ENGL 1102AEF Presentation Skills PDF

ENGL 1102AEF Presentation Skills Structuring your presentation These slides are designed for the course and should only be used by the teachers and students involved. All rights reserved. The Hotdog Structure The Introduction In general, occupies less than 15% of the presentation time greets your au...

ENGL 1102AEF Presentation Skills Structuring your presentation These slides are designed for the course and should only be used by the teachers and students involved. All rights reserved. The Hotdog Structure The Introduction In general, occupies less than 15% of the presentation time greets your audience sets the tone builds some rapport tells the audience what you’re going to tell them gives them an outline of what is to be covered in your presentation The body states and develops the presentation’s main message with sub-points and supporting information takes each point and elaborate upon it by giving some details develops your ideas and include some relevant stories, statistics and examples etc. The conclusion tells the audience what you’ve told them summarizes or recaps the main idea gives a summar y of what you said in the body offers some thoughtful or memorable concluding remarks; or an appeal for action Introduction WISE approach WISE Welcome the audience Introduce yourself Say what your topic is Explain why your topic is relevant for your audience An Introduction Your presentation should consist of two elements: an effective opening that is interesting and forceful a preview of the presentation’s main points. a) Making a brief, dramatic or controversial statement An extraordinar y statement could be a statistic or an uncommon fact that immediately gets your audience focused on the topic. An example could be: ‘Breast cancer is not limited to women and can occur in men, too.’ b) Presenting a quotation Immediately signal your main topic Get your audience’s attention For example, the famous quotation from Henr y Ford, may be used to motivate sales managers in a weekly sales meeting. c) Referring to an occasion/a historic event/ personal experience For example, in a speech presented at the Inauguration Ceremony of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) in October 2004, Dr York Chow used the SARS experience to introduce the inauguration of the CHP: ‘You may recall approximately a year-and-a-half ago, Hong Kong was firmly gripped by a deadly new disease called SARS … The Hong Kong Government is committed to do everything in its power to make sure that our community does not have to suffer again … today we see the inauguration of our own Centre for Health Protection.’ d) Referring to an occasion/a historic event/ personal experience Build goodwill and help you connect with your audience on a personal level For example, in a speech about successfully mixing cultures, John Tsang used his personal exper iences to highlight the presentation’s main point: ‘In my younger days living in the USA, I can vividly remember the delights of celebrating with family members our Thanksgiving with Chinese characteristics … we ate roast turkeys stuffed with sticky rice and Chinese sausages.’ e) Asking questions Start your presentation with a compelling, thought -provoking or challenging question f) Telling a stor y or giving an example Help to arouse your audience’s interest Make sure the stor y directly leads into your topic g) Using humour Help to break the ice Encourage relaxation and discourage judgment Ensure that jokes have some logical relationship to your presentation h) Using a powerful prop or gimmick Easily gain attention Examples: showing a shocking picture or a few pieces of your precious collectibles i) Take a surprising action Make your presentation more memorable Examples: 1. 2. Tear a tax bill in half to begin a talk on the need to reduce taxes Distribute small bags of rice to the audience during a talk about food shortages in the developing world Exercise Identif y the opening strategy used in each of the following cases. 1. Speech by the then-Chief Secretar y for Administration, Donald Tsang, at the Wah Yan College International Conference 2004: ‘As you can imagine, I do receive quite a lot of invitations to speak. But this was one invitation that I simply could not refuse. The reason is simple: my old school holds a special lace in my heart. When I graduated 40 years ago, I certainly did not think that I would be standing here in front of my old school mates one day, entrusted to speak on how Wahyanites can contribute to the prosperity of Hong Kong and China.’ 2. Speech by the Permanent Secretar y for Education and Manpower Bureau, Fanny Law, at the 10th Graduation Ceremony of the Hong Kong Institute of Education in 2004: ‘As the famous quotation from Harvard goes, “the honor of a university does not stem from the size of its campus or enrollment, but the quality of alumni it is able to produce generation after generation.”’ 3. Speech by the Secretar y for Home Affairs, Dr Patrick Ho, at the New Trends of Architecture exhibition in 2005: ‘When I look at any city, what do I see first as its most distinctive feature if not its architecture? How can I think of New York without seeing its Empire State Building, London without its Houses of Parliament, Paris without its Eiffel Tower, Sydney without its Opera House, Shanghai without its Bund or Beijing without its Imperial Palace?’ Previewing Your Main Point(s) A transition is a brief sentence which links your opening to a general statement about your topic. Give a signal to your audience that you are making a new point Give a clear and specific statement of your key topic after the transition Directly state the central idea or viewpoint Examples: ‘ Today I would like to raise your concern about smoking.’ ‘My subject tonight is the major causes of air pollution in Hong Kong, and ways to improve it.’ The Body The Body: Developing Your Main Points Step 1: Establish the main points of the presentation Make a list of the points that you want your audience to remember after you have finished talking The more complicated your points are, the fewer you should include in your presentation Step 2: Support your main points with details/ evidence Convince your audience of the main points by giving them some supporting facts, examples and illustrations Identif y what sort of support would be appropriate, based on your audience analysis For more ideas about how to support your main points, see Bilbow (1996, 59 –62) and Rozakis (1995,129 –32 ) Step 3: Put your points in order Put the main points into a logical order Organize and divide information to develop a clear framework for the clear understanding of ideas Organize ideas in different ways: 1. Start with simple ideas, concepts or arguments and then gradually move to more complex ideas 2. Follow a chronological order which starts from the earliest event and takes people through to the end of a stor y 3. Begin with a general concept or idea before giving specific examples Give some give mini-summaries throughout a long presentation Allow the audience to consolidate the concepts covered and listen to the rest of your presentation Signposting “Signposting” phrases are used to help guide the audience through a presentation: say what is coming move on to the next point indicate the end of a section refer back summar ize a point Activity: Group discussion Activity: group discussion Suppose you work for the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB). You have been asked to prepare a presentation on sightseeing spots in Hong Kong at an overseas travel convention. The presentation is intended to promote tours recommended by HKTB and to correct the perception of many people (who have never been to Hong Kong) that our city is a concrete jungle. You have collected the information below, and now you need to use this information to develop three main points for your presentation. Decide what your main points will be. Think about what information from the list below could be used to support each main point. Think about how you will order your points. Ending Ending Smartly Give a summar y of your message Leave your audience with a distinct feeling of closure or deeper thinking How to close the presentation depends on i. the nature and purpose of your presentation ii. your relationship to the audience iii. the importance and relevancy of the topic to your audience iv. what action you want them to take Recap your main points with the following expressions: In conclusion, … To sum up … Now, let me repeat my three main points … You may see now why I would like to introduce this to you. These are the reasons for urging you to support our fundraising activities. Now I am sure you are clear about our rationale behind this relocation project. Things to avoid when ending your presentation 1. Avoid changing your speaking style suddenly or have an inconsistent tone when concluding your presentation 2. Avoid showing that you have forgotten some points or closing with an apology e.g. such as ‘ I forgot to tell you that …’ or ‘One more thing I really should have said …’. 3. Avoid stopping abruptly if you realize that you have run out of time. At least tr y to give a br ief summar y before you end References Bilbow, G. (1996). Business Speaking for Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Longman Asia Limited. Grussendorf, M. (2007). English for Presentation. Oxford University Press. Rozakis, L. (1995). The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Speaking in Public with Confidence. New York: Alpha Books.