Presentations- Formality Brainstorming and Correction

Formality in presentations brainstorming and correction

Present your ideas to your partner, inviting questions and then your partner’s opinion.

Do the same, but this time pretending you are giving a formal presentation on the same topic to a large audience. Start your presentation with “I’d like to get started, if I may. Good morning/ afternoon/ evening ladies and gentlemen.” and end with “If there are no further questions, I’d like to draw my presentation to a close”. Your partners must raise their hands to ask questions.

What were the differences between your formal presentation to a large audience and your informal presentation to a small audience? What other differences could there be between presentations in those two situations?

Continue your discussion with the topics below the fold

------------------------------------fold, cover or cut-----------------------------------------

 

Starting

Getting people’s attention/ Starting the introduction

 

 

 

Greetings

 

 

 

Showing awareness of the audience/ Connecting with the audience

 

 

 

Introducing yourself

 

 

 

Setting out what you will talk about and why (topic, aim and organisation of your presentation)

 

 

 

Hooking the audience

 

 

 

Ending the introduction and starting the body of the presentation

 

 

 

 

Ending

Concluding (= Stating a conclusion)

 

 

 

Ending the body of the presentation

 

 

 

Inviting questions

 

 

 

Dealing with questions (including not being able to answer questions)

 

 

 

Ending the Q&A

 

 

 

Thanking at the end

 

 

 

Handing over to the next person

 

 

 

Write phrases to do the starting and ending stages above for your real presentation(s) (e.g. presenting to a group of 15 peers who know you fairly well but might not know your name, if that is realistic for you).

 

There are suggested answers for a medium level formality presentation below, but with mistakes. Each section has:

• one which is too formal
• one which is too informal (or even rude)
• one which has an error such as a grammar mistake in it.

Cross out two and correct one phrase in each section. 

 

Starting

Getting people’s attention/ Starting the introduction

If I could have your attention, I’d like to get started, if I may.       

Okay, can I get started?

Right. Attention, please. Please listen to my presentation.

So, shall we get started?

Well then, let’s have a start, shall we?

 

Greeting

Good morning/ afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for finding the time to come and join me for this presentation.

Good morning/ afternoon/ evening (everyone).

Hello everyone.

Hi everybodies.

How’s it going?/ Wassup?/ Alright?

 

Showing awareness of the audience/ Connecting with the audience

I know you all think about your own presentations, so…

I’m sure you know nothing about my presentation topic, so…

I’m sure you’re all sleepy after lunch, so…

It’s nice to see so many familiar faces. I’m flattered that you would come here on such a nice sunny day.

 

Introducing yourself

As most you know,…

For those (of you) who don’t know me already,…

I guess you all know me, right?

I think all of you know my face but perhaps not my name, so…

Please allow me to introduce myself.    

 

Giving the topic

I’m going to discuss about…

I’m not sure if this is a good topic but I couldn’t think of anything else, so…

I’ve been invited here today to share with you…

I’ve chosen to present…

I’ve decided to speak about…

In my presentation I’d like to talk to you about…

My presentation is about…        

The subject/ topic of my presentation is…

What I’d like to explain/ present to you in my presentation is…

 

Explaining your aim

After this presentation, I hope most of you will…

By presenting this, I hope to…

By end of my presentation, I want to show you that…

My goal is to change your mind about…

To set out my mission in presenting this to you,…

What I want to achieve by presenting this to you is…

Why the hell did I choose that topic? Well,…

Why would I choose such a strange topic? Well,…

With this presentation I aim to convince you that…

 

Giving a hook

… once said that…

Did you know that…?

Few people know that…            

Have you ever wonder…?

How many people here…?

I think this is an important topic (in the modern world) because…

I think we should all be interested in this topic because…

It’s a bit of a dirty joke, but…

Just yesterday this topic was in the news because…

Please raise your hand if…

There’s an amazing statistic that…

To pique your interest, I’d like to start with a quotation, if I may.

 

Explaining the structure of the presentation

I’ve divided my presentation into… parts.

My presentation divided into...parts.

First, I’ll explain…

Firstly, I’ll present…

First of all, I’ll look at…

I’ll begin by showing you…

I’ll start by giving you some (background) information on…

Second(ly), I’ll share…

In the second part of my presentation, I’ll move onto…

Then, I’ll focus on…

After that, I’ll spend some time on…

Next, we’ll examine…

Last/ Last of all/ Lastly/ To finish up/ The last stage will be to…/ Finally/ I’ll end with…

In the penultimate part, the presentation will move onto…

Then at last I’ll be able to get to…

 

Ending the introduction and starting the body of the presentation

If there are no questions at this stage, my presentation will commence with…

Everything clear? So, let’s go!

So, if there are no question so far…                        

So, let’s start by looking at…

Ending

Stating a conclusion

I hope none of you now have any doubt that…

I think all of this proves that…   

If I had to summarise all of that in one sentence, I would probably say…

In conclusion,…

It is quite difficult to draw conclusions, but…

One cannot but draw the conclusion that… 

So, to summarise up what I have told you,…

With the evidence that I’ve given you, any idiot can see that…

 

Ending the body of the presentation

…which is last thing that I wanted to say.

And on that point, I would like to conclude today’s presentation.

That brings me to the end of my presentation.   

That’s all I wanted to say (on this topic).

That’s all./ That’s it.       

 

Inviting questions

Are there any (more/ further) questions?

Does anyone (else) have any question?

I will conclude my presentation with a question and answer stage. Please raise your hand and I will invite each person individually to ask any questions that may have arisen.

I will now answer any questions you may have about this topic.

I’ll now be happy to answer questions.

If anyone has any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them now.

Please put your hand up if you have any questions.

Questions please.

 

Dealing with questions

(That’s a) (very) good question. Well,…

I’m glad you asked that.

If I understand you correctly, you are asking…

Just a second while I look at my notes.

Just to check, you want to know…

Let me see.

Let me think.

So, what you’re asking is...

Sorry for not explaining this before.

That’s a difficult/ tricky question.

That’s interesting question.

Yes, please go ahead.

Yes, sir/ madam. What would you like to ask me?

Yes, what's your question please?   

Yes? (Please ask your question).

 

Not being able to answer questions

I have no idea.

I’m afraid I am not in a position to be able to comment on that at this time.

I’m afraid but I didn’t research that point, but…

I’m sorry but I don’t have that information, but…

Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to that question, but…

 

Ending the questions

I seem to have run out of time, so…      

I’d love to be able to talk further, but I’m afraid the time available to us has come to an end.

If there are no more questions,…

If you have any further questions, please come and talk to me afterwards.

No more questions, please.

Someone’s signalling to me that I’ve run out of time, so…

There don’t seem be any more questions, so…

 

Thanking at the end

I really appreciate your attention so soon after lunch. 

It’s been an honour to be able to present to you.

Thank you for listening (so attentively).

Thanks you for your kind attention.

Thanks for putting up with my terrible English.

Thanks for your great questions.

 

Handing over to the next person

I’d now like to hand you over to my colleague…

I’m sure the next presentator wants to get started, so I’ll hand over to them now.

I look forward to hearing the next person’s presentation.

Your turn.

 

Partial answer key

The phrases with problems are marked in bold below, so make sure you have eliminated two and corrected one.

 

Starting

Getting people’s attention/ Starting the introduction

If I could have your attention, I’d like to get started, if I may.             

Okay, can I get started?

Right. Attention, please. Please listen to my presentation.

So, shall we get started?

Well then, let’s have a start, shall we?

 

Greeting

Good morning/ afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for finding the time to come and join me for this presentation.

Good morning/ afternoon/ evening (everyone).

Hello everyone.

Hi everybodies.

How’s it going?/ Wassup?/ Alright?

 

Showing awareness of the audience/ Connecting with the audience

I know you all think about your own presentations, so…

I’m sure you know nothing about my presentation topic, so…

I’m sure you’re all sleepy after lunch, so…

It’s nice to see so many familiar faces. I’m flattered that you would come here on such a nice sunny day.

 

Introducing yourself

As most you know,…

For those (of you) who don’t know me already,…

I guess you all know me, right?

I think all of you know my face but perhaps not my name, so…

Please allow me to introduce myself.

 

Giving the topic

I’m going to discuss about…

I’m not sure if this is a good topic but I couldn’t think of anything else, so…

I’ve been invited here today to share with you…

I’ve chosen to present…

I’ve decided to speak about…

In my presentation I’d like to talk to you about…

My presentation is about…        

The subject/ topic of my presentation is…

What I’d like to explain/ present to you in my presentation is…

 

Explaining your aim

After this presentation, I hope most of you will…

By presenting this, I hope to…

By end of my presentation, I want to show you that…

My goal is to change your mind about…

To set out my mission in presenting this to you,…

What I want to achieve by presenting this to you is…

Why the hell did I choose that topic? Well,…

Why would I choose such a strange topic? Well,…

With this presentation I aim to convince you that…

 

Giving a hook

… once said that…

Did you know that…?

Few people know that…            

Have you ever wonder…?

How many people here…?

I think this is an important topic (in the modern world) because…

I think we should all be interested in this topic because…

It’s a bit of a dirty joke, but…

Just yesterday this topic was in the news because…

Please raise your hand if…

There’s an amazing statistic that…

To pique your interest, I’d like to start with a quotation, if I may.

 

Explaining the structure of the presentation

I’ve divided my presentation into… parts.

My presentation divided into...parts.

First, I’ll explain…

Firstly, I’ll present…

First of all, I’ll look at…

I’ll begin by showing you…

I’ll start by giving you some (background) information on…

Second(ly), I’ll share…

In the second part of my presentation, I’ll move onto…

Then, I’ll focus on…

After that, I’ll spend some time on…

Next, we’ll examine…

Last/ Last of all/ Lastly/ To finish up/ The last stage will be to…/ Finally/ I’ll end with…

In the penultimate part, the presentation will move onto…

Then at last I’ll be able to get to…

 

Ending the introduction and starting the body of the presentation

If there are no questions at this stage, my presentation will commence with…

Everything clear? So, let’s go!

So, if there are no question so far…

So, let’s start by looking at…

Ending

Stating a conclusion

I hope none of you now have any doubt that…

I think all of this proves that…   

If I had to summarise all of that in one sentence, I would probably say…

In conclusion,…

It is quite difficult to draw conclusions, but…

One cannot but draw the conclusion that… 

So, to summarise up what I have told you,…

With the evidence that I’ve given you, any idiot can see that…

 

Ending the body of the presentation

…which is last thing that I wanted to say.

And on that point, I would like to conclude today’s presentation.

That brings me to the end of my presentation.   

That’s all I wanted to say (on this topic).

That’s all./ That’s it.     

 

Inviting questions

Are there any (more/ further) questions?

Does anyone (else) have any question?

I will conclude my presentation with a question and answer stage. Please raise your hand and I will invite each person individually to ask any questions that may have arisen.

I will now answer any questions you may have about this topic.

I’ll now be happy to answer questions.

If anyone has any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them now.

Please put your hand up if you have any questions.

Questions please.

 

Dealing with questions

(That’s a) (very) good question. Well,…

I’m glad you asked that.

If I understand you correctly, you are asking…

Just a second while I look at my notes.

Just to check, you want to know…

Let me see.

Let me think.

So, what you’re asking is...

Sorry for not explaining this before.

That’s a difficult/ tricky question.

That’s interesting question.

Yes, please go ahead.

Yes, sir/ madam. What would you like to ask me?

Yes, what's your question please?   

Yes? (Please ask your question).

 

Not being able to answer questions

I have no idea.

I’m afraid I am not in a position to be able to comment on that at this time.

I’m afraid but I didn’t research that point, but…

I’m sorry but I don’t have that information, but…

Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to that question, but…

 

Ending the questions

I seem to have run out of time, so…      

I’d love to be able to talk further, but I’m afraid the time available to us has come to an end.

If there are no more questions,…

If you have any further questions, please come and talk to me afterwards.

No more questions, please.

Someone’s signalling to me that I’ve run out of time, so…

There don’t seem be any more questions, so…

 

Thanking at the end

I really appreciate your attention so soon after lunch. 

It’s been an honour to be able to present to you.

Thank you for listening (so attentively).

Thanks you for your kind attention.

Thanks for putting up with my terrible English.

Thanks for your great questions.

 

Handing over to the next person

I’d now like to hand you over to my colleague…

I’m sure the next presentator wants to get started, so I’ll hand over to them now.

I look forward to hearing the next person’s presentation.

Your turn.

 

Check your answers as a class.

Look back at your brainstormed sentences and see if you can find any errors or things which are too formal or informal for your own (real) presentations.

Analyse the example sentences above for these things:

• What different kinds of hooks are there? (= What different tactics can you use to hook your audience?)
• What are the criteria of a good aim?

Try to make more good examples of hooks and aims, perhaps based on the phrases you originally brainstormed.

Choose, correct and/ or write the most suitable phrase of each kind for your own next English presentation, paying particular attention to suitability for the situation and for that specific audience.