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Oral presentation language is fairly variable, but some expressions are more likely than others
THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Oral presentations are common in both the business and academic worlds. This means there is plenty of published advice on how to do them successfully. There are normally three types of skill that tend to be considered: composition (selecting and organizing the content), delivery (voice projection, pace, eye contact, visual aids etc.), and language. It is, of course, the last of these that tends to receive especial attention in courses for speakers whose mother tongue is not English.
Given the aims of this blog, it is language skills that also feature strongly here. However, since the blog also aims to avoid simply repeating what is said elsewhere, I have sought to include linguistic points that are not often made.
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A KEY DELIVERY SKILL
Although delivery is not the primary concern here, one aspect needs to be highlighted because of its centrality and potential to affect language choice. This is the skill of remembering what to say without writing it all down and reading it to the audience. Reading aloud is an important skill in academia and business, with its own delivery and language subskills (see 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud), but it is often not the best method of oral presentation.
The fundamental problem with presentation by reading is that audiences can find it hard to follow. There are good reasons why. Firstly, pre-written texts for reading aloud are linguistically very different from spontaneous speech. A linguistic difference between written and spoken English has always been recognised, but it is only recently that the extent of this difference has been appreciated. It is quite new for separate grammars of spoken and written English to appear, and for the separate spoken and written vocabularies – illustrated in this blog in 108. Formal & Informal Words – to be extensively explored. These linguistic differences make extended reading aloud burdensome to audiences because they force them to listen to a kind of language that they are not used to hearing.
Secondly, pre-written texts differ from spontaneous speech in the way they package the information in them. Whereas written information tends to be given efficiently, with minimal repetition (see 24. Good and Bad Repetition), spoken information tends to be more spread out, with deliberate repetition. The probable reason is that efficient information-giving is less of a problem for readers because they can stop reading at will to re-read or reflect; but it challenges listeners because they can rarely stop the flow of speech, and hence need the information to be less dense to give them time to take it in.
Another problem with reading presentations aloud is that it reduces the speaker’s eye-contact with the audience. The value of eye-contact is said to be the way it simultaneously motivates audiences to listen and informs speakers about the effect of their words.
The most common way of remembering what to say in oral presentations without writing it all down first is by means of notes. These should be much briefer than a mere representation of the entire talk in abbreviated form. What they include should act as reminders of what they leave out. Keywords or headings, with or without a few abbreviated sentences, can be effective reminders. They might be listed all together in one place, or kept separate on cards or sequenced computer screens. It is often useful to reveal them to the audience.
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USEFUL LANGUAGE
The three main stages of a presentation – beginning, middle and end – each have some characteristic language.
1. At the Beginning
After an initial greeting and reminder of the title, it is customary to indicate the overall structure of the talk, naming its sections in the order of their occurrence. One way to do this is with I will, I shall, I am going to or even I want to, followed by a speaking or thinking verb (often like those in essay instructions), such as argue, consider, describe, examine, explain, indicate, outline, present or survey. Verbs of a more informal kind are also common, e.g. deal with, look at and touch on.
These same verbs can also have a subject referring to some or all of the presentation itself, rather than I, such as the first part, section 3 or my main argument. Will must then be used in preference to shall, and there will be becomes a further option. For more on will/shall in introductions, see 147. Types of Future Meaning, #5.
The verbs that show the structure of a presentation will often follow a connector of the time-sequence kind. Common ones are to begin with, initially, afterwards, following that, next, subsequently, then, finally and lastly, as well as number adverbs like first(ly) and secondly (see 227. Time Adverbs). This use of such expressions at the start of a presentation is not quite the same as that within the main body of a text.
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2. In the Middle
Sections in the middle of a presentation usually need their beginnings and endings clearly signalled. A major type of beginning signaller is adverb-like connectors such as next, now, well, OK and number adverbs (firstly, secondly, etc.). For more about now, see 157. Tricky Word Contrasts 5, #2. Well seems mostly to begin the very first point after the general introduction:
(a) In this talk I will be dealing with the various aids available for language learning. Well, dictionaries are an obvious starting point.
Connectors indicating the start of a section can, like most other connectors, be easily paraphrased (see 112. Synonyms of Connectors). A common paraphrase is another. As an adjective, it needs a following noun, e.g.:
(b) ANOTHER useful language learning aid is recording devices.
Using another has the special value of reminding the audience of the list that the new section topic belongs to (underlined). Moreover, it can come later in the sentence (…is/are another X), enabling the starting words to name the new topic (recording devices above).
A further connector synonym is turning to… – useful for topic naming alongside further information in a single sentence. It must go first and, like another, precede a noun or equivalent.
A topic-introducing connector can also be paraphrased in an entire sentence:
(c) Now let me turn to the third advantage.
This is a longer way of saying thirdly. The value of such sentences is that they give both speaker and audience the time to think that is so important in oral communication.
After a topic beginning has been marked with a connector, some verbs are especially common. Where the connector is number-indicating, like thirdly, the verb is likely to be there is (see 122. Signpost Words in Multi-Sentence Lists); after other connectors, notable verbs are COME TO, CONSIDER, EXAMINE, EXPLORE, PRESENT and TURN TO (number adverbs tend only to accompany these within the introductory description of a talk’s overall structure).
Most of these verbs typically follow I (or we) + am/are going to, need to, want to or wish to. They can also follow let me…/us… (see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing, #7). Only COME TO is exceptional: it just follows I / we, e.g. Now we come to… (see 290. Ways of Using COME, #5).
An alternative to any of these verbs after an introductory connector is a direct question:
(d) Now, what is the most common type of language learning aid?
This is a “rhetorical” question: not inviting an answer from the audience. In writing it would often need an indirect form (see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing). Topic-introducing rhetorical questions may use any of the question words, though what about…? can only introduce a topic after the first (see 274. Questions with a Hidden Meaning, #8). Spoken answers to a rhetorical question very often begin with Well, … (see 297. Types of Response to a Question, #5).
After a new section has been signalled and named, the discussion of each part within it should clearly indicate how that part is related to the part before and/or after it. Connectors are obviously useful again here, but mostly of the non-listing kind, such as therefore and for example. Sentence-form connector synonyms are again likely:
(e) Now what can we infer from this? (= “therefore”)
(f) Here’s an example that might make this clearer. (= “for example”)
Another notable kind of language in the central part of presentations accompanies the use of visual information. A visual display can be introduced with a phrase like look at this or here is a slide/ diagram/ table (etc.) showing… . Once the information is displayed, it can be referred to with SEE, e.g. see how…; here we see…; as you can see, … (preferable to the written equivalent as can be seen: see 104. Naming Data Sources with “As”), or with SHOW, e.g. as this shows; as shown here.
The end of each section within a presentation also needs a clear signal. Referring to the information in the section with that or those is especially common (see 234. Adjective and Pronoun Uses of “that”, #2). For example, a speaker might say that is (or those are) the… or that is the end of…. A verb in the present perfect tense can also be a signal, e.g. Right, this section has described…. (see 309. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 5, #2).
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3. At the End
The main things to do at the end of a presentation are to briefly answer the main question being addressed, indicate the arrival of the end, and invite questions.
Sometimes the first of these will be a consequence indicated by preceding arguments and/or evidence. It can be signalled with in conclusion or similar (see 168. Ways of Arguing 2), and will often need to be followed by a reminder of the main contributory points. At other times, the main question will already have been answered by means of a simple list, so that a summary is the only requirement at the end. This can be introduced by to conclude, as a conclusion, to finish or to sum up.
Possible phrases for signalling the end of a presentation are:
(g) Thank you (for listening/for your attention).
(h) That is all I have to say.
(i) And that brings this presentation to an end.
To invite questions, one might say:
(j) Now I’d like to invite questions.
(k) Now I will try to answer any questions you might have.
(l) If you wish to ask about anything, please do (so).
In (l), where do repeats an earlier verb (ask), leaving out so is more emphatic, almost urging (see 212. Special Uses of “Do” 1, #1).
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