Useful phrases: starting your talk
| Welcoming the audience | Good morning/afternoon/evening ladies and gentleman |
| Good morning/afternoon/evening everybody | |
| Hello/Hi everyone | |
| Introducing yourself | Let me introduce myself, my name is ... |
| I’m in my 4th/last year here. | |
| I’m reading (Economics) … | |
| I’m specializing in … | |
| Introducing the title, topic and sequence | The title/subject of my talk is … |
| This talk addresses the issue of … | |
| My talk will focus on (the following topics/issues … | |
| Today I’m going to be talking about … | |
| I have divided my talk into three main parts: first I’m going to talk about …, then I will describe/analyse …, | |
| and finally, I will close with … | |
| My talk/presentation will take about … minutes | |
| Explaining your aims | The purpose/aim of my presentation is to explain / analyse / describe / report / give an overview of … |
| I have chosen this topic because … | |
| This topic is particularly important because … | |
| By the end of my talk you will have a better understanding of … | |
| Getting the audience’s attention … | |
| - with facts, events statistics | Recent research suggests … |
| I’m sure you’ve heard about/that … | |
| According to an article I read recently … | |
| - with rhetorical questions or by posing problems | Have you ever wondered why …? |
| What’s the point of … exactly? | |
| Why is … so important | |
| Imagine you wanted to … | |
| What would you do if …? | |
| - mentioning a personal experience or telling a story | Let me tell you what happened to me when … |
| I remember when I … |
Useful phrases: developing your talk
| Explaining the topic | |
| - describing the main concept, fact, event, process … | The most important issue/problem/idea/thing here is … |
| The data/figures/information available indicate(s) that … | |
| - indicating different points of view | There are different interpretations of … |
| Researchers/The experts don’t agree on/that … | |
| - explaining the advantages and disadvantages | This (object/technology/process/material/phenomenon) comes with the following pros and cons: first, … |
| There are positive and negative sides to this. | |
| - analyzing cause and effect | What are main reasons for this? What causes this to happen? |
| This results in/ leads to ….. | |
| As consequence (of) … , As a result (of) … Due to … | |
| -referring to supporting evidence | This proves/shows that … |
| Recent findings support the view that … | |
| This is backed up by / supported by … | |
| Researchers at … University discovered that … | |
| Indicating the end of a section | That’s all I wanted to say about this point. |
| So much for … | |
| Making connections | |
| - linking different points | This leads neatly to my next point: |
| Moving on to the subject of … | |
| Now let’s turn to / consider … | |
| - referring to previous points | As I said/mentioned before/earlier … |
| As I’ve already explained, … | |
| - adding further considerations | In addition to this, … |
| Furthermore, … | |
| What’s more, … | |
| - comparing things | Similarly / Likewise, In the same way, In comparison with … |
Useful phrases: ending your talk
| Expressing personal opinions | In my opinion, … |
| As far as I’m concerned … | |
| My personal feeling is that … | |
| Making recommendations | I would strongly recommend … |
| In my opinion, we should … | |
| Let’s hope future research focuses on … | |
| Summarizing | Before ending my talk, I’d like to summarise the main points … |
| To conclude/In conclusion, I’d like to … | |
| As I mentioned before, the most important points are … | |
| Ending and inviting questions | That brings me to the end of my talk. |
| Well, that’s all I wanted to say about … | |
| Thank you very much for your time. | |
| If there are any questions … | |
| I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. | |
| Finishing effectively | So, if you remember what I said at the beginning of my talk … |
| To quote a well-known novelist / economist / comedian … | |
| As …. once said: … |
Analyse other people’s presentations
Why struggle to invent something new if someone else has already done it? An effective way to learn is to see how other people have already dealt with a problem. In your case, this means analyzing how they structured their presentations. Use the following grid to take notes.
| How is the theme of the presentation introduced? | |
| How does the speaker grab the audience’s attention? | |
| How is the talk structured? | |
| What kind of language is used? | |
| How does the speaker end the presentation? | |
Prepare your talk
Choose a topic you want to present at school or university. You can use a grid, like the one below, to help you organize your content, but there are other ways (graphic organizers, maps etc.). Use the one that suits you best.
| INTRODUCTION | |
| WELCOMING THE AUDIENCE | |
| Introducing yourself | |
| Introducing the title, | |
| topic and sequence | |
| Explaining your aims | |
| GETTING THE AUDIENCE’S ATTENTION WITH ... | |
| - facts, events, statistics | |
| - rhetorical questions | |
| - personal experience or story |
| DEVELOPMENT | |
| EXPLAINING THE TOPIC | EXPLAINING THE TOPIC |
| - describe the main idea, fact, event, process … | |
| - indicate different points of view | |
| - compare advantages and/or disadvantages | |
| - analyse causes and effects | |
| - give evidence and acknowledge sources |
| CONCLUSION | |
| Briefly summarizing the main points | |
| Giving your personal opinion | |
| Finishing with an effective final sentence |
