welcome you.
My name is (name) and I am
(position).
Im going to give you an overview
of...
The focus of todays presentation
is.

Informal
Hi
everyone,
Im
(name
and
title).
Thanks for coming.

Im going to talk to
you about
Im going to be
talking a little bit
about
Im here today to talk
to you about
The presentation today is divided Im going to talk about
into three parts. First, Ill Following three things today. Ill
that Ill... Finally, Ill
start with Then Ill
talk a little bit about .
Ill finish with.
Please dont hesitate to interrupt me If you have any
if you have any questions.
questions during the
presentation, please
ask.

Overview - a short description of a subject or situation that gives the main ideas without explaining all the details
Consistent - always behaving in the same way or having the same attitudes, standards etc - usually used to show
approval
Findings - the information that someone has discovered as a result of their study, work etc.
Sign post - are words or phrases that guide the listener during a presentation. They let the listener know what has
happened so far, and what is going to happen next.

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Sample Transcript:
1. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for finding the time to
come and join me for this presentation this afternoon. My name is Tim
Mason, Im a retail consultant, and many of you will have seen me shadowing
you in your jobs and looking through the accounts and so on in the company
over the last week. Ive invited you here today to have a look at my
findings. First, Id like to have a look at the performance of the company, the
sales of the company over the last three years; then Id like to have a look at
our market share in the womenswear market and look at our competitors;
and thirdly, Id like to suggest some improvements in our range of
womenswear. At the end Id be happy to answer any of your questions.
2. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming along here
today. I hope my presentation isnt going to take too long and that you will
find it interesting. The purpose of todays presentation is to discuss how
we can improve internal communications within our company.
3. Now let me begin by explaining that Id like to talk about the business case
for better communication; secondly, I want to cover different styles and
methods; and finally I would like to finish off by talking about some of the
basics we need to have in place to deliver good quality, consistent
communications across the company. Id be very happy to invite you to
ask questions at the end of the session and Im sure therell be plenty of
time for us to discuss some of the points that have been raised.

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Your turn: Go back to the expressions above and choose one of them to fill in the
blanks below.
1. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for finding the time to
come and join me for this presentation this afternoon. My name is Tim
Mason, Im a retail consultant, and many of you will have seen me shadowing
you in your jobs and looking through the accounts and so on in the company
over the last week. _________________________________
First, Id like to have a look at the performance of the company, the sales of the
company over the last three years; then Id like to have a look at our market
share in the womenswear market and look at our competitors; and thirdly, Id
like to suggest some improvements in our range of womenswear.
__________________________________.

2. _____________________________________. I hope my presentation isnt

going to take too long and that you will find it interesting.
___________________________________________ improve internal
communications within our company.

3. _________________________ explaining that Id like to talk about the

business case for better communication; _____________, I want to cover
different styles and methods; _________________ I would like to finish off by
talking about some of the basics we need to have in place to deliver good
quality, consistent communications across the company.
__________________________________________________ and Im sure
therell be plenty of time for us to discuss some of the points that have been
raised.

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On Your Own: Your teacher asked you to make an

introduction on your presentation about How to make ones
life successful. With the expressions you have studied, write
your presentation in the box.

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II.

Main Body of the Presentation:

During your presentation, its a good idea to remind your audience occasionally of the
benefit of what you are saying.
In this part, you should also know how about signalinglinking the parts of your
presentation
Sequencing Ideas:
First/second/third/then/finally
The first/second/third/final point is
Emphasizing an idea:
As I said at the beginning
This, of course, will help you (to achieve the 20% increase).
As you remember, we are concerned with
These ties in with my original statement
This relates directly to the question I put to you before
Intermediate Questions:
Are there any questions or comments on that?
Would you like to ask questions at this point?
During your presentation, its a good idea to remind your audience occasionally of the
benefit of what you are saying.
Remember that what you are saying is new to your audience. You are clear about the
structure of your talk, but let your audience know when you are moving on to a new
point. You can do this by saying something like "right", or "OK". You can also use some
of the following expressions.

Opening a new section:

Now lets look at
Now I want to turn to
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This brings me to the third and final point

I'd now like to move on to
I'd like to turn to
That's all I have to say about
Now I'd like to look at
This leads me to my next point
Moving on now to
Turning to...
Lets turn now to
The next issue/topic/area Id like to focus on
Id like to expand/elaborate on
Now we'll move on to...
I'd like now to discuss...

If you are using index cards, putting the link on the cards will help you remember to
keep the audience with you. In addition, by glancing at your index cards you will be
pausing this will also help your audience to realize that you are moving on to
something new.
Exploring a list of points:

In relation to
Regarding
Concerning
With respect to
Lets consider this in more detail
What does this mean for?

Adding Ideas:
In addition to this/moreover
However/Despite this
So therefore
Digressing:

If I could just digress for a second

I would like to look at in passing
By the way/Incidentally
I would like to segue for a moment

Going back:
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Let me now return to
Let me come back to
Let me continue on my presentation
Starting a new section:
Moving on now to
Turning to...
Lets turn now to
The next issue/topic/area Id like to focus on
Id like to expand/elaborate on
Now we'll move on to...
I'd like now to discuss...
Let's look now at...
Analyzing and giving recommendations:

Where does that lead us?

Let's consider this in more detail...
What does this mean for...?
Translated into real terms...
Why is this important?
The significance of this is...

You may use rhetorical questions to create a variety and expectations, leading to an
interested audience.
Giving Examples:
For example,...
A good example of this is...
As an illustration,...
To give you an example,...
To illustrate this point...
Avoid the phrase, Like for an example, it is redundant and considered a grammar
lapse in English.
Language for using visuals:
It's important to introduce your visual to the audience.
This graph shows you
Take a look at this
If you look at this, you will see
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I'd like you to look at this
This chart illustrates the figures
This graph gives you a breakdown of
Give your audience enough time to absorb the information on the visual. Pause to allow
them to look at the information and then explain why the visual is important.
As you can see
This clearly shows
From this, we can understand how / why
This area of the chart is interesting
Avoid the phrase, Like for an example, it is redundant and considered a grammar
lapse in English.

Sign posting Expressions

Introducing the first

section of your
presentation
Finishing a section
and starting a new
one

Talking about earlier

or later points in
your presentation

MIDDLE OF THE PRESENTATION

Formal
Id like to start/begin by.

Informal
Lets start/begin
looking at

by

Well, weve looked at... Now, Id like Well, Ive told you
to discuss
about. Now Ill move
Having discussed Id like to move on to
on to.
Well, weve looked
at. Now, lets talk
about.
So, that was.Now,
lets
later:
later:
I will elaborate on this later in the More on this later.
presentation.
Im going to talk
Ill provide you with a more detailed more about this later.
explanation later in the presentation.
earlier:
earlier:
Do you remember I
To repeat what I said earlier
said..?
As I mentioned earlier.
As I said earlier.
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Recognizing your
listeners' prior
knowledge

Focusing audience's
attention on visuals

As you may be aware of

You might already
As you may know
know that
I know many of you are familiar Im sure a lot of you
with..
know that
Im sure a lot of you
know about
Im sure a lot of you
have heard.
May I focus your attention on the. Take a look at this
You will notice that..
slide/chart/graphic etc.
Please direct your attention to the You can see that.
slide/chart/etc.
Okay, here we can
see that

Samples:
1. A good example of how important internal communications are is shown by
some findings from research that we have recently undertaken. Good
communications is a very key factor in staff motivation. If you look at this
slide, you will see how important it is to get the basics in place. You need to
identify your communication requirement, agree your objectives and success
criteria, identify your target audiences, define the content of your message and
determine the style of delivery. A good illustration of the communication
process is when all those basics fall into place naturally.
2. If you have a look at this first graph, you can see that our sales topped 50
million the year before last. Then last year sales dropped to 40 million, with a
slight recovery at the end of the financial year. However, this year sales have
continued to drop to an all-time low of 30 million. Now lets look at our market
share. As you can see, we have 25% of the market share, 10% down on last
year.
3. It is important for customers to feel that their ideas are valued. I think it covers
everything on my second point. Are there any questions or comments at this
point?
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I plan to cover everything later. I have some thoughts on ways to deal with
sharing such feedback. Ill go over the final section, and then come back to
your question.

Digress to talk or write about something that is not your main subject
Elaborate to give more details or new information about something
Segue to move smoothly from one song, idea, activity, condition etc to another
Expand to become larger in size, number, or amount, or to make something become larger
Rhetorical questions a question that you ask as a way of making a statement, without expecting an answer
Redundant not necessary because something else means or does the same th

Your turn: Go back to the expressions above and choose one of them to fill in the
blanks below.
1. ________________________________of
how
important
internal
communications are is shown by some findings from research that we have
recently undertaken. Good communications is a very __________ in staff
motivation. _______________________, you will see how important it is to get
the basics in place. You need to identify your communication requirement, agree
your objectives and success criteria, identify your target audiences, define the
content of your message and determine the style of delivery.
__________________________ of the communication process is when all those
basics fall into place naturally.

2. ______________________________, you can see that our sales topped 50

million the year before last. Then last year sales dropped to 40 million, with a
slight recovery at the end of the financial year. However, this year sales have
continued to drop to an all-time low of 30 million. _________________ our
market share. ____________________, we have 25% of the market share, 10%
down on last year.
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3. It is important for customers to feel that their ideas are valued. I think it covers
everything on my second point. ______________________________________
_________________________________. I have some thoughts on ways to
deal with sharing such feedback. ___________________________, and then
come back to your question.

On Your Own:

After making your own introduction in

Unit 1, write the body of your presentation about, How to
make ones life successful in the box provided below.

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III.

Closing a presentation
At the end of your presentation, you should summarize your talk and remind
the audience of what you have told them.

Signaling the end:

To sum up ...
To summarize...
Right, let's sum up, shall we? Let's summarize briefly what we've looked at...
If I can just sum up the main points...
Finally, let me remind you of some of the issues we've covered...
To conclude... In conclusion ...
In short ...
So, to remind you of what Ive covered in this talk,
Unfortunately, I seem to have run out of time, so Ill conclude very briefly by
saying that
I'd like now to recap...
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That brings me to the end of my presentation. I've talked about

Well, that's about it for now. We've covered
So, that was our marketing strategy. In brief, we
To summarize, I

Relate the end of your presentation to your opening statement

So I hope that you're a little clearer on how we can achieve sales growth of 20%.
To return to the original question, we can achieve
So just to round the talk off, I want to go back to the beginning when I asked
you
I hope that my presentation today will help you with what I said at the
beginning
Invitation to discuss/ask questions:
Thank the audience for their attention and invite questions.
Thank you for listening and now if there are any questions, I would be pleased
to answer them.
That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention. I'd be
glad to answer any questions you might have.
Its useful to re-word the question, as you can check that you have understood the
question and you can give yourself some time to think of an answer. By asking the
question again you also make sure that other people in the audience understand the
question.

Thank you. So you would like further clarification on our strategy?

That's an interesting question. How are we going to get voluntary redundancy?
Thank you for asking. What is our plan for next year?
Im happy to answer any queries/ questions.
Does anyone have any questions or comments? Please feel free to ask
questions.

After you have answered your question, check that the person who asked you is happy
with the answer.
Does this answer your question?
Do you follow what I am saying?
I hope this explains the situation for you.
I hope this was what you wanted to hear!
If you would like me to elaborate on any point, please ask.
Would you like to ask any questions?
Any questions?
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Yes, the gentlemen/lady sitting there [points]
If you don't know the answer to a question, say you don't know. It's better to admit to not
knowing something than to guess and maybe get it wrong.

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.
I'm afraid I'm unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps I can get back to you
later.
Good question. I really don't know! What do you think?
That's a very good question. However, we don't have any figures on that, so I
can't give you an accurate answer.
Unfortunately, I'm not the best person to answer that.
What can you say if things go wrong? You think you've lost your audience? Rephrase
what you have said.

Let me just say that in another way.

Perhaps I can rephrase that.
Put another way, this means
What I mean to say is"

Sign posting Expressions

Summarizing and
concluding the
presentation

CONCLUSION OF A PRESENTATION
Formal
Informal
Finally, lets summarize some of the Lets
main points
summarize/recap what
To conclude, Id like to summarize we looked at today.
Finally, lets look
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back at what we
covered today.
So, to remind you of
what we looked at
Does anyone have
any final questions?
Okay, does anyone
have any questions or
comments?

Inviting final
questions

Does anyone have any questions or

comments before we conclude
today?
If youd like me to elaborate or
clarify anything we covered today,
please ask.
Responding to tough a question you dont have the answer a question you dont
questions
to:
have the answer to:
I want to answer your question
completely, but I dont have all the
information with me right now. Could
you give me your email after the
presentation so I can send you a
complete response?
a question you didnt understand:
Could you repeat that, please?
Could you rephrase that, please?
Let me make sure I understand you
completely. Do you mean that?

Finishing and saying

goodbye

If there are no further questions, Id

like to thank you very much for your
attention. If you think of any additional
questions, please feel free to contact
me.

I dont have that

information with me.
Can you give me your
email and Ill send you
an answer later today?
a question you didnt
understand:
Could/Can
you
repeat that, please?
I didnt catch that.
Can you repeat it?
Are you saying
that.?
Well, I think thats
about it. Thanks for
listening.
Please
contact me later if you
have any additional
questions or want
more information.

Samples:
1. I want to briefly summarize the benefits of an informal feedback. It can provide
more detailed information about clients needs, it makes clients feel empowered,
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and it strengthens the customer-client relationship. So to conclude, I would
like to recommend the sales department to utilize informal feedback in a more
systematic way in the future. Thank you for your attention. I expect many of
you have questions, so I would like to invite your questions regarding my
presentation.
2. Sabrina: Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to
answer them now.
Timmy: Yeah, can I just ask, graph number 3, that last one you showed us, can
you explain to me where youre intending to find the extra income to increase
the designer range in the maternity wear?
Sabrina: Yes, a very good question. Ive looked at the office wear range and its
quite heavy on material, holiday wear tends to be much lighter, much smaller
amounts of material involved and I
3. That brings me to the end of my presentation. Always remember the four
areas that you need to master in learning a second language: listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. They must be done in order. Now, should you
have any questions, feel free to raise them now.

Conclude - to decide that something is true after considering all the information you have
Run out of - to come to an end
Recap - to repeat the main points of something that has just been said
Queries - a question that you ask to get information, or to check that something is true or correct
Off the tap of my head - Fig. without giving it too much thought or without precise knowledge

Your turn: Go back to the expressions above and choose one of them to fill in the
blanks below
1. I ___________________________ the benefits of an informal feedback. It can
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provide more detailed information about clients needs, it makes clients feel
empowered, and it strengthens the customer-client relationship.
So
________________________ the sales department to utilize informal feedback
in a more systematic way in the future. _____________________________.
Timmy: Yeah, _________________, graph number 3, that last one you showed
us, can you explain to me where youre intending to find the extra income to
increase the designer range in the maternity wear?
2. Sabrina: ____________________. Ive looked at the office wear range and its
quite heavy on material, holiday wear tends to be much lighter, much smaller
amounts of material involved and I ...
3. ___________________________________. Always remember the four areas
that you need to master in learning a second language: listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. ____________________________________________

On Your Own:

After completing your body in Unit 3,

conclude your presentation on How to make ones life
successful by writing in the box provided below.

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Test your Presentation Gambit:

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Directions: On the space provided below, write your presentation on the following topics:
1. Discuss and present about The secrets of successful communication.
2. Make a presentation about Differences between Western business etiquette and
Eastern business etiquette.
3. Make an outline and present about The Internet business: how to make money
online.

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References:
http://www.english-at-home.com/business/vocabulary-and-phrases-for-makingpresentations/
http://www.businessenglishresources.com/31-2/student-section/studenthandouts/signposts-test/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/talkingbusiness/unit3presen
tations/expert.shtml
English for presentation, Chapter 2

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