Lesson 26: Presentation Structure

Part 1: Preparation

• Choose Topic
• Gather Information
• Research
• Select
• Organize
• Write
• Practice
• Revise
• Rehearse
• Present

Part 2: Stages in Presentation-Introduction

All presentations have a common objective. People give presentations because they want to communicate in order to:

· inform
· train
· persuade
· sell

A successful presentation is one of the most effective ways of communicating your message. And because English is so widely used in international business, a working knowledge of the vocabulary and techniques used in an English language presentation is a valuable asset.


Part 3: Stages in Presentation-Preparation

Can you name the 3 most important things when giving any presentation?

With good preparation and planning you will be totally confident and less nervous. And your audience will feel your confidence. Your audience, too, will be confident. They will be confident in you. And this will give you control. Control of your audience and of your presentation. With control, you will be 'in charge' and your audience will listen positively to your message.

Objective

Before you start to prepare a presentation, you should ask yourself: "Why am I making this presentation?" Do you need to inform, to persuade, to train or to sell? Your objective should be clear in your mind. If it is not clear in your mind, it cannot possibly be clear to your audience.

Audience

"Who am I making this presentation to?" Sometimes this will be obvious, but not always. You should try to inform yourself. How many people? Who are they? Business people? Professional people? Political people? Experts or non-experts? Will it be a small, intimate group of 4 colleagues or a large gathering of 400 competitors? How much do they know already and what will they expect from you?

Venue

"Where am I making this presentation?" In a small hotel meeting-room or a large conference hall? What facilities and equipment are available? What are the seating arrangements?

Time and length

"When am I making this presentation and how long will it be?" Will it be 5 minutes or 1 hour? Just before lunch, when your audience will be hungry, or just after lunch, when your audience will be sleepy?

Method

How should I make this presentation?" What approach should you use? Formal or informal? Lots of visual aids or only a few? Will you include some anecdotes and humour for variety?

Content

"What should I say?" Now you must decide exactly what you want to say. First, you should brainstorm your ideas. You will no doubt discover many ideas that you want to include in your presentation. But you must be selective. You should include only information that is relevant to your audience and your objective. You should exclude all other ideas. You also need to create a title for your presentation (if you have not already been given a title). The title will help you to focus on the subject. And you will prepare your visual aids, if you have decided to use them. But remember, in general, less is better than more (a little is better than a lot). You can always give additional information during the questions after the presentation.

Structure

A well organised presentation with a clear structure is easier for the audience to follow. It is therefore more effective. You should organise the points you wish to make in a logical order. Most presentations are organised in three parts, followed by questions:


Beginning:

Short introduction
welcome your audience
introduce your subject
explain the structure of your presentation
explain rules for questions

Middle:

Body of presentation
present the subject itself

End:

Short conclusion
summarise your presentation
thank your audience
invite questions

Questions and Answers:

Notes

When you give your presentation, you should be - or appear to be - as spontaneous as possible. You should not read your presentation! You should be so familiar with your subject and with the information that you want to deliver that you do not need to read a text. Reading a text is boring! Reading a text will make your audience go to sleep! So if you don't have a text to read, how can you remember to say everything you need to say? With notes. You can create your own system of notes. Some people make notes on small, A6 cards. Some people write down just the title of each section of their talk. Some people write down keywords to remind them. The notes will give you confidence, but because you will have prepared your presentation fully, you may not even need them!

Rehearsal

Rehearsal is a vital part of preparation. You should leave time to practise your presentation two or three times. This will have the following benefits:

you will become more familiar with what you want to say
you will identify weaknesses in your presentation
you will be able to practise difficult pronunciations
you will be able to check the time that your presentation takes and make any necessary modifications

So prepare, prepare, prepare! Prepare everything: words, visual aids, timing, and equipment. Rehearse your presentation several times and time it. Is it the right length? Are you completely familiar with all your illustrations? Are they in the right order? Do you know who the audience is? How many people? How will you answer difficult questions? Do you know the room? Are you confident about the equipment? When you have answered all these questions, you will be a confident, enthusiastic presenter ready to communicate the subject of your presentation to an eager audience.


Class Activity: Brainstorm ideas for presentation


Grammar:


English is a very flexible language. A word’s meaning is derived not only fromhow it is spelled and pronounced but also from how it is used in a sentence. Asyou review the parts of speech, remember that the way a word is used in a sentence determines which part of speech it is.

For example:
Noun: I ate a fish for dinner.
Verb: We fish in the lake on every Tuesday.

Part of the Speech:

Noun

A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. Nouns come in these varieties: commonnouns, proper nouns, compound nouns, and collective nouns.

1. Common nouns name any one of a class of person, place, or thing.

Girl city food

2. Proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are always capitalized.

Barbara New York City Rice-a-Roni

3. Compound nouns are two or more nouns that function as a single unit. A compound noun can be two individual words, words joined by a hyphen, or two words combined.

Individual words: time capsule
Hyphenated words: great-uncle
Combined words: basketball

4. Collective nouns name groups of people or things.

Audience family herd crowd


Pronoun

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or another pronoun. Pronouns help you avoid unnecessary repetition in your writing and speech. A pronoun gets its meaning from the noun it stands for. The noun is called the antecedent.

Although Seattle is damp, it is my favourite city.


Verb

Verbs name an action or describe a state of being. Every sentence must have a verb. There are three basic types of verbs: action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs.

Action verbs tell what the subject does. The action can be visible (jump, kiss, laugh) or mental(think, learn, study).

The cat broke Louise’s china.
Louise considered buying a new china cabinet.

An action verb can be transitive or intransitive.

Transitive verbs need a direct object.

The boss dropped the ball.
The workers picked it up.

Intransitive verbs do not need a direct object.
Who called?
The temperature fell over night.

Linking verbs join the subject and the predicate. They do not show action. Instead, they help
the words at the end of the sentence name or describe the subject.

the most common linking verbs include: be, feel, grow, seem, smell, remain, appear,sound, stay, look, taste, turn, become. Look for forms of to be, such as am, are, is, was, were,am being, can be, have been, and so on.

The manager was happy about the job change.
He is a good worker.

Many linking verbs can also be used as action verbs.

Linking: The kids looked sad.
Action: I looked for the dog in the pouring rain.



Adverb

Adverbs are words that describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

Adverbs answer the questions: When? Where? How? or To what extent?

When? left yesterday begin now
Where? fell below move up
How? happily sang danced badly
To what extent? partly finished eat completely



Adjective

Adjectives are words that describe nouns and pronouns.

Adjectives answer the questions: What kind? How much? Which one? How many?

What kind? red nose gold ring
How much? more sugar little effort
Which one? second chance those chocolates
How many? several chances six books


Conjunction

Conjunctions connect words or groups of words and show how the words are related. There are three kinds of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions.

for and nor but or yet so


Preposition

Prepositions link a noun or a pronoun following it to another word in the sentence. Use this chart to help you recognize some of the most common prepositions:

about above across after against along
around as at before behind below
beneath beside between beyond but
by despite down during except for
from in inside into like near
on onto of off opposite out
outside over past since through to
toward under underneath until upon with


Interjection

Interjections show strong emotion. Since interjections are not linked grammatically to other
words in the sentence, they are set off from the rest of the sentence with a comma or an exclamation
mark.

For example:

Oh! What a shock you gave me with that gorilla suit.
Wow! That’s not a gorilla suit!


Sentence Structure:

Sentence

To be a sentence, a group of words must

_ Have a subject (noun or pronoun)
_ Have a predicate (verb or verb phrase)
_ Express a complete thought

A sentence has two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject includes the noun or pronoun that tells what the subject is about. The predicate includes the verb that describes what the subject is doing.

Therefore, a sentence is a group of words with two main parts: a subject area and a predicate area. Together, the subject and predicate express a complete thought.

Being able to recognize the subject and the verb in a sentence will help you make sure that your own sentences are complete and clear. To check that you’ve included the subject and verb in your sentences, follow these steps:

_ To find the subject, ask yourself, “What word is the sentence describing?”
_ To find an action verb, ask yourself, “What did the subject do?”
_ If you can’t find an action verb, look for a linking verb.


Clause

A clause is a group of words with its own subject and verb. Like phrases, clauses enrich yourwritten and oral expression by adding details and making your meaning more exact. Clausesalso allow you to combine ideas to show their relationship. This adds logic and cohesion to your speech and writing.

There are two types of clauses: independent clauses (main clauses) and dependent clauses
(subordinate clauses and relative clauses).

_ An independent clause is a complete sentence because it has a subject and verb and
expresses a complete thought.
_ A dependent (subordinate) clause is part of a sentence, so it cannot stand alone.


Phrase

A phrase is a group of words that functions in a sentence as a single part of speech. A phrasedoes not have a subject or a verb, so it cannot stand alone as an independent unit—it canfunction only as a part of speech. As you write, you use phrases to add detail by describing.Phrases help you express yourself more clearly.