Presentations

You are preparing your presentation. You have considered the following points: objective,
audience (who?, size), venue (where?, size, seating, equipment, sound quality), timing (overall,
segments), approach (formal, informal, humour, type of visual aids), content, structure
(introduction, body, conclusion).
Here, then, is some typical language which you could use in the detailed preparation of your
presentation and for anticipated questions.
Remember to keep your sentences short, simple and clear and dont overcomplicate your choice
of vocabulary on your visuals or in what you plan to say. In addition to the typical pointers in your
notes, write down difficult English vocabulary. Its a good idea to memorise the first few sentences
of your presentation so it begins well and nerves are kept at bay.
Now, you only have to rehearse with colleagues and friends.
INTRODUCTION
Function
1 Welcoming
your audience
2 Introducing
yourself
3 Introducing
colleagues

Possible language
Good morning (afternoon), ladies and gentlemen
Good afternoon, everybody
My name is ______. Im_______

4 Introducing
your subject
5 Outlining your
structure

5 (If you want to be

more flexible about
the agenda.)

6 Giving
instructions
about questions

Before we start Id like to introduce my colleagues.

This is Fernando. He is xxxx and today he will be
presenting yyyy.
I am going to talk today about...
The purpose of my presentation is to .
To start with I'll describe the progress made this
year. Then (after that, next) I'll mention some of
the problems we've encountered and how we
overcame them. After that I'll consider the
possibilities for further growth next year. Finally, I'll
summarize my presentation (before concluding with
some recommendations).
Today, Id like us to cover the following issues.
Firstly..
Today, I hope we will be able to look at the following
points. To start with.
Do feel free to interrupt me if you have any
questions.
I'll try to answer all of your questions after the
presentation.
I plan to keep some time for questions after the
presentation.

BODY AND CONCLUSION

Function

Introducing the first

subject

Finishing one subject...

...and starting another

subject

Analysing a point and

giving recommendations
Giving an example

Dealing with questions

during the presentation

Returning to subject after

a digression
Summarising and
concluding

Ordering
Ending the presentation
Dealing with questions at
the end

Language
I'd like to start by...
Let's begin by...
To begin, lets look at
First of all, I'll...
I'll begin with ..
Well, I've told you about...
That's all I have to say about...
We've looked at...
Weve seen
I think that covers everthing on
Now we'll move on to...
Let me (Lets) turn now to...
Next...
I'd now like to discuss...
Let's look now at...
Where does that lead us?
Let's consider this in more detail...
What does this mean for your company?
For example,...
A good example of this is...
To give you an example,...
To illustrate this point...
We'll be looking at this point in more detail later on...
I'd like to deal with this question later, if I may...
I'll come back to this question later in my talk...
I won't comment on this now...
Could we see this at the end?
Were digressing. Lets get back to the subject.

In conclusion,...
I'd like now to recap...
Let's summarise briefly what we've looked at...
Finally, let me remind you of what we've seen ...
If I can just sum up the main points
Let me sum up what weve seen
Firstly...secondly...thirdly...lastly...
First of all...then...next...after that...finally...
That brings us to the end of the presentation. Are there any
questions?
Thats a fair (an interesting) point.
Im afraid thats confidential.
Thats really not my field (speciality). Marcelo, maybe you
could answer this.
Well, that really goes beyond the scope of todays
presentation .. but