Do you give English presentations at work, but feel that you could communicate your message in a more objective, fluid way?

Maybe you have got an English presentation coming up and want to make sure that your speech is clear and structured so that your audience doesn’t lose concentration and stays with you all the way to the end.

A technique that can help you achieve objective, clear, and structured English presentations, is to use linking phrases which join the separate parts of your presentation together.

English presentations normally consist of an introduction, main body, different parts of the main body, and the ending or conclusion.

To help maintain your audience’s attention, you need to signal when you are going from one part to another.

The Introduction

Introduce

1. Good morning/afternoon everyone.
2. It’s a pleasure to welcome all of you here.
3. I’m … (the Director of …)
4. By the end of the talk/presentation/session, you’ll know how to… /…you will have learned about… /

Introduce the presentation topic

5. I plan to say a few words about…
6. I’m going to talk about…
7. The subject of my talk is…

Outline

8. My talk will be in (three parts).
9. In the first part…
10. Then in the second part…
11. Finally, I’ll go on to talk about…

Questions

12. Please interrupt if you have any questions.
13. After my talk, there will be time for a discussion and any questions.

Main Body

There are three parts of the main body of a presentation where linking phrases can be used:

Beginning the Main Body

14. Now let’s move to / turn to the first part of my talk which is about…
15. So, first…
16. To begin with…

Ending Parts within the Main Body

17. That completes/concludes…
18. That’s all (I want to say for now) on…
19. Ok, I’ve explained how…

Beginning a New Part

20. Let’s move to (the next part which is)…
21. So now we come to the next point, which is…
22. Now I want to describe…
23. Let’s turn to the next issue…
24. I’d now like to change direction and talk about...

Listing and Sequencing

Listing phrases can help link ideas together and improve the flow of your speech. If you have to explain processes, sequencing phrases are also helpful.

Listing

25. There are three things to consider. First… Second… Third…
26. There are two kinds of… The first is… The second is…
27. We can see four advantages and two disadvantages. First, advantages…
28. One is… Another is… A third advantage is… Finally…

Sequencing

29. There are (four) different stages to the process.
30. First / then / next / after that / then (x) / after x there’s y.
31. There are two steps involved. The first step is… The second step is…
32. There are four stages to the project.
33. At the beginning / later / then / finally…
34. I’ll describe the development of the idea. First the background, then the present situation, and then the prospect for the future.

Ending

After you have presented the main body of your English presentation, you will want to end it smoothly.

Here are typical sections transitioning from the main body to the ending of the presentation, and then inviting the audience to ask questions:

Ending the Main Body

35. Okay, that ends (the third part of) my talk.
36. That’s all I want to say for now on ...

Beginning the Summary and/or Conclusion

37. To sum up…
38. Ok, in brief, there are several advantages and disadvantages.
39. To conclude…
40. I’d like to end by emphasizing the main points.
41. I’d like to end with a summary of the main points.

Concluding

42. I think we have seen that we should…
43. In my opinion, we should…
44. I recommend/suggest that we…
45. There are three reasons why I recommend this. First, … / Second, … / Finally,...

An Ending Phrase

46. Well, I’ve covered the points that I needed to present today.
47. That sums up (my description of the new model).
48. That concludes my talk for today.

Inviting Questions and/or Introducing Discussion

49. Now we have (half an hour) for questions and discussion.
50. So, now I’d be very interested to hear your comments.

Thanking the Audience

51. I’d like to thank you for taking time out to listen to my presentation.
52. Thank you for listening / your attention. / Many thanks for coming.

Linking phrases are like the skeleton which holds your presentation together.
Not only do they improve the flow and help guide the audience, by memorizing them they can also help you remember the general structure of your presentation, giving you increased confidence.
To help you memorize, I recommend saying the linking phrases on their own from the beginning to the end of your presentation while you practice.
I also suggest memorizing the introduction word for word. By doing this, you will get off to a great start, which will settle your nerves and transmit a positive first impression.

Conference Calls

Greetings

Each participant should announce their presence. If you are running the meeting each participant
should be welcomed individually.

Good morning. This is Alex from the Paris office.
Good afternoon. Rachel speaking.
Good afternoon Rachel. Thank you for joining us today

Attendance

Make sure all invitees are present.
Before we start, please could you introduce yourselves?
I'm afraid Vladimir is absent today. We will have to proceed without him.

Checking names

Check the pronunciation of difficult names. You may have people with the same name.
Ralph speaking. The correct pronunciation is RAYF.
Ralph, please could you correct my pronunciation before we begin?
Today we have two Rachels. Please could we add surnames when speaking: Rachel Smith
and Rachel Taylor.

Introducing new members

New members should be introduced to other participants.
I'd like to introduce Paul. He's in charge of Sales in the Paris office.

Setting ground rules

Remind participants to speak clearly right from the start. Avoid too many people speaking at the

same time. Remind participants how to use the technology.

We have 3 nationalities here today. Please speak clearly and slowly so that everyone

understands.

Please could you speak one at a time?

May I remind you to speak one at a time?

Could you check your microphone please?

Remember to switch off the mute button when you are speaking. Switch it on when you're

not speaking.

Checking the volume

Make sure all participants can hear well.

Can you hear me ok?

Could you check your microphone please?

Problems with sound

Let the other attendees know when you are experiencing problems with sound.

I can't hear very well.

I'm sorry. I have a problem with my microphone.

There's a lot of noise in the background. Could you check your microphone please?

John, you need to switch off the mute button if you want to speak

Problems understanding accents

Politely ask caller to repeat if you have difficulty understanding.

I'm sorry John, but I'm afraid I didn't understand. Please could you repeat that?

I'm afraid I didn't understand Mr Chopra. Please could you speak more slowly?

Problems understanding part of a sentence

Ask the caller to repeat the sentence.
I'm sorry Mr McKay but I didn't catch that. Could you repeat that please?
I'm afraid I didn't understand Mr McKay. Please could you say that again?
I'm sorry Mr McKay. Please could you clarify what you mean by …....?

Multiple voices

There are two people speaking. Mr Chopra, can you continue? John, we'll come back to
you in a moment.

Setting objectives

Clearly state the purpose of the meeting at the beginning of the call.
The purpose of today's meeting is to review last month's sales.
The objective of this meeting is to make a decision about the advertising campaign

Referring to documents

Participants can't see you so you have to be able to describe them clearly.
You should have a green document in front of you entitled 'Customer Satisfaction'
The main points are highlighted in bold.
Please turn to page 14.

Asking for an opinion

Shall we go round the table and hear everyone's opinion?
Alex, what do you think?
Rachel, what are your thoughts?

Expressing an opinion

In my opinion, we are performing well under the circumstances.
I think that....

Agreeing

I agree.
I completely agree.
I agree to a certain extent.

Disagreeing

I'm sorry but I'm afraid I disagree.
I see your point but I'm afraid I disagree.
I tend to disagree.
I see things from a different perspective.

Checking for understanding

So what you're saying is, we need to increase sales.
Could you repeat that please?
So if I understood correctly, you want us to increase the budget?

Compromising

Let's try to find a middle ground.
Why don't we try to reach a compromise?
Would you be willing to compromise?
If you could increase our budget, then we could spend more on advertising.

Making a suggestion

Maybe we could increase the budget.
Why don't we focus on online advertising?

Agreeing with a suggestion

That's a good idea.
I like that idea.

Showing understanding

I understand.
I see your point.

Interrupting someone

I'm sorry to interrupt. It's Susan here.
Alex here. Could I just jump in here

Clarifying who is speaking

Sorry. Who's speaking please?
Please could you say your name before speaking?

Inviting participants to speak

Pauline, what are your thoughts?
Let's ask everyone their opinion.

Respecting the schedule

Be aware of the time restrictions and make sure everyone else knows too.
May I remind everyone that we have to finish by 4pm.
Please be brief as we only have 30 minutes.
I think we're getting side-tracked. Let's try to keep to the agenda.

Bringing the discussion to an end

I'm afraid we're running out of time.
Would anyone like to add anything before we finish the call?
We're running out of time. Let's try to wrap things up.

Summarising

Summarise the key decisions and action points.
So, let's go over the main points.
So, to summarise we have decided to focus on online sales.

Highlighting action points

Make sure everyone knows the next steps, individual actions to be taken, and relevant deadlines.
So Alex, you’re going to send out the minutes. Rachel, you're going to speak to the regional
Manager.

Refer to a future conference call

Make sure everyone knows the date and time of the next meeting.
Shall we schedule a follow-up call in 2 weeks?
Let's speak again next month.

REMOTE PRESENTATIONS

https://www.ulrichschubert.com/training/remote-presentations/