Introduction

Good morning / afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I plan to say a few words about ... I’m going to talk about ... The subject of my talk is ... The theme of my presentation is ... I’d like to give you an overview of ... I’ve divided my talk into (three) parts. First ... Second ... Third ... In the first part ... Then in the second part ... Finally ... The presentation will take about twenty minutes. After my talk there’ll be time for discussion and questions.

Exercise 21 Presenters use different techniques to get their audience’s attention at the start of a presentation. Match the techniques below to the examples.

a) tell a personal story c) ask a question

b) offer an amazing fact d) state a problem

1. I wonder if any of you here know the answer to the question: What’s the most popular holiday destination in Europe for people under the age of 25? 2. When I was on holiday a few years ago in Greece, the owner of a taverna told me that in 20 years’ time, the little village where he lived would be popular tourist resort. 3. Let me give you a statistic: 92% of Americans do not own a passport. Consider the opportunity this presents to the travel industry. 4. We’re facing a crisis with our market share. What are we going to do about it?

Exercise 22 Read the introduction to a presentation about plans to develop a new production plant in Taiwan. Which technique from ex. would you use to add a personal touch?

Okay, thanks. I’m here to talk about the design proposals for the production plant at Taipei. My talk will be in three parts followed by a 30-minute discussion. I’m going to start with the background to each proposal – something about our negotiations with the Taiwanese government – then in the second part I’ll go over the main characteristics of each proposal, Proposal One and Proposal Two. Then in the third part I’ll highlight some key considerations we have to bear in mind. Finally, I’ll end with an invitation to ask questions or make any comments you like. We’ll discuss matters arising from the talk ... Okay? So to begin with, a few words on the history.

Exercise 23 Choose one of the presentation situations below. Prepare four different openings using the techniques described above. Practice the openings with a partner.

1. Your company is developing a small car aimed at women.

Audience: a group of car dealers.

2. Your bank wishes to encourage young people to save money.

Audience: a group of students.

3. Your firm has produced a new wagon lamp which has unique features.

Audience: a group of rail customers at a trade fair.

Main Body

First the background, then the present situation, and finally the prospects for the future. Now let’s move to the first part of my talk, which is about ... So, to begin with ... There are three things to consider. First ...Second ... Third ... We can see four advantages and two disadvantages. First, advantages. One is ... Another is … Finally ... On the other hand, there are two disadvantages. First ... Let’s move on to (the next part which is) ... So now we come to ... If you take a look at this next slide, you will see that… So, to come back to my main point… That completes / concludes ... That’s all (I want to say for now) ...

Exercise 24 Read a part of the main body of a presentation on Energy Resources in South America. Underline linking elements. The first one has been done for you.

Different countries’ energy production is primarily based on their natural resources and their progress in exploiting them.

Now I’d like to talk briefly about Latin America, and three countries in particular, beginning with Venezuela, which for many years has had a strong oil industry. For years the economy has been dependent on oil, and although there are other significant resources in Venezuela, especially water, the emphasis has always been on fossil fuels.

Let’s look now at Argentina, which is quite a lot different to Venezuela in that it hasn’t enjoyed such a long history of success with oil for the simple reason that they have a great deal less of it. On the other hand, they have developed better use of hydro-electric power, so the use of energy in Argentina has been spread around among many sources - but fossil fuels are once again the most important.

That’s all I want to say about Argentina. Now let’s talk about Peru.

For many reasons, principally economic, Peru is typical of the Andean countries in that there is far less development of actual resources than such a rich geographical land mass - and a long coast - might lead us to suppose. The Amazon basin is a rich source of very many types of possible energy source. The most important one here is oil, but the problem is, that exploitation of the oil resources conflicts with conservation and ecological responsibilities. And this is a political and economic problem. Now, so much for Peru. I now want to say something about the other opportunities in Latin America …