This is the first article in a series on using English in business. Today’s topic is the oral presentation.

A BUSINESS leader, such as a company manager, a CEO, an ICT supervisor or a sales manager, is often required to convey a certain message or information to a group of people orally.

According to Steve Mandel in his book Technical Presentation Skills, there are four types of speakers.

The first, an avoider, tries to escape from speaking in public for whatever reason. But in modern business, to avoid sharing information in a workshop, training session or seminar is a disadvantage.

The second is a resistor. He may speak, but quite reluctantly even if people may be keen to listen to him.

The next type is an acceptor. The speaker is willing to do his job because it is a part of his business responsibility. But beyond that he will not look for other opportunities.

The ideal type is a seeker. He looks for opportunities to share information and ideas, and gradually builds up his professional communication skills and self-confidence through speaking on a regular basis.

He knows very well that practice makes perfect, and that a good speaker is not born but is made or trained.

A good speaker need not memorise every sentence. He merely remembers the key points which he will express in his own words.

With PowerPoint slides, it may not be necessary to jot down key points. The embarrassment of forgetting certain material can be avoided as each slide directly or indirectly reminds the speaker of what to say next.

Of course, the main points on the slides must be comprehensive, or he may get stuck halfway if something essential has slipped his mind.

Do check the order of the presentation to ensure that one key point flows logically to the next.

Practise with the slides to synchronise your speech with the audio-visual aids.

Arrange to practise in front of people who know nothing about the topic, then ask them to comment on your presentation.

You can also videotape your rehearsal. Then play it back to see and hear yourself in action.

Make the necessary corrections and fine-tune your performance.

The beginning

To effectively present his topic, the speaker needs to prepare a well-planned and well-structured oral presentation.

There are three parts to a typical presentation: the introduction, body and conclusion, or the preview, view and review.

All three parts are equally important but the body is alloted the most time while the introduction and the conclusion should take only a fraction of the time.

In a 40-minute speech, for example, not more than five minutes should be spent on the introduction or conclusion.

Start the ball rolling by greeting the audience and introducing yourself, your position and your organisation. This will inform the audience of the main theme of your talk. It also helps to connect you to the audience and draw their attention.

It is a good idea to put your name, your position, your company logo and the title of your presentation on the first frame of your slides.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, my name is ... and I am with the Department of Business Management at the National University of Singapore ...

or

I am Dr Clement Leonard, a research fellow from the University of Arizona. I’ve been studying Japanese Management for almost a decade. This morning I would like to share with you some of my findings in a number of research papers ...

If you are assisted, sponsored, supported or recommended by a particular firm, organisation or individual, you may want to mention their contribution. Your research paper may be the outcome of a collaborative effort and you could acknowledge this too giving the names of your work partners.

Appetiser

Some speakers do not go straight into the subject matter. They like to crack a joke, begin with an anecdote, make a statement that surprises or stimulates the audience to make them relaxed and eager to know what will unfold.

A speaker once impressed me with this joke: Three staff members were talking about their future in terms of punctuation marks:

Tom said, “I don’t really know what lies ahead for me My future is a question mark.”

Dick interrupted, “The boss always shouts at me. Mine is an exclamation mark.”

Harry sighed, “You guys are lucky. There’s absolutely nothing for me to look forward to. Mine is a full stop.”

My dear friends, be positive. Your future won’t be a question mark, neither would it be an exclamation mark, nor a full stop. I’m going to share with you for the next 30 minutes the topic of “Charting a Better Tomorrow”, which will turn your future into a series of commas, where many good things will follow one after another ...

Engaging the audience

You may now touch on the body, the core substance of your topic. Some common expressions are:

Today I’m going to talk about ...

The subject of my presentation is ...

The theme of my talk is ...

Have you ever heard of ...?

You’ve probably seen countless times ...

You may have wondered ...

My purpose of sharing with you this evening is ...

What I would like to do today is to take a look at ...

It is advisable to give the listeners some idea of how long you will speak.

I will not speak for more than 30 minutes ...

I have limited my speech to about 40 minutes ...

My talk will last half an hour ...

Show your concern for your audience’s response by saying:

You may interrupt me at any moment to ask questions or make comments.

Please stop me if you find it difficult to understand a certain point. Or you could keep your questions until I’ve finished. Thank you.

The main points of your topic can now be shown on the screen. The main points should preferably be phrases, rather than long full sentences. Remember KISS – Keep It Short & Simple.

Entering the body

After the introduction, you will go into the body of your speech, the essence of the subject matter. This is where all the important facts, expositions, explanations, arguments, findings, viewpoints and illustrations are made.

For the body of the presentation, it is useful to follow the PREP technique: point, reason, example and point.

State the position or point of view, provide a reason for the position by touching on some background or historical information, give an example of why the position is important and then restate the position.

You may signal that you are entering the body with expressions such as:

Now let’s look at ...

Let’s now move on to ...

You may begin by giving some definitions of key technical terms if they help explain the subject matter. But don’t give too many at once – it is better to define each term when the need arises as you proceed through your presentation.

Exact definitions are essential and must be put in full on a slide. This applies to well-known quotations too. Short general statements may be shown in full, but for longer ones, the main points or key words would suffice.

Never put long sentences on the slides and read them out one after another as it is taxing on the audience. It is best to show the main points on the screen and put them into your own words as you go along. In this way, the audience has to listen to you to get the full picture. After all, if they can read and understand everything on screen, they may not heed what you say. What is the point of speaking then?

Systematic presentation

Thirty to 45 minutes is the optimum time for a normal presentation. If you are given a time limit, stick to it.

The subject matter must be systematically organised – logically, chronologically, from general to specific, from known to unknown, from accepted to controversial, cause and effect or problems and recommendations for solution. Whatever sequence you choose, use headings and sub-headings to make clear the flow of ideas.

It is necessary to guide the listeners all the way by signalling to them where you are going. Good presenters will pause, change their stance and the pitch of their voice at the appropriate moment as they move from one part of a presentation to another. For example:

Now let’s examine the first aspect which is ...

First of all, ...

In the first place ...

When you shift from one section to another, use expressions like:

That’s all I would like to say about ... and now we shall turn to ...

Now that we’ve seen ... let us look at ...

There are two ways of dealing with this issue. First, ...

We’ve looked at this from the point of view of the producers, now we shall consider the consumers’ perspective ...

Let’s consider the pros and cons of this policy implementation ...

To clarify a point, you may need to give one or two examples, and you may explain something twice by using different words:

Let me rephrase that ...

In other words ...

Another way of saying this is ...

That is to say ...

Closing

It is good to make a summary of the main issues at the end of your presentation:

Let me summarise by saying ...

To recall what we’ve gone through so far...

As I have already said earlier, here are the main points again ...

Before exiting, express your thanks to the audience for listening, and invite them to ask questions or make comments. This is important for two-way communication. You reveal your humbleness by putting yourself on equal terms with the audience and acknowledging that you are not an expert who knows all the answers.

I’d be happy to answer some of your questions ...

If there are any questions please feel free to ask ... I’ll try my best to answer you ...

Thank you very much for your attention and if there are any suggestions or comments, please don’t hesitate to ask ...

Points to remember

Pronunciation of names, in particular, must be accurate. It is embarrassing to repeatedly mispronounce words or names. In addition, the right speech variation, stress, tone, pacing and pausing can enhance or reinforce what you are saying. Look at the size of your audience and the auditorium to adjust your volume. When speaking with a mike, place it some distance from your mouth to attain good sound effect.

According to psychologists, a large part of a presentation is non-verbal. Your posture, gesture, movement and eye contact with the audience speak a lot about your aptitude and attitude.

Years ago I watched a western titled The Singer Not The Song. Applying that to an oral presentation, it’s clear that the speaker plays a more significant role than the message he tries to put across.

> Yong Ah Yong is with the Department of Languages & Linguistics, UTAR (Perak).

• 
• 
• 

• Survey: Britons love tea more than coffee
• New York City relies on automation technologies to face challenges of urbanisation
• Oil palm firms team up with Sabah to protect Malua Forest Reserve
• Powering the Big Apple
• Build robust cities
• Fun with words
• Rail marvel in New York
• Fun with synonyms
• Carnegie Hall gets green facelift
• Win The Good Food Cook Book!

Latest Jobs from Star-Jobs