The following table shows examples of language for main parts of the presentation. You may need to modify the language as appropriate.
FUNCTION
| LANGUAGE
|
WELCOMING YOUR AUDIENCE
| § Good morning, ladies and gentlemen
§ Good afternoon, everybody
|
INTRODUCING THE SUBJECT
| § I’d like to start by …
§ Let’s begin by …
§ First of all, I’ll …
§ I’d like to talk today about…
§ My purpose today is to introduce...
§ I’m going to talk about …
§ I’m going to inform you about…
|
STATING THE 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 …
§ This talk is designed to act as a springboard for discussion…
|
DEFINING THE LENGTH
| § I shall only take … minutes of your time.
§ I plan to be brief.
§ This should only last … minutes.
|
OUTLINING THE MAIN PARTS
| § I have divided my presentation into … parts/sections. They are…
§ We can break this area down into the following fields: …
|
SEQUENCING/ORDERING
| § Firstly/first of all …
§ Secondly/next/then …
§ Thirdly/and then we come to …
§ Finally/lastly/last of all …
§ Let’s start with …
§ Let’s move/go on to …
§ Now we come to …
§ Let’s get back to …
|
GIVING REASONS/CAUSES
| § Therefore/ so/ as a result/ that is why
|
CONTRASTING
| § But/however
|
COMPARING
| § Similarly/ in the same way
|
CONTRADICTING
| § In fact/ actually
|
CONCLUDING
| § In conclusion/ to conclude
|
HIGHLIGHTING
| § In particular/ especially
|
GENERALIZING
| § Usually/ generally/ as a rule
|
FINISHING ONE SUBJECT…
| § Well, I’ve told you about…
§ That’s all I have to say about…
§ We’ve looked at…
§ So much for…
|
…AND STARTING ANOTHER
| § Now we’ll move on to …
§ Let me turn now to …
§ Next …
§ Turning to …
§ I’d like now to discuss …
|
ANALYSING A POINT AND GIVING RECOMMENDATIONS
| § Where does that lead us?
§ Let’s consider this in more detail.
§ Translated into real terms…
§ My recommendations are…
§ I would suggest/propose/recommend the following strategy.
|
GIVING AN EXAMPLE
| § For example, …
§ A good example of this is …
§ As an illustration, …
§ To give you an example, …
§ To illustrate this point …
|
DEALING WITH QUESTIONS
| § Please feel free to interrupt me if you have any questions.
§ I’d like to deal with this question later, if I may …
§ I’ll come back to this question later in my talk.
§ Perhaps you’d like to raise this point at the end.
§ We’ll be examining this point in more detail later on.
§ I won’t comment on this now.
§ I’ll keep some time for the questions after the presentation.
§ I’d be glad to answer any questions at the end of my talk.
|
SUMMARISING AND CONCLUDING
| § In conclusion …
§ To sum up …
§ I’ll briefly summarize the main issues.
§ Let’s summarize briefly what we’ve looked at.
§ Finally, let me remind you of some of the issues we’ve covered …
|
THANKING YOUR AUDIENCE
| § Thank you for your attention.
§ May I thank you all for being such an attentive audience?
§ Thank you for listening.
|
INVITING QUESTIONS
| § Are there any questions?
§ Can I answer any questions?
§ Now I’ll try to answer any questions you may have.
§ Are there any final questions?
|
ASKING POLITE QUESTIONS
| § Do you mind if I ask you …
§ Would you mind telling me …
§ Could/Can you tell me …
§ I am interested to know …
§ I’d like to know …
|
CLARIFYING A QUESTION
| § If I understand you correctly, you are saying/asking…
§ I did not quite catch that.
§ Could you go over again?
§ I am not sure what you are getting at.
|
AGREEING
| § I completely agree.
§ I agree with your point of view.
§ I think you are right.
|
DISAGREEING
| § To be quite frank, I don’t think you are quite right.
§ I’m sorry, but I can’t agree with you on that.
§ I’m afraid, I don’t agree at all.
§ I agree in principle, but…
§ I respect your opinion, of course. However, I feel I must disagree.
|
AVOIDING GIVING AN ANSWER
| § I am afraid that is not my field.
§ That is interesting, but I’d prefer not answer that today.
§ Perhaps we could deal with that later.
§ Can we talk about that on another occasion?
|